by Frau_Blucher » Sat Jun 04, 2011 12:07 pm
There's two obvious favorites for me so far...wait for it...wait...
[b]British Sea Power[/b] and [b]The Joy Formidable[/b]: I have to say that neither album fully satisfed at first. The former with Valhalla Dancehall is just a jumble of odd song placements, and I originally gave it a 5/10 on my running year-to-date list. But BSP have put out a remarkable amount of material ina slew of recent releases - the 13-track album, its 5-track bonus disc, an 8-track EP, and a 9-track alt versions and demos disc. At the end of the day, I love tons of tracks from it. At the end of the year, I'll likely give the album an 8.5 - it's not a 9, a truly great album - but I'd go back to it for the few truly favorite tracks before pretty much anything else.
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TJF disappointed for different reasons - not quite enough good new material IMHO. I guess it's not fair to judge their first full album, The Big Roar, on having heard so much of their material for so long as an early adopter. In fairness, if I had heard all of this album for the first time, I'd have been wow'd. As it is, the new songs aren't as good as their originals on the EP, and the few old ones carries over to the new album still carry that album. Again though, if I take it in a vacuum, I give it an 8.5 - likely a 9 otherwise but with the slight dilution I mention.
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Outside of these two, Romania's (!) [b]The Amsterdams[/b] with Electromagnetic might have one of the most intriguing albums thus far. Still not enough listens to give it a rating, but whenever it comes on in my mix of this year's albums, I find myself tapping along to it pretty happily. Definitely leaning toward the straight guitar pop side of new wave - I'd have guessed Swedish. Their previous single but the album's mostly like this:
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I've already talked a lot about [b]Yuck's[/b] s/t album. It's totally a tip to or even a rip-off of Dinosaur Jr. I really don't care. That matters when it's done poorly, but I think they do it really well. It's not a hugely strong album - maybe an 8/10? There's some dead spots, the vocal mixing is shit, and too often an air of sameyness, but it's still great guitar-driven pop-rock.
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I've skirted around some [b]Faith Assembly[/b] tracks in the past, but the album Dreams From Arcadia really channels a goth-inflected new wave as well as they've ever done. I don't have a full verdict on the album yet but it could be Duran Duran or the Human League in parts.
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Okay, [b]Fleet Foxes'[/b] Helplessness Blues...I really disliked the direction this new album took at first. It didn't grab me at all. But that first album was the same way. The year of the s/t release, I didn't even go see them at SXSW. Then a couple months laters, during a walk in the woods, the album bowled me over. A similar epiphany took place during a drive with this one. Jury's still a bit out. And I know it's not really next wave.
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[b]Morning Teleportation's[/b] Expanding Anyway is a really good straight-thru listen. It's built as an album. It's hard to appreciate if sampling some singles in front of a computer for example. But put on the Pod and go for a walk or a drive, and it really shines. It really doesn't even sound like "my kind of music", but maybe because it's so different than the standard boring white boy indie, I'm drawn to it...at least for now. I'd call it Indie Prog Pop.
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I mentioned previously that I really liked an early single from [b]Craft Spells[/b]. Their album Idle Labor is fair but really suffers from poor vocal mixing in my opinion - a near fatal tendency by their shit label. Still, they bring forward some incredibly nice melodies. Very new wave. Cover is an obvious homage to PCL.
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Not surprisingly, [b]Cut Copy's[/b] Zonoscope is dancetastic channeling of that type of new wave. Again, could easily be the Human League in spots. I say turn off the guilty pleasure radar and enjoy it.
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[b]Bell X1[/b] have come back strong back strong and nailed that next wave sound again with Bloodless Coup. Their sound feels very mature (4 or 5 albums?), they leave some space in their songs, and it's varied stuff.
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[b]The Decemberists'[/b] The Kings Is Dead feels like one of their most mainstream albums. It's another one that's really listenable as an album straight-thru. Not sure tons of it catches the ear as singles. I think this band really deserve everything that Arcade Fire are receiving, because in my mind, they do that sort of thing (whatever that is) better, more-intelligently, and perhaps a bit too Americana-ishly this time for some.
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[b]Devotchka[/b] are another really pleasant and mature-sounding album listen. 100 Lovers is bit electronic in parts and maybe a bit folksy or even gypsish in others. They do bust out the accordion in spots. They're hard to classify. Different. i might be drawn mostly because of that and could end up disliking them. Like it for now though.
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[b]Raveonettes'[/b] singles have really grabbed me, but the album Raven in the Grave hasn't so much. I think part of it that there's been so much to listen to after a slow start to the year. I'll have to revisit it. I'm likely being impatient.
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Oh, and Mogwai's Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will is a given. A rare album-oriented sorta-electronicky album. Some call them post-rock, but It think they're more accessible than that.
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Lastly, I don't know why I've tended to ignore new albums by [b]The Cars, Wire, the Human League, Duran Duran, The Smithereens[/b], and even [b]Moby[/b] (ahem). Maybe I'm in a going forward and not backward kinda mood. If I'm completely honest, they're all really fun listens, Even Duran Duran. Both they and the Human League nail their classic sounds the best, but maybe the time for that exact sound has come and passed and it'll never be a passion again, just a fun curiosity. Even Moby's song's have snuck up on me and I thought "Hey, this is pretty good. Who is this...ah shit, it's fucking Moby. Dammit." Wire is surprisingly likely on the bottom of this short list - I think they missed the mark a bit with too little melody and good song structure. The best of the bunch is easily The Smithereens - a real surprise. I'll have better assessments of all these by the end of summer I think.