Album Review: The Fleet Foxes - Self-Titled

Describing The Fleet Foxes is difficult at best. Gospel choir, folk, pop, the Foxes dabble in them all. On their debut album, The Fleet Foxes, rich layered harmonies fill your ears with a sweet mountain country on a summer afternoon. They create a mood so visceral you can almost smell the nature.

Keep one thing in mind going into this album. The Fleet Foxes are weird. Very weird. Not Animal Collective weird, but still weird. Mandolins, harps, toms, even forest sounds are normal fare. These guys sound like an indie barber shop quartet in the vocal area. All of this may sound like a discordant mess, but in nearly every song there is striking beauty. The group knows how to put together a tune. Tracks like Ragged Wood will have you on the edge of your seat fighting the urge to chase after the gigantic crescendoing melodies while Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and Meadowlarks will slow things down and charm things up a bit.

Final Thoughts: Great album by some newcomers. Charm, beauty, harmonies and an eclectic mix of instruments are all in this recipe for success. Highly recommended for something good and "different."

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Indie News - The Decemberists' New Single "The Rake's Song"

Mr. Meloy and those grandiloquent nuts The Decemberists are nearing the release of their new album The Hazards of Love and to appease our frustrated appetites they have release a new single titled The Rake's Song. For a song about the marriage of an aforementioned rake and the rather violent and morbid consequences of said marriage, the single is as bizarre in its upbeat sounds as you have come to expect from the band. The track is superb and I can only hope the rest of the album is as good. Very excited for this release. Make sure you check it out on March 24.

Get your copy of the new single here, from The Decemberists' website.

Album Review: ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Our Dead - The Century of Self

Those crazy kids from ...And You Will Know Us From the Trail of Our Dead are back with one less label (goodbye Interscope) and one new album. Number six, The Century of Self, takes us away from the shininess that was Worlds Apart and back to the raw days of Source Tags & Codes. Recorded using a live to tape (that's correct, bet you did not know they still did that these days), The Century of Self has a more original Trail feel to it. Make no mistake however, these songs are just as vast, epic and impressive as you have come to expect from the band.

This album sees the group attempt very little in the new directions department. Good for long-time fans but can also be interpreted as a generally apathetic status. Even the violent musical outbursts in the songs have gotten predictable. But band development is an argument for another day. The usual formula of aggressive, driving melodies giving way to less hard but also less clear bridges is still intact. If something is working, why rock the boat? As stated before, the progressive feelings you got from albums like Worlds Apart and So Divided are largely gone. This is rough, rockin' TOD.

Final Thoughts: The surging, violent rhythms still make fans go wild, but the band's noise rock sound has gotten a little too monotonous after all this time. A solid album from a great group, but no new ground here.

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Album Review: The Kings of Leon - Only by the Night

The fourth go-around for the Kings of Leon, Only by the Night, has received an overwhelming wave of harsh criticism for the overly polished sound that kicks in right off the bat. The rough sounds that characterized the early Tennessee family's work are long gone, traded for more "radio-friendly" tracks. But regardless of how much you (or I) dislike the album as a whole, you'll still be tapping your foot to its songs long after they're gone.

You gotta give it to them, Leon's sons (and one nephew) do know how to create effective songs. This is rock songwriting 101. The album starts out very strong with tracks like Sex on Fire and Use Somebody. These are some of the catchiest of the Kings' repertoire to date. The ballads are definitely aimed at a wider audience than the classic Kings of Leon (i.e. the radio crowd). Bad news for us who can't even remember the last time we switched on a radio.

Unfortunately the record quickly degrades in real quality on the latter half of the tracklist. Most of the songs just sound rushed. It's as if they took the left-overs from Because of the Times, spruced them up a bit in post-recording and slapped an album cover on them. The veneer is still there, but there's no substance underneath.

Final Thoughts: The Kings of Leon have achieved a sex-god sound with Only by the Night and have created some of their catchiest songs yet, but I almost gag on the sugar of it all. I miss Youth and Young Manhood...

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Album Review: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver's first album release, For Emma, Forever Ago, seems perfectly suited for the lonely Wisconsin hunting cabin in which it was recorded. Wonderfully raw and heartfelt, For Emma is like a glimpse at some far off winter spent by the fireside.

Frontman Jason Vernon tailors to a simple formula. Harmonied vocals over some sparse acoustic strumming. And boy does it work. Vernon's fragile sounding voice reaches unusually beautiful falsetto heights without ever even approaching that kitschy quality that similar attempts all too often adopt. The songs have a timeworn feeling to them, a nostalgic "something" that evokes a very vulnerable response.

Final Thoughts: A beautiful, hand-crafted album that seems to float in from some far away place. Absolutely amazing debut. You should buy this.

