Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs teamed up with a bunch of, apparently, children to do the soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are, and while these songs are ostensibly for children, I have to admit that I'm kind of digging the album. There are really some great songs on here. Of course, any movie that uses Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" in its trailer -- and then gets the trailer played on pretty much every show in the country for the last month, spreading Arcade Fire's wonderful music further than it's ever been spread -- is pretty awesome in my book, whether the book is for children or not.
Do Make Say Think have just released their follow-up to 2007's amazing You, You're a History in Rust, and the Canadian post-rockers remain on top of their game. The album is titled The Other Truths and features only four songs with the self-referential labels, "Do", "Make", "Say", and "Think." "Think" is a little over 8 minutes and is the shortest track, while two of the others stretch over 12 minutes. So while the tracklist is slight, the music is long, and wonderful. From Pitchfork's review:
Opener "Do" starts with crisp, intertwined guitar lines playing off one another. As the track morphs and unfurls-- cue the slow-build and crescendo-- the themes reappear more charged, parrying with horns and descending into static. "Make" quietly delays the payoff, slowly ratcheting things up and marching toward a climax with a floor of tense bass, echoing chants, and sinewy, stretched string notes. When a warm motif of horns and fuzzed guitars begins to cut through the dread, the song's color noticeably shifts. "Say" strikes a grandiose yet road-weary tone, as a lonely slide guitar melody gets echoed and expanded by trumpets and churning drums, while "Think" may be its companion and comedown, a slow trail set forth by a quivering, reverb-laden guitar line.
I couldn't top their description, but I would have given it a lot higher than a 7.2 out 10. Another great album from a really great band. Check it out.
- Do Make Say Think
Download Do Make Say Think - " The Universe! - live recording from CBC Radio 3".mp3
- From their Japan tour only EP The Whole Story of Glory, out last year; sorry, I can't give one of the new tracks, since there's only four of them.
Sufjan Stevens' musical project The BQE, a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, was released last week, along with a companion DVD of the performance of the suite at the Howard Gilman Opera House in 2007. According to a recent interview, Stevens admits that he's hit a sort of creative writer's block recently, which helps to explain why the once super-prolific Stevens hasn't released an album of new music since 2005's Vague Space album of the year, Illinoise. Sadly, he's appeared in more of my imaginary scenarios than on my stereo in recent years, but he says he's been performing new "long-form" music in recent shows and hopes to record an album to be released next year. We hope so too. For a man who once planned to write fifty state soundtracks as part of his "50 States" project, but also released a couple other "regular" albums in between, it's disappointing not to hear much new from him in a while. Maybe this song from The BQE can tide you over.
Noah and the Whale released their second album The First Days of Spring, appropriately on the last day of August (huh?) and although I've had it for a while, I never really listened until recently and I found there's a lot to love about it. Lead track "The First Days of Spring" is like Belle & Sebastien meets Bonnie "Prince" Billy meets The Dirty Three. Or something. I don't know, it's really good. But check out one of their shorter, sweeter, and sadder songs from the album below. Definitely a Palace Brothers vibe with this one, just with a British accent.
The XX have been popular indie blog staples for a couple months now, it seems, but I didn't really care for their debut album on my first listen, and I sadly don't seem to have the time to give anything multiple listens anymore. But Sirius XMU played a track the other day that I really liked (I think it was "Islands") and I took another listen to the album proper and found some really good things. Perhaps I just didn't give it a chance. Here's the closing track from the debut.
And here's some more new tracks that I don't have time to talk about in detail...
I really love Other Truths Bill. It's wonderful.
Definitely one of my favourite albums of 2009.
Posted by: Wayne | October 27, 2009 at 07:52 PM
All the songs are really good. These songs are ostensibly for children
Posted by: creatine | October 31, 2009 at 05:51 AM