French rock band Phoenix cemented their place in the indie scene in 2009 with the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, a catchy, immediate record that is one of my favorites from that year. A skillful blend of pop, indie rock, and electronic cavorting, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix set the bar high for Bankrupt!, Phoenix’s newest album. On Bankrupt!, the band remains enamored with producing dance-ready, saccharine pop music, but pushes even further into the realms of synthesizers and moody electronic soundscapes. The result is an album that is less immediately striking than Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, but has more going on underneath…
New Music: Josh Ritter’s The Beast in Its Tracks
On his newest album, The Beast in Its Tracks, Josh Ritter grapples with his recent divorce, yet none of the songs come off as overly bitter or spiteful. Among the heartbreak and pain, Ritter carves out a new beginning, treating the entire situation with poise and grace through his characteristically excellent lyrics. Musically, nothing here will surprise fans of the singer-songwriter’s previous work, although The Beast in Its Tracks is considerably sparser than Historical Conquests and feels more worn than albums like The Animal Years or So Runs the World Away. This approach gives the album an intimate feel befitting…
New Music: Frightened Rabbit’s Pedestrian Verse
I wake up excited every Tuesday, even if there are no albums I am particularly anticipating, because every Tuesday brings the chance of stumbling into a thrilling musical experience. I had been hearing some buzz about Frightened Rabbit’s newest album, Pedestrian Verse, so I made sure to give it one of my first listens last Tuesday. Then, I listened to it again, and by Tuesday night I was recommending it to everyone I knew. A relative newcomer to the Scottish band’s music (although, since Tuesday I have listened to all of their albums), I was floored. Pedestrian Verse sounds like…
New Music: Yo La Tengo’s Fade
It’s fitting that Yo La Tengo, embarking on their 27th year of playing together, opens their newest album, Fade, with this chorus: “But nothing ever stays the same…so say good night to me and lose no more time resisting the flow.” For a band that has been around for almost three decades and was a vital part of indie rock’s explosion in the early and mid-90s, Yo La Tengo knows a little something about change, carving out a longevity nearly unheard of in the indie rock scene, and this experience and wisdom serves them well on Fade. I’ll spare you…
New Music: Derek Webb’s Ctrl
“‘Ctrl’ is about one man’s desire for something he can’t have because it isn’t real, his journey pursuing it, and the costs of that journey.”-Derek Webb on Twitter
As someone who began listening to Derek Webb in 2004, shortly after the release of his second album I See Things Upside Down, I can say with confidence that Ctrl marks yet another evolution in Webb’s music, drawing upon the best of his earlier acoustic work and the recent electronic tinkering of Stockholm Syndrome and Feedback. At least on the surface, Ctrl should avoid most of the controversy that tends to follow Webb…
New Music: Passion Pit’s Gossamer
Note: My references to lead singer Michael Angelakos’ ongoing battle with mental illness come from this superb article from Pitchfork—Rite of Passion. Hearing his story gives Gossamer an added urgency and depth; be forewarned, however, the article is not for the faint of heart, as it deals quite frankly with these issues.
Maybe due to its frenzied electronic backdrop or lead singer Michael Angelakos’ piercing falsetto, Passion Pit’s inaugural 2009 album Manners didn’t seem like much more than another, albeit fantastic, indie-pop dance album at the time of its release. In fact, I remember dancing to several of the songs…
New Music: The Walkmen’s Heaven
The title track on the newest Walkmen record Heaven, seems to suggest that heaven, at least in the realm of human relationships, does not come easy, placing the band on the periphery of the cheery perfection of love promised by many modern day pop songs. In keeping with the band’s encouragement on this track to “remember, remember, all we fight for,” their approach to their craft throughout the thirteen songs on Heaven, although bathed in a pop sheen, reveals a deep, mature take on the pop music genre tempered by age and experience. Heaven being my first encounter with The…
New Music: The Shins’ Port of Morrow
I’ve always thought of The Shins’ music as summer music (probably due to their first album Oh, Inverted World), suited to driving down the highway with the windows rolled down, heading for the beach. Whether or not this association has merit, or if I just view all indie-pop in that light, the latest album from James Mercer and company, Port of Morrow, conjures up images of the spring more than the summer. By balancing dark tones with light flourishes, Port of Morrow creates a sense of rebirth and rejuvenation that comes with the budding of the trees and the green…
New Music: Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself
If I had to consolidate Break It Yourself down to its quintessential Andrew Bird moment, I would probably choose the bridge of “Danse Caribe”, its joyous violin and drums exclaiming Bird’s exuberance. Although it lacks his trademark whistling, “Danse Caribe” represents everything else I love about Bird’s music, exhibiting the quirkiness and sense of wonder that pervades his music. Musically, Break It Yourself is a fairly conventional Bird release, differing slightly from the darker tone of Armchair Apocrypha and the sprawl of Noble Beast, content to reside somewhere in the middle of those two albums. Lyrically, this may be one…
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