Future Islands

I'm familiar with most US talk show hosts, though I don't watch regularly any of them. I wanted to share a video of Future Islands, who's brand new album Singles is rather brilliant, and this popped up. It was by far the most viewed musical segment on Letterman, and I can see why. Future Islands' frontman Samuel T. Herring dances way better than Thom Yorke. Your thoughts?

I Wanna Get Better

One of this year's big surprises. I was just wondering what fun. were doing, because I haven't heard about them in a while, and as it turns out, the members were keeping themselves quite busy. The band's lead guitarist, Jack Antonoff, for example, has been working on a solo album which is due out later this year. He's only released one song from it, but what a song it is. Your thoughts?

Afterlife

Arcade Fire's fourth studio album Reflektor is due out next week and today, the band released a brand new lyric video for the song called Afterlife, featuring footage from a 1959 French film, Black Orpheus. I'm digging it more and more, but I bet it will work even better in the context of the whole record.

So is this gonna be the biggest album of the year or what?

Thursday night edit: Following today's leak, the band is streaming the whole album on YouTube. That was quick.

Turin Brakes

Turin Brakes is one of those bands that Sparkle introduced me to back in the day, and although I could never call myself a huge fan of theirs, I've given their albums a fair couple of spins during the years. Namely the songs like Fishing For a Dream or Last Chance stuck in my mind.

The English duo has recently released a sixth studio album called We Were Here. What's it like? Well, it's pretty much like all their other albums. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're craving some acoustic indie/folk rock and all your Augustana CDs feel highly overplayed, chances it will suit your mood.

On a sidenote, this is the 300th post on this blog, we're three years in and still counting. Back in March 2010 I honestly didn't think it would last this long. Thank You for all the support. Here's to hoping we make it to post #1000 one day. :)

Reflektor

Featuring David Bowie, produced by James Murphy. I'm listening to it for the first time as I'm writing this post, so I have no actual opinion yet. So far, so good. I expect nothing less than an album of the year. Your thoughts?

Alien Days

Christopher Owens: Lysandre

First of all, I have to confess that I didn't know Christopher Owens nor was I familiar with his band Girls before the release of his debut solo album. I had little to no idea what to expect and the only thing that made me listen to it was the reviews on pretty much every musical website I follow. It appeared to me that the man must be quite an important and interesting figure to the indie scene.

Well, I soon learned that Girls had released two well-regarded full-lengths and one extended play which gained them considerable fan following. Thus, it was obvious that it would be rather difficult for Owens to step out of his former band's shadow. I'll leave up the question, whether he did or not, to more eligible people, but I certainly won't try to hide my enthusiasm for this particular record...

With its running time of meagre 29 minutes, Lysandre might be the shortest concept album I've ever encountered. And it's a fun ride from start to finish. Consisting of eleven tracks, it is rather fast-paced, deeply emotional, uplifting, quite refreshing and also heavy on flute. It is, surprisingly, about a girl, and, as Owens himself put it, "a coming of age story, a road trip story, a love story", which pretty much says it all.

The record is tied together by the beautiful Lysandre's theme, which appears in various arrangements in most of the songs, and gets me every single time. With his newly acquired freedom, Owens is keen to experiment with all kinds of instruments, although he never really wanders outside the indie pop/folk territory. And it's also immediately clear, that, like with Girls, Owens stays true to the aesthetics of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Lysandre is, without a doubt, one of the pleasant highlights of the beginning of the year and it shouldn't go unnoticed by any avid indie pop listener.

Best tracks: Here We Go, Love is in the Ear of the Listener, Part of Me

A bunch of new music videos...

First, let's kick off with the French indie pop band Phoenix, who reached international fame with their latest record, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The band will continue its quest for world domination with their next album, Bankrupt, that comes out on April 22nd.

Then, we have The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Yeah, I completely forgot they were still a band too. But I recall quite well how much I enjoyed their song Face Down back in the day when I used to be into post-hardcore. Well, it's actually not heavy at all, but it's still pretty good. They will be releasing a new EP that will be produced by David Bendeth (producer of Don't You Fake It) which is due out March 15th.

And finally, some new She and Him. Volume 3 comes out on May 7th.

A Tattered Line of String

The Postal Service's brand new song.

Tegan and Sara

The latest album from Tegan and Sara, 2009's Sainthood, was just great, plain and simple. So it goes without saying, that I'm pretty excited for their new, seventh full-length, which is due out on January 29, 2013. Here's a music video for the first single, Closer.



On one hand, it is very poppy, with synths and everything, but on the other hand, it still sounds unmistakably like them and the album itself is reportedly very good. Here's to hoping the rumours are right, I can't wait. Your thoughts?

79

Last Days of April, the Swedish indie-pop band best known for their early 2000's emo indie albums on Deep Elm Records that have influenced acts like Charlie Simpson & Fightstar, are back with their newest CD, 79, the bands second since reforming in 2008. While the transition made from the early work of Angel Youth and Ascend To The Stars to the newer work on Gooey is still very visible, we get to see some of the old LDAO songwriting on 79, in particular in the tracks "Lily" and "Where We Belong". With a more indie flare, a dash of twang, and with obvious influence from bands like The Weakerthans, Springsteen, and Band of Horses, Last Days of April have officially merged their early 2000's emo influence into a more robust indie influence, reinventing themselves to a new sound and a new fan base. Below is a sampling of three songs off the new CD:

Sleeping At Last going 8-bit

Well, there's never enough of Sleeping At Last. The “8-Bits“ EP features 1 song from each of their records, transformed into retro Nintendo-style video game music and you can download it for free. Pretty cool.

