Artist: M. Ward
Album: Hold Time
Year: 2009
And speaking of workout music, how awesome is this track?
M. Ward? Workout music? I know, it doesn’t seem to match up, especially when his usual soft strumming and cracked voice drifts over the speaker. But wait until the energetic handclap backing comes in. This spring, when I first discovered I could run more than a couple miles and actually enjoy it, this song was on repeat on my headphones, propelling me down the East River, over the Manhattan bridge into Brooklyn, then back over the Brooklyn bridge while I dodged tourists wandering into the run/bike lane. Read More…
Tag Archives: Alternative
M. Ward – Stars of Leo 11 May, 2009
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Young Adult Friction 5 May, 2009
Artist: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Album: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Year: 2009
Despite sounding exactly like what they are, i.e. Brooklyn hipster music, this band reminds me of Belle & Sebastian. I’m not sure why; it may be Kip Berman’s voice. This track was on my workout mix for quite a while. Again, I’m not sure why; it may have been the driving drum + “don’t check me out” chant at the end. Read More…
Spiritualized – Sweet Talk 30 Apr, 2009
Artist: Spiritualized
Album: Songs in A&E
Year: 2008
A work friend turned me onto this album from last year. It was his description that intrigued me:
“‘Songs in A&E’ does not refer to the keys of the songs themselves; rather, Jason Pierce (the man behind the band) nearly died several years ago, and this album is about his time in the accident and emergency ward of the hospital. These songs about life and death take on new meaning in that context.”
Certainly “Death Take Your Fiddle”, with a ventilator serving as the backing, is plenty haunting once you learn the background of the album. This track, all gradual build and swelling crescendos, serves as a nice counterpart to the raucous-to-quiet structure of the last track. Read More…
Roman Candle – Early Aubade 27 Apr, 2009
Artist: Roman Candle
Album: Oh, Tall Tree in the Ear
Year: 2009
Roman Candle’s forthcoming release looks set to continue what the North Carolina-based band started with The Wee Hours Revue back in 2006. What exactly did they start? I’m glad you asked, as their debut album was overlooked for some unknown reason, despite being packed with plenty of strong singles. You could do worse than listening to “Something Left to Say”, or “New York This Morning”.
This song’s tale of taking down, packing up, and moving out is matched by its deconstructionist progression. Check it out, then check out the full album after its May 12th release. Read More…
Camera Obscura – Swans 8 Apr, 2009
Artist: Camera Obscura
Album: My Maudlin Career
Year: 2009
Similar to much of the excellent music coming out of Scotland recently, Camera Obscura mixes upbeat music with lyrics exploring the sharp jutting angles and dark corners of relationship failure. Although their specific style is markedly different to, say, Frightened Rabbit, the happy/sad dichotomy is just as effective. Taking cues from ’60s doo-wop, and with lead singer Tracyanne Campbell’s trademark lilting voice, the forthcoming “My Maudlin Career” is a solid improvement on 2006’s “Let’s Get Out of This Country”.
“James he came to the door, wanting to know for sure why love gets up and goes”, she sings on “James”. Elsewhere, against a backdrop of one of the sunniest, most cheerful melodies this side of Jamaican roots reggae, she laments “I’ve been spending half a year in a plane going up and down / and you’ve been seeing other people from a nearby town / being obsessive and getting depressed about us”, before detailing her failing struggle to build walls: “I’m in training to become as cold as ice / I’m determined to protect my feelings”. Read More…
Elbow – Running to Stand Still 1 Apr, 2009
Artist: Elbow
Album: War Child: Heroes
Year: 2009
Cover songs are risky business. The best tactic is usually to go for a little-known track by an obscure artist, thereby avoiding preconceptions. Covers of classic songs are almost by definition destined to fail — these songs are classic for a reason, after all, and any re-recording will likely be a pale imitation of the original.
