2014 New Releases

[the captain]

Please note this isn't intended as yet another thread in which to trash modern music, to re-re-re-restate your hatred of rap, or to note with pride that you haven't listened to new music since 19XX: we've got more than enough opportunities for that. Rather, the idea is for people to share their thoughts on new releases as they come across them, be they good, bad or somewhere in between.

I came across two bands I've never heard of, though both have members that I knew and I'm sure many of you will, too.

The Autumn Defense, "Fifth." This is a band comprising Wilco members Pat Sansome and John Stirratt as well as other contributors. Sometimes it recalls Wilco, but it leans way, way to the pop side. Maybe the more A/C west-coast 70s style of Wilco married to chamber pop? Nice melodies, lush (inventive) arrangements, and a sweet lead voice in Stirratt. Believe me, many of you lovers of a certain kind of pop that brings us to a certain board such as this will be reminded on more than the rare occasion. I think immediately of Bill Ricchini, a modern musician who also shares those types of chamber pop influences, but this is better. (Sorry, Mr. Ricchini.) I listened on Spotify but intend to buy this album. How did they release four albums before without me ever hearing of, much less hearing, them?

The New Mendicants, "Into the Lime." This is yet another "supergroup" (tongue in cheek) for Teenage Fanclub's Normal Blake, this time with Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers. It sounds like you'd think it was, which is no insult. I only listened to about 2/3 of it earlier, but plan to return to it. Again, this is very much classic, melodic pop. It's laid back most of the way through, sometimes absolutely beautiful, other times tunefully cheery in midtempo semi-rockers. Worth a try.

[the captain]

Jess Williamson, "Native State." This was released this week; I heard of it (and her) only through a Pitchfork review and listened on Spotify. The easiest comparison is Joanna Newsom, but it's not as simple as that. If Ys was Newsom as some kind of bizarre medieval musician, and Have One On Me was Newsom as a 70s soft rocker, Williamson is almost what one could imagine a (harpless) Newsom doing if she took on a country-folk. The instrumentation is spare, mostly acoustic guitar but some strings here, some percussion there, some banjo or pedal steel. The songs are on the longer side and don't follow obvious structures, but (again like Newsom) little snippets pop up that could have been a verse or refrain, if only they'd been repeated throughout a song. Honestly I haven't paid a lot of attention to the lyrics yet, so I won't bother commenting much there, much less comparing (though there was a nice bit of alliteration going on in this last song). Strongly recommend people give this a shot, especially if they're Newsom and/or folk-country fans.

[the captain]

The fabulous Jeremy Messersmith is soon going to release the follow-up to his fantastic 2010 album The Reluctant Graveyard, a heavily Beatles-inspired album of serious pop glory. (I'm not kidding or really exaggerating on that. Check out a few songs, such as Lazy Bones - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVsxtZRLkaY or A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2XdgMFffZU or Organ Donor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MdFgDoj8Y )

Anyway, his new album, Heart  Murmurs, is out Feb. 4, and I'm really excited for it. Though I bought and am not as thrilled as I'd have hoped regarding the lead-off single, "Ghost." I haven't seen the studio version on youtube, but here is a live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azbUlPz-fxM  The tune starts with a typical voice-and-guitar intro. The studio version kicks in with a kind of pub-folk-pop feel that seems to be everywhere the past few years, like a Mumford & Sons or Lumineers kind of thing, and honestly I'm getting worn out on that sort of thing these days. That said, I'll be buying the album on Feb. 4. Messersmith has one of my favorite few voices in all of modern pop music. (Along with Robert Harrison of Future Clouds & Radar and Cotton Mather, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the guys from Milk Carton Kids, and Janelle Monae ... y'know, since you asked.)

[Ovi]

The fabulous Jeremy Messersmith is soon going to release the follow-up to his fantastic 2010 album The Reluctant Graveyard, a heavily Beatles-inspired album of serious pop glory. (I'm not kidding or really exaggerating on that. Check out a few songs, such as Lazy Bones - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVsxtZRLkaY or A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2XdgMFffZU or Organ Donor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MdFgDoj8Y )

Anyway, his new album, Heart  Murmurs, is out Feb. 4, and I'm really excited for it. Though I bought and am not as thrilled as I'd have hoped regarding the lead-off single, "Ghost." I haven't seen the studio version on youtube, but here is a live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azbUlPz-fxM  The tune starts with a typical voice-and-guitar intro. The studio version kicks in with a kind of pub-folk-pop feel that seems to be everywhere the past few years, like a Mumford & Sons or Lumineers kind of thing, and honestly I'm getting worn out on that sort of thing these days. That said, I'll be buying the album on Feb. 4. Messersmith has one of my favorite few voices in all of modern pop music. (Along with Robert Harrison of Future Clouds & Radar and Cotton Mather, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the guys from Milk Carton Kids, and Janelle Monae ... y'know, since you asked.)

