Thoughts on new music releases from today:
I like the Heartless Bastards' new album Arrow. They definitely win the award for best new release this week. They got a 70's classic rock sound to them a bit, occasionally sounding a little heavy and occasionally sounding, uh, Americana-y (there should probably be a better word for this). Anyway, this one's definitely going into the rotation for me. I think the best song is "Only for You," which definitely falls into the latter category.
The band Tennis's album Young and Old is pretty good too. They're a husband wife duo who does indie music, although pretty, bright indie music. Apparently their debut album (the one before this) was recorded on a yacht or something. A couple of these tracks have some early 60's vibes to them. "Origins" is one such track, and I like it a lot. I'm not sure I'm going to add the entire album to my listening rotation, but this song definitely makes it.
Speaking of owing something to the 60's, there's The Explorers Club and their album Grand Hotel. I'm not sure how I feel about this album: there's being inspired by something, and then there's a note-for-note remake. This song kinda sounds like it's on the note-for-note end of the spectrum. But "authenticity" questions aside, I'm not sure I don't love it in a could-probably-be-an-opening-
Taking the early lead in the Best 2012 Banjo/Mandolin Album is the Punch Brothers' new album Who's Feeling Young Now. I'm not crazy about this album, but it is interesting: rather than doing the Mumford and Sons anthemic singalong chorus thing, these guys take their unorthodox (for pop music, I suppose it's incredibly orthodox for bluegrass) instrumentation and actually try to develop something of a groove. It's unique, but I'm not sure the good songwriting wouldn't be better served with guitars and stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment