The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night is an absolutely wonderful new album from Canada's The Besnard Lakes, not so much a concept album any more than all their albums are conceptual, but it's just an explosion of interesting, unique sounds and warbling rock arrangements that sing and swing through every song, highlighted by the magical "Albatross," one of the best songs of the year, but also by the wondrous 2-part opener, "Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent". It's a familiar sound to anyone familiar with the band's last effort, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, but at the risk of sounding like a cheesy record reviewer, I'll say they shouldn't be a dark horse anymore, they need to be heard by the indie rock masses.
Titus Andronicus got a rave review from Pitchfork for their second album, a Civil War concept album by punk rockers that P4K describes as: "Echoing the fatalistic fuck-all of early Replacements, the cathartic
singalong gutter-punk of vintage Pogues, and the brutalist thrashing of
east-coast hardcore, The Monitor is a 65-minute endorsement of
angst and opposition as the best way to present combustible sorrow:
Light it with footlights, throw a giant shadow against the back wall,
and rock the fuck out of it." Shit. That's a pretty fucking ringing endorsement and the first track off the album definitely fits the description. Especially when the song is essentially about how the singer regrets leaving New Jersey. Damn straight.
Frightened Rabbit have released a followup to 2008's revelation The Midnight Organ Fight with the 11-song The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Lead single "Swim Until You Can't See Land" came out last November and its decent enough but there are better tracks on the rest of the album, although none that quite match the highs of their exuberant "The Modern Leper." This track below comes closest.
Quarantine the Past is the best of Pavement collection and there's not much to say about it since obviously I not only own every album ever released by one of my favorite bands of all time, but also a 2nd expanded copy of the first four of them, as re-released by Matador in special 10th anniversary expanded editions over the past decade, which included every unreleased and alternate version track I think the band ever put to record. So this single album of 23 tracks is clearly intended for a more casual fan, but what's really cool about it is that almost every one of the 23 tracks is fucking brilliant in its own way, and hearing them all in a single setting makes you think -- wow, I've forgotten how great "Unfair" is, or "Frontwards" is, or "Range Life" or everything they've ever made. This is the wonderful year of their reunion tour and I can't wait to see them at the end of the summer in Central Park. This album is just another reminder of why I can't wait.
| 1 | Gold Soundz (Remastered) |
| 2 | Frontwards (Remastered) |
| 3 | Mellow Jazz Docent (Remastered) |
| 4 | Stereo (Remastered) |
| 5 | In The Mouth A Desert (Remastered) |
| 6 | Two States (Remastered) |
| 7 | Cut Your Hair (Remastered) |
| 8 | Shady Lane/J Vs. S (Remastered) |
| 9 | Here (Remastered) |
| 10 | Unfair (Remastered) |
| 11 | Grounded (Remastered) |
| 12 | Summer Babe (Winter Version) [Remastered] |
| 13 | Range Life (Remastered) |
| 14 | Date w/ IKEA (Remastered) |
| 15 | Debris Slide (Remastered) |
| 16 | Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse) [Remastered] |
| 17 | Spit On A Stranger (Remastered) |
| 18 | Heaven Is A Truck (Remastered) |
| 19 | Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17 (Remastered) |
| 20 | Embassy Row (Remastered) |
| 21 | Box Elder (Remastered) |
| 22 | Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence (Remastered) |
| 23 | Fight This Generation (Remastered) |
Speaking of my favorite bands of all time, Bright Eyes (who have fallen off the wagon pretty hard in recent years with a new sound that isn't something I care for at all), are re-releasing on Saddle Creek their split 2004 EP with Neva Dinova, One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels, with bonus tracks. There are 10 songs on the collection in total, including 4 new songs, which are the first four here.
1. Rollerskating*
2. Happy Accident*
3. Someone's Love*
4. I Know You*
5. Tripped - Neva Dinova
6. Black Comedy - Bright Eyes -- ed. note: a really great classic that still sounds good today
7. Poison - Neva Dinova
8. I'll Be Your Friend - Bright Eyes
9. Get Back - Neva Dinova
10. Spring Cleaning - Bright Eyes
And finally, here's a collection of tracks largely from albums that haven't been released yet or that I haven't listened to, but the tracks are themselves all pretty brilliant, especially this opening one from a Canadian artist I know nothing about and unfortunately haven't had time to research. But check him out and let me know.
Download The New Pornographers - "Your Hands (Together)".mp3
And I know I've posted this song before and I haven't yet heard a leak of Paul's Tomb: A Triumph (due April 27th on Dead Oceans), but it is absolutely in the running for my favorite song of the year to date
- From Prefix mag, here's the little I've found about the new Frog Eyes record.
- First album in three years from the main project of Canadian Carey Mercer (Swan Lake, Blackout Beach) and the first for label Dead Oceans. All the basic tracks for Paul's Tomb: A Triumph were recorded live with no overdubs and the record features the debut of recent recruit, vocalist Megan Boddy. Nine minute album opener "A Flower In A Glove" sets the tone with a bombastic sound and Frog Eyes' trademark self-consciously epic songwriting.
Albatross is an amazing song from a great album. I love The Monitor as well, definitely will be one of my favourite albums of 2010. Oh and Pavement were amazingly good in Sydney, Bill.
Posted by: Wayne | March 16, 2010 at 04:44 PM
Yeah I saw that. That's awesome. Can't wait until they come to america
Posted by: Bill | March 16, 2010 at 10:04 PM