Listened to all 3 songs you posted and while they're all nice, I find him them a bit generic. He didn't catch my attention in any particular way, at least not enough to make me want to listen to an entire album. What do you like so much about his voice?

P.S.  I hope I don't come across as rude - I really appreciate you taking the time to find and post more underground-ish current music.

[the captain]

No, there was nothing rude at all in your post. And it never offends me to have others not share my taste; shared sense of enjoyment builds community, sure--and that's wonderful--but music is also a solitary pleasure and someone else's lack of it is (to be blunt) irrelevant.

What do I love about his voice? That's a hard question to answer, actually, because part of me wants to say "I just do." That's the easy way out, though, so I'll try my best. First, I like its range. Strange though that may sound, it's true for me. I'm not a fan of lower voices in general. With a few exceptions (Waits, Cohen, modern Dylan) I just don't like baritones or basses much, other than to fill out harmonies. I like a lead voice to be a tenor--first tenor, if possible. It's the natural over typical pop instrumentation, I suppose, with a lot of guitar and keyboard parts generally sitting right in the middle and lower registers.

Second, I like the senses I get from it: I hear vulnerability, melancholy, or wistfulness in it. And then on occasion, when he belts a bit more (or belts by his standards, anyway), it is surprisingly clear and strong. (I am going to use a Beach Boys analogy, but please don't confuse how I'm doing so: I'm not comparing these people in quality, just doing this for illustrative purposes.) It's like it goes from a sweet and sensitive mid/late '60s Carl Wilson to a sharper, brassy Brian or Al.

So I guess those are the qualities I like in his voice itself. Beyond that, I really enjoy most of his material, especially off that album I mentioned. (I liked a few songs very much off its predecessor, as well, The Silver City, but not as many.) I think his melodies are earworms, to be honest. I find myself humming parts of "Knots," "Violet," (neither of which did I post, I guess), as well as those I did and others. In fact--and this is embarrassing--I once wrote a song the opening line of which I was really proud of, until I realized I'd accidentally lifted it from his "Dead End Job." Whoops...

Hope that helps.

As for the thread, I hope others out hearing new music use it as well. With people saying they don't find anything worth hearing or don't know how to even go about looking, it seems that a thread like this can turn some people on to something they might like (or help them avoid wasting their time).

[the captain]

I really appreciate you taking the time to find and post more underground-ish current music.

I wanted to add, I don't intend for this stuff to be necessarily "underground-ish" at all, either. Who knows, maybe the next 2014 release I come across (or someone else comes across) will be from someone in the Top 10. Definitely not going for an elitist or hipster thing at all.

[Ovi]

That does help, you expressed your thoughts very well.

I like what you said in the last paragraph - if anything, seeing new music being posted gets me out of my lazy, listen-to-what-I-already-own mentality.

Although, to be honest, I always feel that my musical education has too many gaps (there are lots of bands folks consider classics that I've yet to listen to). At times I think to myself that listening to those should be my main priority, you know, for getting a better historical perspective (in the same way that listening to an artist's albums chronologically makes more sense than jumping randomly).

But at the same time, jumping randomly from genre to genre, from decade to decade is simply more fun and exciting. I love listening to albums that are out of my comfort zone. Does any of this make any sense? Or is it just me worrying about stuff like this.

[Ovi]

I really appreciate you taking the time to find and post more underground-ish current music.

I wanted to add, I don't intend for this stuff to be necessarily "underground-ish" at all, either. Who knows, maybe the next 2014 release I come across (or someone else comes across) will be from someone in the Top 10. Definitely not going for an elitist or hipster thing at all.

Cool. For what it's worth, I really look forward to Lorde this year. I loved her 2013 singles very much - the lyrics, the voice, the personality, the minimalist instrumentation, I think it all comes together very nicely.

[Ovi]

^ Also the fact that she's so "out there" when performing live. Makes for a nice change when it comes to pop divas.

