Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
For all I care, everyone else can spend time talking themselves into Justin Timberlake's new album; I'll be off listening to this fascinating R&B/soul record from Arthur Ashin, who records as Autre Ne Veut. At different points funky, soulful, and expansive while being just off-kilter enough to be unique (but consequently likely incongruent to radio), this album plays as either a more jittery Miguel or a less comatose Frank Ocean. Either way, I like it.
Selections
Play by Play
Autre Ne Veut – I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Gold Fields - Black Sun
"Dark Again (Lights Out)," the lead single from Australian band Gold Fields' debut album, caught my attention months ago for its Peter Gabriel-esque driving New Wave-y rhythm and yelping. It's an extremely solid representation of what passes for good alternative/indie rock on the radio these days.
Having listened to the whole Gold Fields album, it is encouraging that unlike other similar acts, there is not a noticeable drop-off in quality between the previously released and new material on the album. I probably prefer Gold Fields when they are doing uptempo danceable electronic rock with New Wave elements, but the versatility they show on this album with some more atmospheric moody songs could bode well for them in the future. This is a band to keep an eye on.
Selections
Dark Again (Lights Out)
Gold Fields – Thunder
Cloud Cult - Love
As this is the band's ninth studio album, I am more than a little surprised that as far as I can recall, I have never heard of this band before. Something of a mix between Arcade Fire and the Polyphonic Spree, Cloud Cult may be the most sincere and least ironic band on the planet. The album is called Love, and the songs on the album are about love.
Musically, the songs are big, building to multi-instrument crescendoes - Arcade Fire is the template here (although I suppose Cloud Cult technically predate Arcade Fire, but whatever) - while still adding some driving rock elements to a handful of the songs to keep the whole thing from feeling overly same-y.
You would think that an album so straightforward and sincere would be easy to form an opinion on, but honestly, I am very confused on my opinion: at times the sincerity is stunningly beautiful, at other times it's incredibly mawkish, and at other times it's both simultaneously. Rather than going on a multi-paragraph tangent exploring whether my ambivalence to such sincerity reveals a deep-seated cynicism at the core of my being or a hard-won pragmatism, let's just say I find this band and album to be interesting, but I wonder whether it will be for everyone or not.
Selections
You're the Only Thing in Your Way
Complicated Creation
Cloud Cult – Complicated Creation
1x1x1
Singles Section
Radkey - "Cat and Mouse"
Radkey is a band made up of three teenage brothers from Missouri who haven't even recorded their first album yet. Considering how young they are, it's pretty impressive how much they rock. "Cat and Mouse" is an incredibly enjoyable combination of punk and power pop. Sky's the limit for these guys.
Skylar Grey featuring Eminem - "C'Mon Let Me Ride"
I don't care much for the verses of this song, I find the overly sexual themes to be tedious when they should be clever, and I'm definitely not ready for Eminem to return to the music landscape, but I'll be damned if this chorus doesn't get me just about every time. In several months I will likely be embarrassed I included this song on the blog, but I don't care about that at this point.
Coasts - "Oceans"
This is just a really nice big indie rock song. Coasts is a fairly new band from Bristol (England, not Connecticut) who have generated a decent amount of buzz before even putting out an album. Listening to "Oceans," it's easy to tell why.
No comments:
Post a Comment