You're getting this a day early, because I am going to be out of town tomorrow and was able to find a couple of streams of albums coming out tomorrow. If anything comes out tomorrow that absolutely needs to be addressed, I may add an addendum some time tomorrow or Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure I got a chance to listen to the most prominent releases.
Free Energy - Love Sign
How many Loverboy songs can you name? How you answer that question may go a long way towards how you react to this album.
Free Energy is a band from Philadelphia with what appears to be a completely unironic love of 80's middle of the road rock. That means this album has no shortage of cowbells, double tracked guitar solos, hand-claps, whoa oh ohs, and singalong choruses. All of this should be right up my alley, and in some ways it is.
What gives me some pause in recommending this album is that the production is a little too dead-on in its 80's-ness, which leaves the whole thing sounding a little too sterile. Everything sounds vaguely nice but also can skirt into boring territory. This is likely all intentional: whereas the first Free Energy album was produced by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, this new one is done by John Agnello, a long-tenured producer who actually has produced albums for The Hooters and The Outfield (to his credit, he also has tons of non-80's cheese on his resume as well). Assuming it was their goal to sound as if they fit right in on the classic rock channel, Free Energy undoubtedly hit their target; I just question a little bit how worthwhile of a target it is to hit.
Still, there's an earworm-y nature to several of the songs that cannot be denied, the very Cars-ish "Girls Want Rock" being the prime example (it's also possible that this is a summer album being released when it's 10 degrees outside; that will be something to monitor going forward).
Selections
Girls Want Rock
Electric Fever
Hangin'
The Joy Formidable - The Wolf's Law
If you liked this Welsh band's first album The Big Roar, you're probably going to like this follow-up, as it isn't too much of a departure: it's not like they went acoustic on this one or added EDM elements. No, this band still understands that they make their money on distorted guitars- loud, clanging distorted guitars.
Upon first listen, I would say this album has more varied instrumentation than the first, adding a lot more strings and orchestral arrangements. This results in a much bigger sound, almost akin to the musical setting Muse has primarily been operating within in the past decade. This album is the sound of The Joy Formidable aiming for the rafters.
A majority of the songs also feel more propulsive, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your musical tastes. I myself rather liked the chill shoe-gaze-y moments on The Big Roar, primarily the self-indulgent yet happy feedback-heavy jam sessions that end both "The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie" and the album version of "Whirring" (easily my favorite musical moment of 2011), and those moments are mostly absent here. Everything here feels bigger, but it also feels tighter. That may ultimately prove to be more amenable to mainstream tastes, but I'm not sure it necessarily leads to more enjoyable songs for me.
But a lot of that is nitpicking. This is still a good band, and this album a good showcase for them. If heavy guitars and driving drums are you're type of thing, you owe it to yourself to check out the album.
Selections
This Ladder is Ours
Ra Ra Riot - Beta Love
Before this album, Ra Ra Riot made indie music that could be described as precious, and not always in a complimentary manner: the band has used its fair share of strings before and exhibited some of the more cliche elements of chamber pop. This didn't mean they weren't capable of making good songs - "Can You Tell" (which was of course featured on Chuck) in particular was equally beautiful and catchy and a favorite of mine - just that over time a lot of their songs were a little boring and indistinguishable from others to my ears.
This new album has Ra Ra Riot adding more and more synthesizers and shooting for more dance-friendly electro-pop fare, not unlike a band like Passion Pit. All in all, I think the approach works: the songs may be a little sugary, but they're plenty of fun, and the combination of the strings and electro pop elements provides an enjoyable background for lead singer Wes Miles's voice. This probably won't make any best-of lists, but it's fun all the same.
Selections
Dance with Me
Beta Love
When I Dream
That Much
Toro y Moi - Anything in Return
Toro y Moi is the performing name for South Carolina chillwave recording artist Chaz Bundick (heh, Bundick). I myself am not usually the biggest fan of chillwave, considering it boring almost by design, but this album has its moments. It's entirely too long, and I don't recommend listening to it in one sitting, but a handful of the songs are much closer to dance music than I would expect from a chillwave artist, and the jazz influence that pops up at times in interesting.
Ultimately, I don't know how often I'll return to this album - it seems like it may be a good background music album, however much of a backhanded compliment that is - but I was a skeptic going into listening to it, and it at least partially managed to win me over.
Selections
Say That
So Many Details
Rose Quartz
Bad Religion - True North
This album sounds just like you would expect a Bad Religion album to sound: you're going to get driving guitars, punk verses with leftist lyrics, and surprisingly melodic and catchy choruses. At this point you probably know whether or not you like Bad Religion. Personally, I've always enjoyed them, and I am surprised at both how good they still sound and how much I still enjoy the formula. Because they're so consistent, the songs kinda do run together (and remind you of past Bad Religion songs), but bands who've been around since 1979 shouldn't be able to bring it this well anymore. I won't be getting any philosophy or politics from them, but when I want to play something loud over my car speakers to sing along with, this will work perfectly fine.
Selections
Fuck You (uh, lyrics NSFW?)
Robin Hood In Reverse
In Their Hearts is Right
True North
Singles Section
Conor Maynard - "Don't You Worry Child"
Soulful acoustic cover of Swedish House Mafia's hit "Don't You Worry Child" by the Justin Timberlake-like British singer covered last week. The vocal performance is a little overwrought, but the kid seems to have a pretty powerful voice.
Also, I'm reasonably impressed that this song translates as well as it does to acoustic; there isn't a whole lot of house music written well enough to make the transition.
Toro y Moi is the performing name for South Carolina chillwave recording artist Chaz Bundick (heh, Bundick). I myself am not usually the biggest fan of chillwave, considering it boring almost by design, but this album has its moments. It's entirely too long, and I don't recommend listening to it in one sitting, but a handful of the songs are much closer to dance music than I would expect from a chillwave artist, and the jazz influence that pops up at times in interesting.
Ultimately, I don't know how often I'll return to this album - it seems like it may be a good background music album, however much of a backhanded compliment that is - but I was a skeptic going into listening to it, and it at least partially managed to win me over.
Selections
Say That
Bad Religion - True North
This album sounds just like you would expect a Bad Religion album to sound: you're going to get driving guitars, punk verses with leftist lyrics, and surprisingly melodic and catchy choruses. At this point you probably know whether or not you like Bad Religion. Personally, I've always enjoyed them, and I am surprised at both how good they still sound and how much I still enjoy the formula. Because they're so consistent, the songs kinda do run together (and remind you of past Bad Religion songs), but bands who've been around since 1979 shouldn't be able to bring it this well anymore. I won't be getting any philosophy or politics from them, but when I want to play something loud over my car speakers to sing along with, this will work perfectly fine.
Selections
Fuck You (uh, lyrics NSFW?)
Conor Maynard - "Don't You Worry Child"
Soulful acoustic cover of Swedish House Mafia's hit "Don't You Worry Child" by the Justin Timberlake-like British singer covered last week. The vocal performance is a little overwrought, but the kid seems to have a pretty powerful voice.
Also, I'm reasonably impressed that this song translates as well as it does to acoustic; there isn't a whole lot of house music written well enough to make the transition.
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