[the captain]

Although, to be honest, I always feel that my musical education has too many gaps (there are lots of bands folks consider classics that I've yet to listen to). At times I think to myself that listening to those should be my main priority, you know, for getting a better historical perspective (in the same way that listening to an artist's albums chronologically makes more sense than jumping randomly).

But at the same time, jumping randomly from genre to genre, from decade to decade is simply more fun and exciting. I love listening to albums that are out of my comfort zone. Does any of this make any sense? Or is it just me worrying for stuff like this.

Makes perfect sense, and especially that first paragraph above that I've quoted of yours is exactly what I have thought over the years and sometimes keep thinking. We need to remember, there has been more than a century of pop music already, and that's not even bothering with pre-pop music of previous centuries. There is always a TON out there, both old and new. And I have often been introduced (and continue to be sometimes) to great older music that I just missed out on.

This board, this board's predecessor, and the Record Room board have introduced me to a lot of what I've missed over the years. It's through their work that I was able to get into things like Bowie, Motown in general, Gram Parsons, Elvis, and many others. (Not that I'd never heard them, but just that I'd never heard them.)

But ... what I also have come to realize is that in my earlier days of ignoring the new for the classic, I actually missed out not only on some great then-current music, but I missed out on experiencing it in its time. There is definitely something very valuable about music once it has stood the test of time, but there is also something amazing about hearing music in its own time, even if it won't ever live to see tomorrow. Sometimes being only of your own time, but perfectly of your own time, is really remarkable. And so even if that song is always "so 2014," well that is a powerful thing to be. Make sense?

So these days I recognize I'm not going to catch everything, old or new, but I try to keep my mind and ears open. Plenty of sh*t, plenty of mediocrity, plenty of decent, some great, occasionally transcendent.

(As I type, "Heroes" by Bowie comes up on shuffle. Nice.)

[Ovi]

But ... what I also have come to realize is that in my earlier days of ignoring the new for the classic, I actually missed out not only on some great then-current music, but I missed out on experiencing it in its time. There is definitely something very valuable about music once it has stood the test of time, but there is also something amazing about hearing music in its own time, even if it won't ever live to see tomorrow. Sometimes being only of your own time, but perfectly of your own time, is really remarkable. And so even if that song is always "so 2014," well that is a powerful thing to be. Make sense?

I totally get this - I so regret not getting into Amy Winehouse while she was still alive. Interesting point about the "music of its own time" thing, do you have an example in mind?

(As I type, "Heroes" by Bowie comes up on shuffle. Nice.)

You saying this just because you mentioned getting into Bowie above? Or is there some subtle thematic connection that I'm missing?

[Outtasight!]

The new David Crosby album was realeased last monday and is way better than I expected. I highly recomend croz, the voice and songwriting are still excellent.

[the captain]

But ... what I also have come to realize is that in my earlier days of ignoring the new for the classic, I actually missed out not only on some great then-current music, but I missed out on experiencing it in its time. There is definitely something very valuable about music once it has stood the test of time, but there is also something amazing about hearing music in its own time, even if it won't ever live to see tomorrow. Sometimes being only of your own time, but perfectly of your own time, is really remarkable. And so even if that song is always "so 2014," well that is a powerful thing to be. Make sense?

I totally get this - I so regret not getting into Amy Winehouse while she was still alive. Interesting point about the "music of its own time" thing, do you have an example in mind?

(As I type, "Heroes" by Bowie comes up on shuffle. Nice.)

You saying this just because you mentioned getting into Bowie above? Or is there some subtle thematic connection that I'm missing?

With respect to the former question, music of its own time, I have a few thoughts. Beck's first few records were so perfect to come into that mid-to-late '90s world as a junk drawer of anti-hip uber-hipness that, while still cool, isnt' the same in retrospect. Radiohead's Kid A. Run DMC's Raising Hell and Tougher Than Leather. Maybe Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In every case, it's not to say any of those aren't good records, but at their respective times, they just hit the spot, at least for me.

As for "Heroes," I guess the combination of me having just thought about being introduced to earlier great music, but more that I had just said something about music being occasionally transcendent, and then along comes what I'd call an example of that.

[the captain]

The new David Crosby album was realeased last monday and is way better than I expected. I highly recomend croz, the voice and songwriting are still excellent.

I'll have to give this a listen. I usually avoid albums by the legends, as they are almost invariably major disappointments (either sad attempts at modernity or equally sad attempts at revisiting past glory). But it's worth a try.

