Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
I liked this quite a bit - several good songs made even better by Erika Wennerstrom's great voice. (7/10)
Loney Dear - Dear John
Some fairly subtle stuff that continuous to grow on me. I have a feeling that this is going to look even better when I look back at it in the future. If this were a wine it'd definitely be old world. (7/10)
Morrissey - Years of Refusal
Hm. I was more excited about this a month ago than I am today. Good album, but not as much of a standout as I thought. (6/10)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Solid album but I liked Fox Confessor Brings The Flood better. (7/10)
Passion Pit - Chunk of Change (EP)
One fantastic song (Sleepyhead), one good song (Better Things) and four bland tracks. (5/10)
U2 - Line On The Horizon
I have to say I'm disappointed with this one. There are a number of very good songs on here, but what's unusual for U2 is that it also has a few songs that I don't like at all. I don't care for the opening title track and several songs in the middle of the album, including the first single Get On Your Boots. But, there are also great songs like Magnificent, Moment of Surrender and Cedars of Lebanon. (6/10)
Female Tribute to Tom Waits (Vol 1-3)
Too many songs (121) for a single score to be meaningful (but this won't stop me.) Some great renditions, a lot of solid ones, and also a good number of terrible ones. (6/10)
Dark Was The Night
Again, too many ups and downs for a single score to really make sense, but I'm still giving one. Several great collaborations: Feist doing duets with Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie lead singer) and Grizzly Bear, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (The National), Buck 65 (Canadian hip hop DJ/MC) and Sufjan Stevens... (7/10)
War Child Heroes
Cool artists doing covers of cool songs (see March post) with mixed results. (6/10)
This Month (in alpabetical order)
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
The last album Fur And Gold had two great tracks (Trophy and What's A Girl To Do?) but was fairly bland outside of those. Also, check out this great video.
Her (Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of singer Natasha Khan) new release Two Suns seems like a more even effort from the opening track Glass to the beautiful closing track The Big Sleep (with guest vocals from Scott Walker, with whom I'm not familar.)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware
Will Oldham began recording under the name Palace Brothers and Palace Music throughout the 90s, but for the last decade he's adopted the moniker Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. I've been following him since I heard Johnny Cash's fantastic cover of his song I See A Darkness on American III. He's made a lot of great music over the years, but the album I See A Darkness is probably his strongest so far. It also contains the great song Black which Trost made an inspired cover of last year.
His new album is called Beware and seems to be less dark than previous records. We'll see how that turns out, becoming happy has signaled the doom of many an artist.
Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond
I found this sound system from Lisbon, Portugal, by listening to the M.I.A. Kala bonus disc, which contains the joint track Sound of Kuduro. According to Wiki, Kuduro is an "uptempo, energetic and danceable" music style from Portugal that originated in Angola.
Watch this and if you tell me it doesn't make you want to dance you're dead inside:
Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door (EP)
Have just started listening to this, but it's hard to go wrong with Death Cab.
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
I got their 2002 album Castaways And Cutouts about a year ago and have really been impressed by Colin Meloy's distinct voice, great melodies and storytelling lyrics. Since then, I've also been enjoying Picaresque and The Crane Wife.
In these times of digital downloads and iPods set to shuffle, with the increased focus on individual tracks and the diminishing importance of albums, it is refreshing to see one band going in the opposite direction and making a concept album. The Hazards of Love is basically a 17-track rock opera meant to be played from beginning to end with a story arc and characters: Shara Warden (of My Brightest Diamond) and Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond) provide great vocals for two of the female characters.
On their upcoming tour the concerts will be in two acts: the first act being the entire album from end to end (Warden and Stark are touring with them) and the second act being their older material.
Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
This was just leaked so I haven't had a chance to listen through all of it yet, but I like the new single Wrong and the opening track In Chains so far.
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Don't know much about this Brooklyn-based band, other than having seen their name float around for a while on the indie music scene. I liked their two tracks on Dark Was The Night so I got this.
Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love
I was very impressed with Becky Stark's voice on The Hazards of Love so I got this album too. Too early to say much about...
Martina Topley-Bird - Quixotic
Martina is familar to any Tricky fan as she's provided the female vocals on several of his albums. I just learned that she's released three solo albums. Quixotic is her first. Sounds good so far.
PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
John Parish has been closely involved with a few previous PJ Harvey albums, most notably Dance Hall at Louse Point. I saw PJ Harvey live a couple of times in college and quickly bought Rid of Me and have been a fan since.
Sara Lov - The Young Eyes (EP)
This first solo effort from Sara Lov (of Devics - a band I'm not familiar with) is quite impressive. A couple of interesting covers (Timebomb by Beck and My Body Is A Cage by Arcade Fire) and the standout Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming (presumably from the upcoming LP with the same name.) I like it.
Theresa Andersson - Hummingbird, Go!
Swedish-born Theresa Andersson is a DIY one-person-performer who tours with two loop pedals to sound like a full-fledged band. I was intrigued by the youtube clip below (and the Swedish connection) so I had to get her album.
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