Wednesday, May 2, 2012



New Music.  A day late.  A dollar short.


The Lumineers - The Lumineers

First, a step back (warning: this will be a digression.  Any "just tell me what the band sounds like" proponents should skip this paragraph).  One thing that is becoming increasingly clear to me as I continue to listen to a half dozen new albums each week is how hard it is to actually determine what is good and bad.  The myth of the internet is that a lack of borders should create a meritocracy.  However, what really happens is that the infinitude of choices only muddies the water.  There are more bands than ever due to less barriers to entry in music creation, and the technology means that these bands are only a couple clicks away.  This means you can hear a lot of music that sounds incredibly alike.  If it's a sound you like, but only in moderation (variety being the spice of life and all), how do you determine which of these similar sounding bands is worth your time and which aren't?

This brings us to the Lumineers, who are either going to be the Next Big Thing in indie-folk, or yet another thing in indie-folk.  This debut album contains some very strong songs, but it's another in a long line of indie-folk groups.  Unlike someone like Of Monsters and Men, the Lumineers are pretty firmly on the folk side of the indie-folk spectrum, and as such they pretty strongly recall groups like The Head and the Heart and the Avett Brothers (and Mumford; you can't have a -folk group and not compare them to Mumford).  There's also a couple tracks (the strongest, in my opinion) that sound very similar to Heartbreaker-era Ryan Adams (one of the stronger Ryan Adams eras, in my opinion).  As I said before, I really like a lot of these songs, and I think their lead singer has a strong, confident voice, but I'm a little indie-folk fatigued.  Should I hold that against these guys?  Anyway, if you're a big folk fan, or at least a fan still riding the wave, you should definitely check out this group.

Selections

Slow It Down

Ho Hey

Big Parade



Rufus Wainwright - Out of the Game

The piano-playing troubadour (yeah, troubadour; I think troubadour describes Rufus Wainwright pretty well) teams up with funky sorcerer supreme Mark Ronson on this album.  Unfortunately, while this pairing makes for the funkiest Rufus Wainwright album, it makes for the least funky Mark Ronson effort.  In reality, the two don't really seem to be shooting for funk anyway, it's more about that easygoing AM Gold 70's vibe, which they hit reasonably consistently.  Wainwright's voice works very well in this vein, and though there's a lot of instrumentation going on in this thing, it's all easy to make out, and it's done by pros, notably the Dap Kings, Wilco, and the guitarist from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  It's a little too easy listening-ish to make it a must-listen, but I like it well enough.

Selections
Jericho


Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts

What's that, you say?  One strange singer/producer pairing isn't enough for you this week?  Well, you're in luck, because Norah Jones teamed with Danger Mouse on her latest album.  Unlike his work on last week's album by Electric Guest, here Danger Mouse isn't going for a retro-soul vibe; if anything, he seems to want to create a dark noir-ish vibe around femme fatale Norah Jones's apparently now-icy voice.  It's interesting, but I'm not sure how much it works: the production is a little too clean and clear to truly be haunting or murky; it wants to be a genuine horror movie when it's really only Count Duckula.  Hold up: I didn't really just write that, did I?  I'm sorry.  That's... bad.  I'm going to leave it up as permanent embarassment; it's the only way I'll learn.  

Anyway, this is a decent album, and certainly Norah Jones is not an artist worthy of the scorn and derision that someone like Bucket so casually heaps upon her.  

Selections
Little Broken Hearts

Take It Back


Joe Pug - The Great Despiser

Joe Pug is pretty darn good.  I always dug his old song "Speak Plainly, Diana."  He plays chill mostly acoustic-y guitar-driven music with a slightly Southern edge.  But not the deep South; someplace like North Carolina (he's actually from Chicago, I guess).  I bet he could hang out with Dave Matthews or Pat McGee.  I can drink beer to his music (full disclosure: I can drink beer to most, if not all, music).  This album is pretty much more of that vibe.  It's good stuff.

Selections
The Great Despiser


Chappo - Plastique Universe EP

I don't know anything about this band other than their music.  They could be years old.  I'm guessing this EP has been out for a fairly long time because there's another EP by them called Plastique Universe II (which isn't terrible, but slightly inferior).  So this could be another "new to me, old to the world" deal (although they don't have a wikipedia entry, which is how I determine whether things are on the scene or not), but I gotta say, this band is pretty fucking intriguing.  This five song EP goes for epic space music, like Bowie or Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and I think it pulls it off.  I can listen to these five songs over and over again.

Selections
Come Home

Space Shoes


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