Author: Faronheit Page 184 of 192

On 07/09/2010

Bazile – Soldier City
Bazile – Life of Particles

In something of an oddity, though Fridays are typically lean on mp3s, this one’s shockingly great. Not only are there enough downloads to go around, but they’re also from some pretty great artists. There’s a new song from The Clientele off a forthcoming EP they’ll be releasing. Hallelujah the Hills also covers a classic Joanna Newsom song. The band Holy Family is one you’re going to want to watch out for in the short run. Add to that a song from the new Stars album, something fresh from art-rock band Women, and a remix of a Yeasayer song by The Golden Filter. Plenty worth downloading, and a great way to kick off the weekend.

Central Services (El-P and Camu Tao) – What God Should Do

The Clientele – Jerry

The Delta Mirror – He Was Worse Than The Needle He Gave You

Hallelujah the Hills – Clam Crab Cockle Cowne (Joanna Newsom cover)

Holy Family – Whatever There’s to Know

Jaill – The Stroller

Mock and Toof – Suppress Your Feelings

SAADI – Bad City

Stars – Fixed

Women – Eyesore

Yeasayer – Madder Red (The Golden Filter Remix)

Album Review: Mystery Jets – Serotonin [Rough Trade]

On 07/09/2010

Mystery Jets – Flash A Hungry Smile
Mystery Jets – Dreaming of Another World

Mystery Jets are a difficult band to pin down. They’ve had a sketchy history thus far, appearing to make large inroads across Europe but failing to ignite in America. Of course their U.S. album release history has been an odd one, with Dim Mak releasing a compilation of their early material in 2007 and nothing after that. Prior to that U.S.-only compilation, the band had released a full length in Europe. Since then, they’ve released another album “Twenty One” in 2008 via 679 Recordings. It did not receive official U.S. distribution. Now, thanks largely to a fresh deal cut with Rough Trade, Mystery Jets are officially poised to reach a full worldwide audience with their new record “Serotonin”. It’s out Tuesday, and the hope is it will satisfy fans of the band’s previous work while grabbing a whole new collective that’s never heard of them before.

Over the course of their first couple albums, Mystery Jets’ sound has somewhat changed. They’re now better at finding hooks and putting them to their best use, but the cost has been to take away some of their weirder quirks to head in a much more mainstream direction. The band’s last album “Twenty One” was the first strong step in that more standard pop direction, and it left fans of their debut “Making Dens” scratching their heads a little bit. The early stuff was so creatively fulfilling and had an air of true originality about it. The last record pulled back sharply on the psychedelia, along with some odd time signatures, to be replaced by verse-chorus-verse tracks with an 80’s synth flair. “Serotonin” continues that same pattern, maybe even on a larger scale than before. There’s a large number of songs that sound like a whole lot of fun and contain choruses that soar and bury their way into your subconscious whether you want them to or not. The lyrics also cover that one topic everybody can relate to – the ups and downs of love. Opener “Alice Springs” features a chorus where singer Blaine Harrison lists the things he’d do for a girl (stand in the line of fire, bend over backwards), because “I don’t have nothing if I don’t have you”. On “Too Late to Talk”, things are a little down and Harrison is wondering why his girl walked away from their relationship. It also contains the pretty brilliant line, “You were the apple of my eye/my Phoebe Cates from Ridgemont High”, which is only half a cliche. There are a fair share of lines across the album that use common phrases like “apple of my eye”, and while they can be associated with lazy songwriting, if they’re coupled with something smart it balances out the problem. Harrison only manages that about half the time.

“Serotonin” may not be the best record Mystery Jets have ever made, but what it lacks in creative brilliance it more than makes up for with fun and memorable songs. To put it another way, Mystery Jets have proven they can write majorly successful songs that audiences love, the question is whether or not U.S. audiences will be exposed to and embrace them or not. Europe has never been a problem for these guys, and hopefully this time around they’ll push harder for success in America. This record has the sort of content that will make fans of the first MGMT and Killers albums very happy. It’s 80’s nostalgia flavor put together in a very modern way. There’s hypithetically 4-5 legitimate singles on “Serotonin”, all that’s needed are a few forward-thinking radio people to put them on the air. Most music blogs will probably either ignore or get overly critical when talking about the album because it does sound like a lot of what’s already out in the marketplace. What sets Mystery Jets apart is their uncanny ability to write and compose songs that are more structurally sound than their peers. Coming up with a single smart hook is tough enough, but this band pulls it off half the time and shines above the rest because of it. Your mind may not be blown, but at the very least it’ll be distracted for awhile. It is summertime after all, and we need a break from the really “next level shit” now and then.

Preorder “Serotonin” from Amazon

Album Review: M.I.A. – /\/\/\Y/\ [N.E.E.T./XL/Interscope]

Preorder “/\/\/\Y/\” from Amazon

On 07/08/2010

In album review, BNM, mp3, music

Tres provocateur! Nobody’s ever accused M.I.A. of being subtle. If you honestly believe she ever has been, well, you really don’t know Maya Arulpragasam. Her first two albums “Arular” and “Kala” both proved that she most definitely doesn’t shy away from topics she feels are important, primarily when it comes to war and famine and genocide. Compared to other artists at the forefront of the hip hop, R&B and the laundry list of other genres that somehow fit into her complex music, M.I.A. doesn’t buy into the whole “money, guns and hos” standards of everyone else. It’s one of the big reasons why she’s risen above the fray to gain respect among music bloggers and critics across the globe. The mainstream success of the song “Paper Planes”, with its strategic placement in movies such as “Pineapple Express” and “Slumdog Millionaire”, has now catapulted M.I.A. to a whole new level of popularity. And despite the weight of expectation and record label investments on her shoulders, M.I.A. hasn’t backed away from anything or anyone. When the New York Times ran a piece on her in preparation for her new album, they weren’t exactly kind to Maya. In addition to misquoting her and saying she has some sort of vendetta against Bono, there were also words suggesting that today’s M.I.A. is a rich, upper class woman who only uses the poor and war-torn people as props in her songs. As it did seem to reflect poorly on her, M.I.A. took to writing angry missives against the article and even provided enough evidence to cause the NYT to issue a small retraction on a portion of what was written. Call it just another day in the life of Maya Arulpragasam. Well, her third record, painstakingly titled “/\/\/\Y/\” (henceforth to be referred to as “MAYA” for obvious reasons), is out next week, and no matter how controversial her personal life may get, many are waiting with nervous energy to hear if M.I.A. can keep her streak of brilliant and progressive records alive.

If you’re not living steadfastly in the digital age only, you may have taken notice of the cover art for “MAYA”. It features an apparent cut-and-paste job of a number of YouTube timeline bars, with M.I.A.’s face buried behind them, her eyes being the only thing clearly visible. Below that fray is M.I.A. written in stacked gold bars and surrounded on both sides by brick walls that are falling apart. The reason the cover is worth paying attention to is because it says so very much about what this album has in terms of content. Unlike her first two records, which were made under severe financial constraints, M.I.A. now has plenty of money and producers begging to work with her after “Paper Planes” came off huge. Whether or not this success has changed her is up for debate. What “MAYA” is, to many degrees, is a record about technology and how our world is affected by it. This theme is apparent right from the get-go, when on the opening track “The Message”, she claims that Google is being used by the government to spy on people. There’s paranoia like that surrounding technology all over the album, and while much of it can seem crackpot and flat-out wrong, that doesn’t mean it’s not fascinating or good. Additionally, to back all this up, much of the record is comprised of electronic samples, strung together by her various producers (Diplo, Switch, Rusko, Blaqstarr). Compared to the world music and tribal elements which so dominated her first couple albums, this evokes a sharper contrast with the very technology M.I.A. is railing against being the same things used to help make her songs. This metaphor extends even beyond the context of this album, and between her controversial personal life, also shows how M.I.A. herself is a contradiction in so many ways. It’s also in this same way that you get tracks on typical M.I.A. subject matter such as terrorism and genocide in Third World countries while later on you’ll hear her go on about her iPhone or the amount of money she has in the bank. All of these things are quintessential Maya Arulpragasam, while at the same time they are not. And looking back to that technology-stricken cover, not only is there a computer cut-and-paste mess everywhere along with the bars of gold, but simply examining the way her face is framed with only her eyes peering out at you both suggests she’s hiding behind these elements while at the same time making a reference to the Muslim world in which a face-covering Burka is traditional garb for women. Whether or not any of these ideas splayed out on the cover are actually intended to function as such is a topic for debate. After all, it could be just some slapdash attempt to look cool – though that’s never really been M.I.A.’s style.

Specifically speaking for the songs and how they sound overall, things are darker and heavier on “MAYA” than they’ve ever been before. After the fuzzed out and dark minute-long intro of “The Message”, the first noises you hear on the track “Steppin’ Up” are that of chainsaws and power drills mixed with some heavy bass drum beats. It’s the start of what will eventually be an industrial-heavy record with occasional splashes of pop in between. Compared to the world music and African-based sounds of her previous two albums, this is a big change. While that could be viewed as a positive thing that prevents M.I.A. from continuing to play off a unique sound that might have started to get a little stale, plenty of others might not see it that way. Combine these hard-hitting new sounds with a number of songs that use beats you’d hear in your average hip hop record today and suddenly it’s easy M.I.A.’s originality into question. Of course she’s not the one crafting these beats, her producers are and she’s just writing lyrics off of them. But a track like “XXXO” functions as a perfectly marketable pop song, complete with Jay-Z on the remix, because it’s got a hook that’s easy on the ears. That’s not something you would have expected on a record like “Kala” or “Arular”, so given that slice of disingenuous pie you have to wonder what else doesn’t work as expected. Perhaps the biggest risk that M.I.A. takes on “MAYA” is with the song “Lovalot”, which is by most accounts a terrorism love song. To be clearer, the song isn’t about a love of terrorism, but rather about two terrorists that fall in love. This sort of controversial topic is nothing new for M.I.A., but between the unique sound the song brings forward combined with her vocal stretching of the oft-repeated phrase “I really love a lot” so that it sounds closer to “I really love Allah”, it’s understandable why it’s getting so much attention. The good news is that despite the extreme challenges that track presents, it’s also probably the best song she’s done since “Paper Planes”. Elsewhere towards the end of the album you get a few rip-roaring guitar cuts in the form of “Born Free” and “Meds and Feds”. Suicide’s song “Ghost Rider” is sampled on “Born Free” and originally debuted as a very controversial music video you can watch online should you know where to look. Many are saying the song loses quite a bit when the context of the video has been taken away from it, but if you haven’t seen or refuse to watch said video, you should like it just fine. As far as “Meds and Feds” goes, it samples a guitar riff from the Sleigh Bells song “Treats”, and much like that track, this one’s also a delight. It’s fascinating to hear M.I.A. get so dark and gritty in these instances, and not only is it something she’s never done before but it’s something that few hip-hop related acts have the balls to even consider attempting. That she pulls it off quite well is testament to her strengths as an artist. “MAYA” ends on the anti-gravity relaxant of “Space”, which sounds just like the area outside of our planet’s atmosphere. Freed from all the noise and prying eyes of today’s technology, M.I.A. gets a moment to finally relax and take some personal time. It’s as if she’s cut loose the tethers we’ve all become attached to and has returned to a simpler time when all of life’s burdens weren’t thrust upon us by our own nature. For a record that so rabidly attacks the digital age, “Space” functions as the calm after the storm.

There’s a strong reason to believe that “MAYA” will sharply divide M.I.A. fans, that is if her dischordant personality hasn’t already. Her music has always been challenging, and though in some aspects this new album relies on old hip hop and pop stereotypes at times, this could be her most difficult record to date. From a purely compositional perspective, there’s plenty to like about it, and it’s definitely easier on the ears than much of the obscurist world music fare that was pushed forwards on those first two albums. Lyrically, the frequent criticisms of technology may very well provoke anger among the many technophiles that are certainly fans of hers, but that anger can probably be taken with a grain of salt. After all, M.I.A. is all about her Twitter account, and she almost assuredly owns an iPhone, so to say that she’s technology-averse because her lyrics say so is just another one of those big contradictions that defines Maya Arulpragasam. She’s a woman of many layers, and “MAYA” is able to present another bit of that to those who will listen. There’s not exactly another crossover hit like “Paper Planes” on the album, but in the darker, more industrial-based corners there’s still plenty compelling about it. You’d be wise to sample it and make your own determinations as to if it’s worth your time.

Non-Album MP3s:
M.I.A. – Tequkilla (Lost my fone out wiv Nicki Minaj Remix) (ZIP)
M.I.A. – Haters

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 7-8-10

On 07/08/2010

Aikiu – Just Can’t Sleep (Stupid Human Remix)

Some great choices for you in today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. FIrst and foremost, the band Dominant Legs is going to be attracting plenty of attention in the coming months, so now would be a good time to get on board with the new song featured below. There’s also a CFCF remix of a song by Korallreven, a new track from Shapes and Sizes, plus an additional free download from The Tallest Man On Earth.

Breathe Owl Breathe – Own Stunts

Carl Broemel – Heaven Knows

Dominant Legs – Clawing Out at the Walls

Efren – Stay High

FUR – Polybreak

Korallreven – The Truest Faith
Korallreven – The Truest Faith (CFCF Remix)

Lights On – Red Lights Flashing

Nice Purse – Heart Medley

Shapes and Sizes – I Need An Outlet

The Tallest Man On Earth – Burden of Tomorrow

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 6-7-10

On 07/07/2010

Balmorhea – Night Squall
Balmorhea – Bow Spirit

Another day, another set of mp3s for you to download as part of Pick Your Poison. Choose what looks good to you, and leave behind the rest. Today’s recommendations include a pair of songs from Balmorhea, a pretty cool cut from Good Weather For An Airstrike, and a band called The Gypsy Nomads you may want to check out.

Bottomless Pit – 38 Souls

Doppelganger – Breaks My Head

Good Weather For An Airstrike – The Beginning of the Rest of Our Lives

The Gypsy Nomads – Makeout

Jenny Wilson – Only Here for the Fight

Juliette Commagere – Impact

Thinking Machines – Nothing Feels the Same

Valient Thorr – Double Crossed

William Brittelle – Sheena Easton

Album Review: School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire [Ghostly International/Vagrant]

On 07/06/2010

School of Seven Bells – Windstorm

The band School of Seven Bells is comprised of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza (formerly of On! Air! Library!) and Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines). Their 2008 debut album “Alpinisms” was an immensely compelling piece of shoegazey dream pop that smartly used each members’ specific talents to their collective advantage. Thanks to songs like “Half Asleep”, “Connjur” and “My Cabal”, there were also plenty of hooks to go around amidst the haze and fuzz the guitars and synths often brought to the table. Throw in some stellar vocal harmonies and it’s a winning combination that earned the group the right sort of buzz and year-end praise from the right kinds of people. After spending the last couple years touring relentlessly, School of Seven Bells took what little time off they had and used it to craft their sophmore effort “Disconnect From Desire”, which will be available everywhere next week.

From the very first notes of opening track “Windstorm”, there’s a noticeable difference in the band’s sound compared to their debut. The vocals are no longer shoved into the background, wrapped in effects or overdubbed to give them more heft. Instead, the Deheza sisters come in more clearly than ever and interweave with one another with all the beauty and grace you might expect. The synths are also much heavier on this new album, maintaining the darker dream-like state of affairs but lightening up on the shoegaze guitar work. And as for drums, the trio continues to use a drum machine, though they’ve recently recruited a drummer to play with them at shows. These adjustments serve the band well when it comes to maintaining a cohesive sound across the entire album. Many of the songs blend into one another and there are large segments that feel like continuations from the same sonic palette and lyrical themes. All these changes are big enough to get your attention, but small enough that it doesn’t affect the overall sound/mood the band has previously established. In other words, if you liked the sound of “Alpinisms”, there’s still a high likelihood that you’ll also enjoy what the band is doing on “Disconnect From Desire”.

That doesn’t mean the album is without problems though. Where “Alpinisms” had its greatest successes, “Disconnect From Desire” doesn’t quite deliver. The presumably smart move of creating a more cohesive sounding record also works against the band in this case, as there are large sections that fail to stand out or stick with you for an extended period of time. Earworms like “Iamundernodisguise” or “Prince of Peace” that followed the standard verse-chorus-verse structure could effectively stick in your head for days at a time. They were also well within the boundaries of your average pop song, averaging 3-4 minutes in length across the album, save for a couple tracks. On “Disconnect from Desire”, the average track length is 5+ minutes, and the choruses come around less frequently in favor of atmospherics and general beauty. In other words, it sounds really nice, but there’s a chance you might wind up bored by it after awhile. The album may only span 10 tracks and about 60 minutes, but don’t be surprised if you start checking your watch after 30 minutes wondering exactly when things are going to wrap up. Of course the shortest stuff is also the easiest to swallow, from first single “Windstorm” to “Bye Bye Bye” (which is NOT an N’Sync cover). It’s in these moments that School of Seven Bells sound their richest and most engaging – in other words, like they did on “Alpinisms”.

So “Disconnect From Desire” isn’t quite the home run that the band and many others had hoped for. It is still a largely fascinating album that does well by itself in crafting a solid and cohesive soundscape to get lost inside of. In other words, it’s a good record to put on when you’ve got enough free time to commit to listening start to finish with little to distract you. It’s when you don’t have that time and are looking for only the highlights that you might have a little trouble. Ultimately the lack of highly memorable songs is what hurts this sophmore effort, but not as much as you might reasonably expect. With all the talent this band packs vocally via the gorgeously unique harmonies of the Deheza sisters and instrumentally via the smooth and hazy soundscapes that Benjamin Curtis plays a large part in crafting, there’s too much they’re doing right to call this album anywhere near bad. Instead it plays out as only slightly weaker than their amazing debut. If you’re new to School of Seven Bells, “Alpinisms” is still probably your best bet for an introduction, but “Disconnect From Desire” continues to pay lip service to those looking to journey a little further down the rabbit hole.

Preorder “Disconnect From Desire” from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 7-6-10

On 07/06/2010

Alexa Wilding – Black Diamond Day

Hope everyone had a great extended holiday weekend. So much BBQ and fireworks. Anyways, let’s get back into the normal state of things with today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. The extra holiday off has contributed to an increased number of mp3s for download today, so that’s a good thing if you like free music. Highlights today include a song from the forthcoming Of Montreal album, along with a remix of a great Local Natives song. So much else is good too, so have a look and a listen should you have the chance.

Can!!Can – God Lives in NYC

Coma Coma – Lightning Bolt

David’s Lyre – Heartbeat (ZIP)

Deluka – Nevada

The Golden Dogs – Permanent Record

Jen Wood – Pills

Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Teen Daze Remix)

Marco Mahler – The Trees Have Fallen And The Birds Are Ripe
Marco Mahler – Cell Phone Antenna Trophy

Minor Stars – The Death of the Sun
Minor Stars – Dead Weight

Modern Skirts – DUI

Noun – Brother
Noun – Holy Hell

Of Montreal – Coquet Coquette

Rachel McGoye – Ghetto Gloss

Shunda K – Here I Am To Save The World (Nite Club Remix)

Zoot Woman – More Than Ever (Upstation Remix)

Pick Your Poison: Friday 7-2-10

On 07/02/2010

Chinese Christmas Cards – Dreams
Buy the PEACE compilation from Buffetlibre and Amnesty International

It’s a long holiday weekend that if you haven’t kicked it off already, hopefully you will shortly. That is if you live in America. Faronheit will be taking Monday off as an observance of the July 4th holiday, just to give you some advanced warning. As you’re relaxing with some grilled food, cold beverages and bright fireworks, here’s today’s mini-sized version of Pick Your Poison. Okay, so it’s not so much fewer songs than normal, but I guess a bunch of record labels gave their employees a 4-day weekend because I got less than half the number of emails I normally do on a weekday. That’s neither here nor there I guess. So a new song from The Thermals is probably the most important and noticeable thing amongst the mp3s below. I’m also making special note of a special compilation put together by the good people over at Buffetlibre, who are looking to help out Amnesty International in preventing human rights abuses around the world. For pricing options ranging from 5-25 British pounds (check the exchange rate for your country), they’ll give you access to download 180+ exclusive songs by artists such as The Antlers, Mogwai, A Place to Bury Strangers, Ra Ra Riot, Asobi Seksu, The Spinto Band, Marissa Nadler, Apostle of Hustle, Crocodiles, Dan Deacon and a whole lot more. A few of the “bonus” tracks are featured below, including a Beatles cover by Sally Shapiro. Delightful stuff for a good cause, so please contribute if you can! And have a great 4th of July. Try not to get blown up by any fireworks.

C-Mon and Kypski – Turn of the Tides
C-Mon and Kypski – Bomba (Daniel Haaksman Remix)

Hamacide – Broadway Dancers

The Hidden Cameras – Wild Mannered Army
Buy the PEACE compilation from Buffetlibre and Amnesty International

Junk Culture – West Coast

Revolver – Get Around Town

Sally Shapiro – Hello Goodbye (Beatles cover)
Buy the PEACE compilation from Buffetlibre and Amnesty International

Sara Radle – Song for Adam

The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You

Mid-Year Review: 5 Surprising Albums

On 07/02/2010

In lists, mid-year, mp3, music

Looking on the opposite side of the penny from yesterday’s Mid-Year Review of 5 Disappointing Albums, today sees an examination of 5 albums released in the first half of this year that have genuinely surprised me. To help clarify, as I also did yesterday, when I use the word “surprising albums”, it’s NOT intended to imply they’re the BEST or my favorites, but simply records that have caught me the most off guard. I was not expecting these records to be as good as they turned out to be, and I hope that if you haven’t heard these albums yet that you make it a point to sometime soon. As it was yesterday, these albums are not ranked, but are listed in alphabetical order to prevent such impressions from occurring. And on that note, what albums have surprised you so far this year? I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat the Devil’s Tattoo (Download: Conscience Killer)
After the disaster that was 2007’s “Baby 81”, my confidence in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was shot. Despite the relatively poor reviews their first two albums received, their fuzz-fueled Jesus and Mary Chain-baiting rock captivated me like few other bands at the time did. That they have been on a slow and steady drop in quality since then has been unfortunate. The reality is that I gave “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” a listen more as a formality in preparation for another scathing review attacking their inability to commit to a sound and the lack of passion they’ve been putting behind their songs recently. What happened instead was that for the first time in a long time, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club finally sounded like they were back in a big way. Think of them like pro athletes that slowly spiral into the dangerous world of drug addiction. “Baby 81” was them hitting bottom, and now after a rehab program, they’re back in shape and almost in peak form. Let’s just hope they can keep on the straight and narrow from here on out. [Buy]

Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
For her entire life, Charlotte Gainsbourg has been living in the shadow of her father. No matter what she’s done, from her acting to her very sporadic music career, people almost always bring up Serge. In 2006, Charlotte released her first album in 20 years “5:55”, and given that she paired up with French pop duo Air, that record sounded like a tribute to her father rather than a statement of individuality. That wasn’t the intention, and thankfully for “IRM” she joined forces with Beck to make a diverse and fascinating record that’s actually the best thing either of them have done in a long time. We see a new side of Charlotte and though she didn’t write the lyrics or compose the songs, her vocal performance stretches beyond anything she’s done previously, and with more emotion too. [Buy]

The Futureheads – The Chaos (Download: Struck Dumb)
The Futureheads seem to have been slipping ever since their self-titled debut album. Of course a band that tends to specialize in short, 2 minute bursts of pure energy and hooks isn’t exactly built on a strategy for longevity. Still, continuing in their tradition of releasing a new album every two years, “News and Tributes” was a solid sophmore effort, but the band fell off the wagon when they tried to compose longer, more serious songs on their last album “This Is Not the World”. As if they’d gotten the message, “The Chaos” brings back to The Futureheads exactly what the title describes. Some of their poppiest, most addictive music since they first burst onto the music scene several years ago. Combine that with a highly combustible and insanely fun live show, and The Futureheads are more than equipped to surprise you in 2010. [Buy]

Local Natives – Gorilla Manor (Download: Sun Hands)
There’s been a slow and low build of buzz for Local Natives since their performance impressed so many at SXSW 2009, but I’ll admit to being late to that party. All too many times I’ve heard of bands being called “the next Grizzly Bear” or “the next Fleet Foxes”, only to be disappointed by these supposed next big things. When “Gorilla Manor” was finally released in the U.S. earlier this year, I wasn’t even fully aware of it until the high praise reviews started rolling in. Even then I was hesitant to even give them a try. It took stumbling upon the song “Wide Eyes” by accident one day while randomly surfing the internet to compel me to give Local Natives a try. And boy am I glad I did. The album is nothing short of amazing, and like Fleet Foxes scratched a certain itch for me in 2008, Local Natives satisfy that same part of my brain in 2010. This is an all-too-unheard album from the first half of the year that deserves every shred of recognition it gets, so if you’ve been holding out like I was, buy into these guys. They’re the real deal. [Buy]

MGMT – Congratulations
I’ve made it a point in the past to complain about MGMT. Their 2007 “debut” album “Oracular Spectacular” featured a handful of songs recycled from years old EPs, and it’s those songs that gained the band so much attention. That, along with an extremely poor live show from them I witnessed in 2005 drove my dislike of the band to near extremes. Well, their second record “Congratulations” earns them exactly that from me. Not only is it a full album’s worth of material that was completely written and recorded in the past year, but the songs on it give the proverbial middle finger to the rabid fans of their debut. That they didn’t go for the easy sell and made challenging, psychedelic songs while signed to a major label is seriously courageous. On top of that, the songs are pretty damn good too. Well played MGMT, you won me over and that was something I never saw coming. [Buy]

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 7-1-10

On 07/01/2010

A.R.E. Weapons – Mr. Creature

Today’s extra special good stuff on Pick Your Poison includes a brand new song from the great Sharon Van Etten. Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s pseudo-side project Ugly Casanova contributed a bunch of new songs to a movie soundtrack, one of which is available for download below. Also, New Pornographers member Kathryn Calder has released another mp3 from her forthcoming solo album. Plenty of other good stuff too, so check these songs out.

Bishop Morocco – Last Year’s Disco Guitars

Brothertiger – Vision Tunnels

BUSSES – Stationary

Christopher Smith – Gently Gently

Erik Friedlander – Aching Sarah

Gavin Hardkiss – Mundo Via Afrika (World Cup Song)

Kathryn Calder – Arrow

Psychic Powers – Glide

Pull In Emergency – Everything Is The Same

Roadside Graves – Everything
Roadside Graves – Everything (Ari Why Remix)

Sharon Van Etten – Love More

Ugly Casanova – Here’s to Now

Mid-Year Review: 5 Disappointing Albums

On 07/01/2010

In lists, mid-year, mp3, music

Whether you’re new to the site or have been reading Faronheit in some form or another for a long time now, I feel that it’s worth mentioning today is the site’s official 4th anniversary. Yes, Faronheit has been around since July 1, 2006, and while the first 3.5 years were spent over at Blogspot, at this point I couldn’t be happier with the recent conversion to the dot com status. Granted, those 3.5 years worth of site archives are currently in the wind somewhere and I’m fighting to get them restored and uploaded here so all of you can have access to the complete library of reviews and the like, but for the time being we’re making good with what we have.

Faronheit was originally conceived as an outlet for me to have an open and honest discussion on a global scale with music fans looking to learn about and hear more from up-and-coming artists. Thanks to loyal readers, commenters and the multitudes that email me every day, because all of you contribute in one way or another towards making this site what it is currently. And the artists! They’re first and foremost in all this, so thanks for making music and giving us something to listen to and talk about at endless length.

Now I’ll continue with a tradition that I started with the very first post on Faronheit, which is my Mid-Year Roundup. Today and tomorrow I will highlight a few albums released in the first half of the year that have surprised me and disappointed me. Typically I choose 10 albums apiece in the surprising and disappointing categories, but despite having heard a wealth of very good and very bad music so far in 2010, not a whole lot has caught me off guard in one aspect or the other. So I chose instead to halve both lists to keep things neater, cleaner and more organized.

First up are 5 Disappointing Albums from the first half of 2010. Before we get started, I would like to clarify that the word “disappointing” is NOT intended to indicate BAD. An album can still be good and disappointing at the same time, because for all you knew the listening experience was supposed to be completely mindblowing but was instead only pretty good. Every album that made this list this year also coincidentally is by a band that has released at least two albums prior to their current one. The setup for disappointment in most of these cases is mostly failing to deliver on the promise that previous records had shown them capable of. Hopefully that makes more sense when you examine the list below, which by the way is not ranked and in alphabetical order for that exact reason. I’m also curious to know your opinions on this list, along with what albums disappointed you in the first half of the year. Let me know in the comments.

Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
It never occurred to me to find out the names of the guys in Band of Horses besides singer Ben Bridwell until I heard “Infinite Arms” for the first time. See, it turns out that unbeknownst to me, Band of Horses was pretty much Bridwell’s solo project for the first two albums and the guys he played shows with were pretty much hired hands. Well, after the last album “Cease to Begin”, Bridwell did hire some guys full time to write, record and tour with him. Band of Horses now being a full-fledged band, all the new guys contributed a bunch of stuff to “Infinite Arms”, and suddenly their mojo disappeared. The new songs are blander and aimed at the arena-sized crowds they’re starting to attract. If they got this far with more introspective and personal material, why stop now? I’m not saying that Bridwell should fire the rest of his band, but maybe for the next album they let him go back to what he does best – writing and composing songs on his own. [Buy]