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Please note this isn't intended as yet another thread in which to trash modern music, to re-re-re-restate your hatred of rap, or to note with pride that you haven't listened to new music since 19XX: we've got more than enough opportunities for that. Rather, the idea is for people to share their thoughts on new releases as they come across them, be they good, bad or somewhere in between.

I came across two bands I've never heard of, though both have members that I knew and I'm sure many of you will, too.

The Autumn Defense, "Fifth." This is a band comprising Wilco members Pat Sansome and John Stirratt as well as other contributors. Sometimes it recalls Wilco, but it leans way, way to the pop side. Maybe the more A/C west-coast 70s style of Wilco married to chamber pop? Nice melodies, lush (inventive) arrangements, and a sweet lead voice in Stirratt. Believe me, many of you lovers of a certain kind of pop that brings us to a certain board such as this will be reminded on more than the rare occasion. I think immediately of Bill Ricchini, a modern musician who also shares those types of chamber pop influences, but this is better. (Sorry, Mr. Ricchini.) I listened on Spotify but intend to buy this album. How did they release four albums before without me ever hearing of, much less hearing, them?

The New Mendicants, "Into the Lime." This is yet another "supergroup" (tongue in cheek) for Teenage Fanclub's Normal Blake, this time with Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers. It sounds like you'd think it was, which is no insult. I only listened to about 2/3 of it earlier, but plan to return to it. Again, this is very much classic, melodic pop. It's laid back most of the way through, sometimes absolutely beautiful, other times tunefully cheery in midtempo semi-rockers. Worth a try.

Cool thread! gonna start working my way through a few of these as well as hopefully have something to add. I listened to "fifth" and turned it off after about 5 songs, just didn't grab me at all and found it very boring.

Been waiting to hear the Mendicants album for a while as I'm a big fan of both Blake and Pernice but after 3 full listens now, I'm disappointed. Its easy to tell which song is a Blake song and which song is a Pernice song so I kinda wonder what the point of collaboration is? No real standout songs either. Much preferred the "Jonny" colab with Euros Childs though that also suffered from some similar problems IMO.

[the captain]

I was really excited when Jonny was announced, but I have to say I was disappointed in that. I preferred some of the previous Euros Childs much more. Oh well, such is life.

[Rocky Raccoon]

After the Disco, the new album by Broken Bells came out today.  Check it out, it's amazing.

[the captain]

After the Disco, the new album by Broken Bells came out today.  Check it out, it's amazing.

I'm a Shins fan (mostly) and have liked some of what Danger Mouse did, but didn't really like the first Broken Bells album. However, I liked what I heard this morning during a radio interview on my drive to work, so I am about to listen on Spotify (and am coincidentally listening to their Nerdist interview right now). Looking forward to it.

[the captain]

... so I am about to listen on Spotify (and am coincidentally listening to their Nerdist interview right now). Looking forward to it.

I inadvertently lied: Spotify doesn't have it. I apologize for misleading all you kind people. (I'll sample the tunes on iTunes and make a decision whether to buy I guess.)

[the captain]

Yesterday I bought the previously mentioned Jeremy Messersmith album Heart Murmurs.

I've only listened once through, but have it in my 2014 purchases playlist on shuffle even as we speak, so I'll be hearing tunes come up now and again. My quick verdict is that it didn't capture me immediately the way some music might. There are some beautiful and some clever moments, though, and some of the other aspects strike me as likely slow burners to which I'll warm. "Steve" and "I Want to be Your One Night Stand" are really, really pretty. And for some reason or other, the first line in the album's closer, "Someday, Someone," really tickled my fancy: "Someday, someone will love the f*** out of you." A slow, pretty acoustic ballad with that line, it just killed me. Maybe the fact that I've got a propensity for profanity had something to do with it, too.

[the captain]

After the Disco, the new album by Broken Bells came out today.  Check it out, it's amazing.

Oh yeah, I also previewed some of these songs on iTunes and bought the three I thought I'd like most: the title song ("After the Disco"), "Holding on For Life," and "Leave it Alone." If they grow on me, I'll probably go back and complete the album. So far I really like the former two. Then again I'm a sucker for Mercer's voice.

[the captain]

Jeremy Messersmith's Heart Murmurs seems to have been scientifically designed as a breakthrough album, focus-grouped for urban thirty-something women struggling with love (either its presence or absence). That's not to say it was especially thought through in that way, but that's how it comes across to me, anyway. Though with advance press coming in from Time, Rolling Stone, NPR and others, there does seem to be a concerted push.