In taking on one of U2’s best known tracks from one of their most-heralded albums, Elbow have indeed set themselves up for embarrassment (or rather, U2 have, as they themselves asked Elbow to cover their song). However, Guy Garvey’s Mancunian accent and the delicate musical arrangement combine to achieve the rare feat of producing a cover that is at once faithful to the original, as well as wholly marked with the band’s own sound. Like the rest of Elbow’s music, it feels like northern England: grey skies, rain, and stained concrete buildings. A stunning example of why the band has been receiving acclaim all over the UK in the past year. After 8 years of releasing records, that attention must be satisfying indeed. Read More…
Handsome Furs – Talking Hotel Arbat Blues 24 Mar, 2009
Artist: Handsome Furs
Album: Face Control
Year: 2009
What starts out sounding like a drumbeat and handclaps made by a cheap Casio keyboard turns out to be Clash-inspired punk with crunchy guitars. Read More…
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) 16 Mar, 2009
Artist: The Decemberists
Album: The Hazards of Love
Year: 2009
In the battle for the pop artist’s attention, the melody of a song usually ends up dominating the lyrics. The cost of this fight is usually an infantile rhyme like “Those who are dead are not dead / They’re just living my head”. Thanks for that introspective examination of life and death, Coldplay. Part of me feels stupider every time I sing along to your music.
For several albums, The Decemberists have taken these two warring parties and united them, finding new and unusual melodies which they then use to tell wonderfully verbose stories, like their interpretation of an old Chinese myth on “The Crane Wife”. On their new release, however, they’ve indulged their literary tendencies to the extent that listening to the album feels like listening to a musical. Melody is subservient to the story. There are sudden changes in tempo and mood. Secondary characters are sung by secondary voices. It’s not bad, per se, but the dart is stuck at an awkward angle in the wall, where previous albums hit the bullseye.
This closing track is a happy exception to much of the rest of the album, and serves as a great teaser for other tracks like the richly illustrated “Shanty for the Arethusa” (lead off line: “We set to sail on a packet full of spice, rum, and tea leaves / We’ve emptied out all the bars and the Bowery hotel”) or the Wes Anderson-ish “The Sporting Life”. Read More…
Bon Iver – Re: Stacks 14 Mar, 2009
Artist: Bon Iver
Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
Year: 2007
It’s an odd thing to post a song like this. Bon Iver makes music that is so incredibly personal that the only way to truly describe it to someone else requires sharing some of your most sincere feelings.
Sam and I were lucky enough to be able to see Bon Iver — né Justin Vernon — in concert several times last year. On the first occasion, he was relatively unknown. Just him and his guitar, playing a short opening set. His music was so gorgeous that we were in disbelief at the light crowd milling around. Most people waited at the bar downstairs for the main act to come on. On the second occasion, his popularity had exploded. He headlined the show and played to a packed, but utterly silent and rapt audience. It was no less than he deserved, and possibly the best concert I went to last year, but after endless hours spent listening to “For Emma, Forever Ago” alone on headphones and losing myself in its beauty, sharing the experience with hundreds of other people was jarring. Like watching a childhood video and seeing a crowd of strangers barge into the flickering image of me, my brother and sister careening down the slip-n-slide into the inflatable pool in the back yard.
So what to say of “Re: Stacks”? Much has been made of the isolation which led Justin Vernon to create the album, and this track is an excellent example of why. For me, it opens up a huge mix of emotions and memories, most of which I’m not inclined to publish on a blog. Maybe it’s enough to simply quote the last verse of the song, my favourite from the album:
“This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away
Your love will be
Safe with me”
Read More…
The National – So Far Around the Bend 12 Mar, 2009
Artist: The National
Album: Dark Was the Night
Year: 2009
With the opening lines of standout track “Fake Empire”, singer Matt Berninger instantly conjures images of stolen moments with friends: “Stay out super late tonight / Picking apples, making pies / Put a little something in our lemonade / And take it with us”. With his hypnotizing delivery, it takes a minute to realise they’re not your own memories.
The National are at it again, singing seductively about intoxication on “So Far Around the Bend”, a track from a benefit compilation put out by the Red Hot Organization featuring all manner of indie superstars (Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Feist, etc. etc.). “Take a bath and get high through an apple” Matt sings, before venturing into New York to search for a lost friend.
“I’ll run through a thousand parties
I’ll run through a million bars
Nobody knows where you are living
Nobody knows where you are”
Read More…