Department of Eagles - In Ear Park (4AD)
My new favourite band.
Ambitious and complex, it's stuffed with cocooning harmonies and shimmering, sunlight-smacking-the-Pacific melodies-- a languid, easy West Coast record (think Randy Newman or SMiLE), infused with classic East Coast anxiety. (Pitchfork)
Jon Hopkins & King Creosote - Diamond Mine (Domino)
Just incredibly, achingly beautiful.
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins spent some seven years making Diamond Mine, during which time no deadlines or even strict musical guidelines were imposed - a true labour of love. The final results are of such subtle beauty they take the breath clean away. (Music OMH)
Ryan Teague - Field Drawings (Village Green)
Sparse and beautiful.
An elegant, fastidiously constructed album from the Bristol composer. This is music of such beautifully non-specific, enigmatic tone that it comes as no surprise to learn that Teague’s compositions are regularly used by TV programme makers and advertisers to enhance their images. (BBC Music)
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Mercury)
Sounds of the suburbs... and summer.
The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire's] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter. You could call it their OK Computer. But it’s arguably better than that. (BBC Music)
Gem Club - Breakers (Hardly Art)
Everything on Breakers, their first full-length, sounds frozen over: icy, quiet, austere. You know that eerie feeling when you find yourself alone in a huge public place that's usually crowded-- maybe a shopping mall or a playing field-- but at that moment is totally empty? This record sounds like a sustained version of that feeling. (Pitchfork)
Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation (Fat Possum)
The record mixes feelings of protection and safety with the tug of adventure and wraps it in compulsively listenable music that explodes at just the right moments. (Pitchfork)
Hospitality - Hospitality (Merge)
Deft sketches of young New Yorkers falling for new loves, droning away at dead-end jobs and dreaming of far-away homes. The melodies are stickier than hot tar, but it's those vivid little scenes that lodge in your head the longest. (Rolling Stone)
Daniel Rossen - Silent Hour/Golden Mile EP (Warp)
Not actually on Spotify at the moment as it's not out until March 19th. (Pitchfork interview)
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Island)
An extraordinary album of deep emotion. (The Telegraph)
Pepe Deluxe - Queen of the Wave (Catskills)
I'm cheating again - I haven't actually heard the whole album because it's not on Spotify - I'll probably have to download this very soon...
This album is bizarre. REALLY bizarre. It’s a pop-opera based on a crazy novel about Atlantis from the late 1800s, with a style that mixes up hundreds of musical sub-genres in each song. Each individual element seems too far-fetched to enjoy, but when combined something wonderful and twisted is created. This album is exciting, exhilarating, overwhelming, and epic, to give a few choice adjectives. (ZME Music)
* despite the fact that in an earlier post I said I don't listen to albums anymore (!)
* despite the fact that in an earlier post I said I don't listen to albums anymore (!)
2 comments:
Great post. I've been too busy to do much music exploration lately, so will check these out.
Thanks Rowan - hope you find something you like!
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