Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 5-8-13

I’d like to take a moment as part of this Pick Your Poison introduction to make mention of a small issue that’s been plaguing the site these last few months. Namely, the lack of content outside of Pick Your Poison posts. Back in the earliest days of the site, even prior to the incarnation we’ve been at now for the last 3 years, I used to write 4-5 album reviews each week. For whatever reason I’d power through and crank out review after review like it was nothing. Of course reading those reviews today, there was a certain crap-tastic factor to them that might explain why they were so easy to write. Let’s just say it was very stream of consciousness. The last couple years, reviews on the site have slowed down to 2-3 per week, and these days it can be almost lucky if I make it to one review each week. There’s a lot of really great records out there that I still listen to and form opinions about every week, but don’t review them on the site because I simply don’t have the time. Clawing my way through close to 200 site emails every day takes a good couple hours, then writing these Pick Your Poison intros can pull another 30 or so minutes of daily focus as well, and with a full time job and some semblance of a social life I can only devote so much time to writing reviews each week. Which is why most reviews are built over the course of 4-5 days as I write and edit them when I have some free minutes. In many respects I regard it as quality over quantity. But for every one review I write, there’s about 5-6 more that pass me by that I’d love to review as well. Which is why I’m currently considering a new album review format. Instead of writing paragraphs of detailed analysis, reviews would be extremely cut and dry, with 5-10 bullet points attempting to highlight a record’s strengths, weaknesses and greatest moments. It lacks charm and depth (well, perhaps I can manufacture some charm), but it’ll get the job done. Anyways, it’s just a concept right now and nothing definite or locked in place. If you’ve got an opinion about the proposed changes (which, mind you, would not affect Pick Your Poison whatsoever), let me know in the comments. If I decide to go forward with the idea, it’ll probably debut on the site at the start of June or July. So we shall see. In the here and now, or should I say hear and now, there’s a bunch of great tracks in today’s Pick Your Poison. I’d like to recommend songs from Alexander Spit, Capital Cities (covering the Bee Gees), Free Time, German Error Message, Mother Falcon, Speedy Ortiz, Tangled Star and Way Yes. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Airbird & Napolian, Man or Astro-Man?, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Prins Thomas’ remix of Shout Out Louds.