The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever (Download: Hurricane J)
Keyboardist Franz Nicolay left The Hold Steady before they went to record “Heaven Is Whenever”, and though a moustachioed keyboard guy is never the lynchpin that makes any band go from good to great, something does feel like it’s missing from the band’s latest offering. The advancement of The Hold Steady from “Separation Sunday” to “Boys and Girls in America” was remarkable and pushed the band into new territory that saw them make huge strides in terms of attention and popularity. Their last album “Stay Positive” largely continued on the themes that “Girls and Boys in America” had set up, and while it was slightly less effective, the band remained exciting and prolific. Where “Heaven Is Whenever” goes wrong is when the band decides to abandon the Springsteen-esque progress they’d made on their last couple records and return to the much more guitar-based sound of their early days. If only they’d attempted to take another step forwards rather than looking backwards, I think everyone would have given them a little more leeway. Instead, The Hold Steady for the first time sound creatively exhausted, and Craig Finn’s stories are starting to wear a little thin. [Buy]

Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Hot Chip established themselves as this great electro-pop band building songs that sounded amazing on the dance floor. Examining the hits for a moment, songs like “Over and Over” and “Shake A Fist” were so huge and earned them such a following because they were fun, highly creative bursts of energy you could get down to. They seem to have forgotten that on “One Life Stand”, because the number of club banger tracks has decreased significantly. Yes, you could say the approach is far more nuanced and mature, but mid-tempo pop songs and slow ballads just don’t have the same cathartic release. There are a few great things about the album though, first and foremost among them is the incredibly great video for “I Feel Better”. I’m also all kinds of in love with the closing track “Take It In”. If Hot Chip want to show their more serious side, they have every right to do so, but as LCD Soundsystem has proven time and time again, you don’t need to scale back your beats and tempos to put your emotional depth on display. Hopefully they remember that for next time. [Buy]

Spoon – Transference
Spoon has had such a spectacular run of albums in the last few years that as much as we all might like that streak to continue, we knew it couldn’t go on forever. Their last album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” may have placed them at the peak of their creative powers, so unless they could continue with that same vigor and intensity, “Transference” was going to be a let down. And so it was, with Britt Daniel & Co. turning in what felt at times like a half-baked album. As the band might put it though, every song is as complete as they want it to be. A small dash of grimy lo-fi here, a purposely missed or incompletely sung lyric there, and a splash of unfocused energy and things sound a little topsy-turvy in Spoon’s world. Good for them for having the courage and spirit to throw most everybody for some sort of loop, and the majority of the songs still work well even with the added quirks. “Transference” will go down as one of the lesser albums in Spoon’s catalogue, and as disappointing as that might be, the record is still interesting and even a bit surprising…just not always in that great sort of way. [Buy]

Stars – The Five Ghosts (Download: We Don’t Want Your Body)
Blandness and repeating yourself are two big things that many long-standing bands have had to fight against. Stars have reached their fifth album, and while their dark and depressing brand of indie pop has worked more often than it hasn’t, “The Five Ghosts” leaves them sounding like they’re no longer dying but are already dead. Many of the songs on the album are downtempo or devoid of any real expression of life, and the ones that do manage to pick themselves up off the floor can’t seem to do so for long. To be clear though this isn’t an album filled with bad songs, just merely okay ones. The positive is that Amy Millan really shines across the entire album from a vocal perspective, while Torquil Campbell seems pushed into a corner where he’s not allowed to be his normal, expressive self. It’s sad in a way, because while Stars haven’t always been the most prolific of Canadian exports, memories of magic from albums like “Nightsongs” and “Set Yourself On Fire” hurt whatever haunting message the band might be trying to get across here. Between this and “In Our Bedroom After the War”, let’s hope Stars find something a little lighter and less same-y sooner rather than later. [Buy]

TOMORROW – Mid-Year Review: 5 Surprising Albums

Album Review: Lissie – Catching a Tiger [Columbia/Fat Possum]

On 06/30/2010

Preorder “Catching a Tiger” from Fat Possum

The singer-songwriter simply known as Lissie is geographically challenged in more ways than one. First off, though she’s lived in Illinois for more years than she hasn’t, Lissie no longer calls the state home. Shortly after she was expelled from high school several years back, she took off for the West Coast, eventually settling in California but with a brief detour in Colorado to do some college there for a couple years. When discussing Lissie, many writers either say she’s an Illinois girl while others will call her a Californian. Where she prefers to be from officially is up to her. Secondly, despite writing songs in the tradition of great American songwriters and incorporating elements of folk, blues and country into her songs, Lissie has yet to make it big in the U.S. Instead, she’s blown up huge in Europe, in particular England, and that’s just a tad fascinating. Here in America, Lissie is just another struggling girl with a guitar, though she was one of the opening acts for Lenny Kravitz when he toured the country in 2008. Lissie’s music has also been used in a number of television shows including “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy”. Whether you know it or not, chances are you’ve heard at least one of her songs in one capacity or another. Now it just so happens that Lissie’s debut album “Catching a Tiger” was released in the UK very recently, and before the momentum catches up on this side of the pond, here’s a review for you.

Lissie’s sound is far from revolutionary. There are hundreds of other female singer-songwriters across the world doing something similar right this very second. They’ve got guitars and a bedroom and think that if they play enough coffee houses, perhaps a record label executive will walk in and they’ll get “discovered” one day. The thing about that dream and the challenge it provides is that most of these young women either don’t fully possess the talent to make it big, or the ones that do manage to find a way to screw up their big chance. Thankfully Lissie is none of these things, because you don’t rise up above your peers by being simply ordinary. What sets Lissie apart from the heaps of other ladies out there are a couple things. One of the first things you notice about her no matter what song you listen to is her voice. It’s smooth enough to be glass and has a wider range than the most unpopulated areas of Texas. There’s also a certain degree of emotion that shines through her voice, winning you over and convincing you that she truly does long for home or that some guy treated her poorly. To put it a different way, Lissie has a voice that projects and connects with the listener as much as it impresses. Because of her singing along with the occasional alt-country bent her songs can take, Lissie often evokes comparisons to Neko Case and Martha Wainright. That’s completely understandable, but on “Catching a Tiger” she displays more of a stylistic juggling act that pulls the easy references back and increases her accessibility to a mass audience. But the other big thing that separates Lissie from the pack is her songwriting. Her lyrics display a sharp maturity that certainly suggests they were written by somebody with a lot of life experience. Of course leaving high school, packing up your car and driving to California with all your possessions can get the wheels on the road to adulthood spinning pretty quickly. Really it’s admirable that Lissie moves beyond your typical female singer-songwriter cliche of failed relationships to tell stories about family, friends and the open road. And of course she does it all with smart wordplay that’s as wise as it is fascinating.

So as a debut album, “Catching a Tiger” turns out to be an excellent listening experience. Those who’ve been paying attention to Lissie in the past year or two have hopefully heard her 2009 EP “Why You Runnin'”, which served as a good precursor to what this new record is like. The three best tracks from that EP have been transplanted onto the twelve track album, and the nine brand new songs are almost all equally great. From the opening notes of the bouncy folk jaunt “Record Collector” through the country-tinged “Little Lovin'” five songs in, you get the feeling that there’s something fresh and exciting going on with this record. It’s front-loaded in the best sense of the word, and it’s both stylistically varied while cranking out memorable choruses that have a tendency to stay in your head longer than you could reasonably expect them to. The 60’s AM pop of “Stranger”, while still fun, somehow feels a little weaker than what’s come before it and it’s the start of a small string of tracks that feel relatively plain and homogenized. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it veers into Sheryl Crow-like territory for a time and it’s a little distracting. The ballad “Everywhere I Go” recovers the album’s earlier momentum of great songs and brings a sharp emotional resonance that was missing in the couple tracks before it. “Look Away” is immensely beautiful in both the lyrical and compositional senses, adding bits of violin and piano to the guitars which really assists in conveying the dramatic nature of the words. Closing song “Oh Mississippi” feels like an old gospel song that’s been around for generations, almost in the vein of a “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. The piano matched with Lissie’s vocals sell that idea, along with the subject matter being perhaps America’s greatest river, the mighty Mississippi. It’s the perfect way to end a record so stylistically varied and emotionally bare.

By all accounts, Lissie has set herself up to be one of the next great women to achieve success with her music not only in England where she’s breaking out, but around the world. Once “Catching a Tiger” is finally released in the U.S. on August 17th, don’t be surprised if she starts to make a sizeable impact on these shores. Between the number of potential hits on the album and that remarkable voice, Lissie has a whole lot to offer those who are willing to listen. She may not be attempting anything revolutionary or different from the great women that have come before her, but she’s using her strengths to her advantage and it seems to be working out. Though such comparisons are a little one-sided, fans of Neko Case, Cat Power, Feist and Stevie Nicks among others should find Lissie right up their alleys. And even if you don’t like them, maybe you’ll like Lissie anyways. There’s only one way to find out, and “Catching a Tiger” is a great introduction to a woman who will hopefully be on all of our radars for many more years to come.

Lissie – Everywhere I Go

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 6-30-10

On 06/30/2010

Don Diablo vs. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Daddy

Great stuff as a part of today’s Pick Your Poison. You’re going to want to pay special attention to the Twin Sister remix of the How to Dress Well song “Ready for the World”, which is getting a fair amount of hype at the moment. Also good is a track from the upcoming new Jukebox the Ghost album, and Matthew Young is an artist you’re going to want to keep an eye on as well. But plenty of good songs from plenty of good bands available, download and have a listen for yourself.

BAMBARA – Stay Gray

Dylan Gilbert – Isabella

Harvey Girls – Smile Like Gwynplaine

How to Dress Well – Ready for the World (Twin Sister Remix)

Jukebox the Ghost – Empire

Matthew Young – Dummy Line

Nick Butcher – Minutes Overlap

Postdata – Tobias Grey

Rivulets – Four Weeks

Spur – Mr. Creep

Album Review: Wolf Parade – Expo 86 [Sub Pop]

On 06/29/2010