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Album Review: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

MGMT (Management) submits for our aural pleasure their breakout album, titled Oracular Spectacular. And a more fitting name you would be hard-pressed to find. With good reason, these two youths from Brooklyn, New York have been called the next big thing in the genre since the Flaming Lips

One word comes to mind when listening to Oracular Spectacular. Huge. The MGMT's sound is like a psychodelic meeting between Bowie and Neil Young. Open expanses of sonic cosmos span the entire ten tracks that make up this wonderful debut. Strange synth beats and soul-filled guitars bombard you from both sides. Musically Oracular is completely unpredictable, never boring, and colorful as hell. You will have fun when you listen to this album.

Final Thoughts: This album is one of the most bizarre trips through indie rock that I have ever been on, and I was thrilled the entire time. I predict great things from these guys.

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Album Review: The Killers - Day & Age

Flowers does have a flair for the old melodrama. The newest release from The Killers, Day & Age, is large, loud, and undeniably catchy. Perhaps perfect for the foursome's hometown of Las Vegas. I can almost taste the sugar just thinking about it.

It's hard to discern where Flowers ends and Bono/Bowie begin. The whole album is made up of glam-rock epic proportions. Synthesizers, catchy guitar hooks and sing-a-long choruses are no big surprises here. I must say that the liberal use of the synthesizer is what turned me off on just the fourth song. The release does have a majestic quality to it. Unfortunately, so does Tune Disney.

The band does try some new things musically and have obviously continued to develop their sound since Sawdust. Day & Age is odd (some of the lyrics are just bizarre), at points retro (think 80's clubtown) and at all times fully-sequined. This is no Hot Fuss, no matter how much I would like it to be. You may think it strange that I could love an album like Hot Fuss and not care at all for The Killers' latest. So do I. All I can say is that this is not my cup of tea.

Final Thoughts: A farshot away from The Killers I knew only a couple of years ago, quality-wise, if not stylistically. Take it as you will.

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Album Review: M. Ward - Hold Time

M. Ward is a guy who remembers his musical roots. His latest release, Hold Time, is chalked full of folksy tunes with soul to country and everything in between tugging at the reins. Ward's sometimes Basho-like quick picking is still here but is quietly developing into his own solid signature style . What sets this new album apart from its predecessors is his new-found openness as a performer and singer.

Ward's previous releases were achingly sorrow-filled personal affairs. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed The Transfiguration, but the guy still possessed a certain kind of vulnerability to his presentation. This time around M. has continued what he first started in Transistor Radio; Hold Time sounds like the man is actually having "fun" (gasp) creating this stuff.

Musically, the album is a new direction. While some tracks still resemble his earlier work (see One Hundred Million Years and Stars of Leo), as a whole the CD contains much more "action." Rockabilly guitars, keyboards and backing choirs all add to the movement of the album. Ward lends a charming-grin quality to his earthy vocals with a very pleasing result.

Final Thoughts: Very much enjoyed, though keep in mind that this is a significantly "different" M. Ward for you die-hards out there. The bluesy feel was more than welcome by me.

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Album Review: Beirut - March of the Zapotec and Realpeople: Holland

The leading musical gypsy of the day, Beirut's Zack Condon is back to follow up on his brilliant The Flying Club Cup. Condon's eccentricities remain more readily apparent on the first of these two linked EP's, beginning with his choice of Oaxaca, Mexico as his recording site. The second EP, Realpeople: Holland, is an interesting new side of Zack's musical persona with a more electronic sound.

Early on the band entertained ideas of recording for a new film set to shoot in Mexico. Eventually, through some input from a bandmate's mother (who, coincidentally had connections in the Oaxaca region), a brainstorm led to a local nineteen-person Mexican funeral group dubbed The Jimenez Band being hired to play some new material with Condon and crew. The first half of the release is the result of those recordings.

The March of the Zapotec is exactly what you would expect from a Condon/Mexican nineteen-man-band duo. Copious amounts of mariachi flair and oompa horns are added along with Condon's wistful croon to create a unique production that is rather more upbeat than the second half of the dual EP's, but falls short in the slightly-less-than-adventurous picture of Mexico that it paints.

Realpeople is an alias Condon once went by during his pre-Beirut years. The second EP, titled Realpeople: Holland, is a compilation of some bedroom recordings from the period. Synth beats and keyboards are unusual mainstays in the compositions. The group is significantly more mellow than the Zapotec bunch, displaying a strange though not unpleasant aspect of Zack's song-writing. This new style, while probably not here to stay, is refreshingly good.

Final thoughts: Not as good as The Flying Club Cup, but I try to be realistic. Liked Holland better than Zapotec.

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