Some Nights

When fun. released their debut in 2009, the lead singer Nate Ruess had already been a prominent vocalist and songwriter since the days of his former band, The Format. That album, Aim and Ignite, gained them considerable critical acclaim and plenty of new fans. By the end of 2009, it was featured on many AOTY lists and fun. had become one of the most interesting and promising new bands to watch. I was far from impressed, though. Can't say I didn't try to be hip like the other kids and get into the album, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. Back then, it was too poppy for my taste and I didn't like any of the songs except for the single All the Pretty Girls.

But I couldn't get over Nate Ruess' skinny jeans in that video... Seriously, who made him wear that? However, years passed and I found myself drawn deeper and deeper into alternative and pop genres. Yeasayer, MGMT, M83... You get the picture.

Anyway, then the lead single We Are Young came out. It was even featured on Glee and it became immediately clear that fun. would go even further into mainstream with their sophomore record. And let's be honest, that isn't the exact way to gain my sympathies. Moreover, having heard of their many hip hop influences, namely Kanye West and his pompous twisted fantasy nonsense, I was ready to hate the hell out of Some Nights.

Nonetheless, upon the first listen, my opinion changed swiftly. Because what I heard was a band expressing pure love and joy of making music. By mixing up their influences, incorporating many new styles and sounds and showing their renowned melodic sensibilities, fun. managed to create an album that sounds contemporary, very poppy and yet progressive. Kind of like what Brian Wilson did with Pet Sounds. And that seminal Beach Boys' album comes to mind several times throughout Some Nights. It's pure pop, but in the best possible sense.

It isn't without flaws, though. While the first half of Some Nights is absolutely stellar, the second one just feels a little bit weaker. It's hard to compete with songs as good as the notorious single We Are Young or the title track, which might be the very best song on the record. And then, there's the much debated, largely unnecessary and almost profane use of vocoder. Nate Ruess' voice certainly doesn't need any tweaking and the efforts to make it sound "better" come out rather unfortunate. However the band had a different opinion and we can't do anything but to respect it. Fortunately, it's featured only a few times throughout the album, which doesn't let it spoil the impression.

After all, with the boost from Glee, Super Bowl commercials, its own qualities and wide accessibility, it's no wonder the album landed on #3 on the Billboard chart. Huge success. Two months in, I think it is already safe to say that Some Nights will become one of the 2012's essential albums.

Best tracks: Some Nights, We Are Young (ft. Janelle Monáe), Why Am I the One

P.S. Don't miss the bonus track Out On the Town.

Paper Route new song

Listen to the Paper Route newest song, Suger. Their second album is due out sometime this year. If you haven't checked their debut full-length, Absence, yet, I advise you to do so straight away...

The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy

At last, we've been given a chance to listen to the newest Nada Surf album, and words can't describe how much I was looking forward to this. It's without a doubt one of my most anticipated releases of the last few years, since, well, their latest album, Lucky. So this is a suitable and welcome opportunity to try a new thing on the blog. From now on, I would like to post more original content, short reviews mostly, not just music videos here and there. Or at least such is the plan...

So how good is the album actually? Reeeaaally good. Well, at least from my point of view, the view of an adoring fan. The first and foremost fact about "Stars..." is, that the band returned to their classic sound in the vein of the first three albums. No more Death-Cab-For-Cutie style, they've fastened up significantly and the guitars are distorted again. The rest is still Nada Surf as we know and love them, Matthew Caws' likeable voice, great melodies, anthemic choruses. In its approximately forty minutes, there isn't a single weak or boring moment.

They churn out the tunes with such an ease that it leaves me with suspicion they didn't even try too much. And frankly, that's the only problem I have with the record, because on Lucky or The Weight is a Gift the band tried to push themselves musically, shake things up a bit. And while this is still an extremely enjoyable record, it sort of leaves the bitter aftertaste of a band lacking progress. Nada Surf are situated in a similar position as Jimmy Eat World, both cult bands that can do almost no wrong, but struggling to come up with something particularly new and exciting...

...but who am I kidding, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy still is a fantastic album and thankfully, we don't have to wait any longer to hear it.

The opening track Clear Eye Clouded Mind

As always, feel free to express your thoughts in the comments.

Turning Page

This should've made it to its own post straight away... Watch Sleeping At Last perform Turning Page live. Their/His Yearbook project is still one of the best things we've been able to witness this/last year.

When I Was Young

Another day, another music video. Watch Matthew Caws of Nada Surf play live a new acoustic song. Their new album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy is due out in January next year.

No Light, No Light

Everyone, who hasn't checked Florence + The Machine's new album out yet, should do so asap. Ceremonials is one of the essential fall releases. Here's a little tease, music video for a song called No Light, No Light.

His Orchestra

Song Black Coffin, from their 2009's album Field Guide to the Wilds. Recommendation from a friend of mine, your thoughts?

Vice Verses

The new album from Switchfoot is scheduled to be out September 27th. I'm pretty anxious to hear it. Here's the title track performed live:


Your thoughts?