A heart murmur is an abnormality in which blood leaks backward through what should be a closed heart valve. Sometimes it's serious, often it's not, and it's very common. Messersmith, always a clever and literate songwriter, perfectly named this collection of songs of not-quite-storybook love and lust affairs. He starts the album by showing up at a crying woman-friend's door at midnight, hugging her first, then dancing with her. If her boyfriend should come home, well, as the title says, "It's Only Dancing." That the music explodes after the first refrain hints, of course, it's more than dancing. "It's something that all good friends do / it's not like I'm in love with you / what a crazy idea, where did you get that? / ... Nothing to see, it's all so innocent." No one could believe it, but Messersmith won't admit to anything more.

These subtleties of message, subtleties of the heart, are what to me show an album directed at the fairer sex (stereotypical though it may be of me to say so). That song--and the whole album--reads like the situations women I've known will talk over amongst themselves and with a certain type of guy I suspect Jeremy's narrators to be, and know myself to be: that decidedly un-macho friend who will lend an ear, a shoulder, and occasionally get into messes like "It's Only Dancing." The conversations extend indefinitely. What did this or that mean? Does he love her? Do I love him? All these situations seem so complex, so outside of what you grew up expecting to be a part of ... and yet these heart murmurs are decidedly average, decidedly typical. Don't worry, ladies, Jeremy's here.

Demographic established, the other studied result is the sound. The songs are big and pretty, the typical Messersmith melodies drowning not just in the pianos or guitars, but in anthemic strings or flourishes of harpsichords, hammered dulcimers, god knows what else. Sometimes they are too perfectly done for their own good, as in "Ghost," an unexpected example of Mumford & Sons sound made either obvious or eerily coincidental when one realizes the album is on Glassnote Records along with--well I'll be damned--Mumford & Sons. That anomaly aside, the whole thing is so professionally done (which sounds insulting but shouldn't) as to seem, well, scientifically designed. If these songs wind up in an episode of NBC's Parenthood or some such thing, I wouldn't bat an eye.

The musical standout for me is "Steve," a beautiful song over an arpeggiated piano (and some strings) told from the point of view of a best friend comforting a guy who's girlfriend has just left him. The clever rub--and there always is one--is that the narrator sings "kiss me under the moonlight, won't you, Steve?" Maybe Messersmith is singing as a woman, maybe as a man. The latter seems likely with a line like "Steve, I'm your best friend, there's nothing that I wouldn't try." Nothing definitive, just suggestive. Strongly suggestive. Being two decades into this millenium, such a thing is hardly shocking anymore. But it remains ear-catching, clever. Also gorgeous, the closer "Someday, Someone," which opens with the line that tickled me to death: "Someday, someone will love the f*** outta you."

For my taste, Messersmith's beautiful but not always especially strong voice is overly swamped in the heavy arrangements. I love the fragile effect his singing has, but with such big melodies, such big songs, such big anthems, eventually it feels a more intimate environment would suit him better, as if he were lost in the middle of all that music.

That said, I recommend you take a listen, at least, especially if you are a fan of melodic, sometimes gentle pop like Elliott Smith, Dan Wilson, etc.

[kwan_dk]

Kudos for this thread. Very interesting and I'll have to check out some of these albums mentioned.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming album by Danish indie-pop group Treefight for Sunlight. Here is the first single 'Come Closer':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIIxKjbF0Ns

Their debut album 'A Collection of Vibrations for your Skull', which came out here locally in 2010 (and was issued by Bella Union internationally the year after, simply as 'Treefight for Sunlight'), remains one of my favourite albums from the past years. I think there is a lot to like on there for Beach Boys fans, but without the songs being mere carbon-copies of the Brian Wilson sound. The first song I heard from these guys was 'Facing the Sun', played on local radio - and I almost mistook it as a rediscovered Curt Boettcher track, ca. the Millinnium. That's how great it is!

'Facing the Sun'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EebZGTMKA

there's also the equally great 'What Became of You and I?'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RHtzq-5dY

If you like these two tracks, you really should check out their debut album - no filler there other than a bit of a misplaced instrumental. I've seen them live once and was particularly impressed by the helium-high voice of their bass player who NAILED Kate Bush' Wuthering Heights - and in the original key to boot! Very impressive!

[EgoHanger1966]

'Facing the Sun'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EebZGTMKA

Not a fan of the track or group (listened to all your examples), but damn, that guy DOES sound like Curt Boettcher!

[Lowbacca]

Spinning the new BECK (Morning Phase) right now.. I'd recommend it!