Passion Pit: I can believe in their chunk of change

So I have been sitting on “Sleepyhead” for a while now and totally loving it!  Thinking it was just another one hit wonder, it was a few weeks before I checked out their entire EP, and wow!  I can’t believe I wasted those weeks without it!  My boyfriend and I are huge Of Montreal fans, and this band definitely appeals to that same part of my brain that likes sounds that are different and danceable.  I totally love ALL the songs on this EP (a very rare occasion).  For a better description, I’d go with Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay (Justice) and David Barnes (Of Montreal) having a dance party in the 80’s, and this is about as close as we’re getting to an invitation with Passion Pit’s Chunk of Change EP.

Passion Pit – Better Things

Lily Allen: It’s Not Expected, It’s Better

So I must say that I had pretty low expectations for this new Lily Allen album It’s Not Me, It’s You seeing that her recently released singles were subpar, at least in comparison with the initial songs that made me fall for Lily.  However, after perusing this new album a few times, I’m finding that though it’s definitely a more mature (sometimes translating to boring) album, it still very solid and full of some great songs (many of which I would have suggested as singles).  Either way, good stuff.  Keep up the good work, Lily.  And please don’t go crazy, I like your new album and hope there will be more to come!

Lily Allen – Chinese

Lily Allen – Fuck You

Stars have some good friends

After recently running across the Stars new album Do You Trust Your Friends?, I was made to rediscover an album and love I had long forgotten and thought I had moved past, but apparently I was very wrong. Number one, Stars Set Yourself on Fire was a phenomenal album, so obviously any remix would naturally carry that nostalgic feel to it. Some failed worse than others, but a few carried their weight.  For me, I loved the solid mixup of “The First Five Times” by The Russian Futurists. While they do seem to take some of the soft romanticism out of the song, they replace it with some sweet sounds. And “Ageless Beauty” made over by Most Serene Republic added some life into a droopy song with their upbeat acoustic overlay. This was a really interesting way to do a remix album, and I’m started to see more of it lately, and I kinda like it. Do You Trust Your Friends? is definitely not a good choice if you haven’t fallen in love with Set Yourself on Fire already, but a nice way to revisit it if you already have.

Stars – The First Five Times (Russian Futurists)

Stars – Ageless Beauty (Most Serene Republic)

Panda Riot: Seeing “Paper Planes” in a different light

This is an absolutely lovely cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” song.  That’s about all I can say without just letting you listen to it…. absolutely lovely.  Sans gun shots, but I think that’s a good thing for the tone Panda Riot seems to be setting.

M.I.A. – Paper Planes (Panda Riot cover)

The Decemberists: And the Bridesmaids

This was a wonderful little surprise at the Pop Apocalypse blog.  I had no idea The Decemberists were concocting this little gem, but that’s just like The Decemberists.  In this respect, I could even draw a comparison between them and Of Montreal.  Both are so full of music that they just can’t help releasing records kind of like beautiful farts that just escape from you.  This recent gas expulsion is entitled Always the Bridesmaid: Single Series and is being released in three volumes on pretty colored vinyls.  This is actually a nice concept, because they are letting their record company Capitol release this album digitally in the US, while The Decemberists and some other independent labels are handling the vinyl distribution.

Well besides the background of this album, this is a great little album.  I think it is named very appropriately.  Each one of these songs is a beautiful single, but not exactly the errr… bride.  In my opinion, the Maid of Honor would be “Valerie Plame” (if that really is her name).  And you’ll definitely want to stay until the end of the song where The Decemberists break out in this Polyphonic Spree moment.  Word on the street is that this might also be a sort of continuation to “The Bagman’s Gambit”.  You can decide what you think of this little bridesmaid below, and feel free to expound in the comments.

The Decemberists – Valerie Plame

The Decemberists – The Bagman’s Gambit

Fredrick: Nice

This is a nice song.  It reminds me of singing sweet hymns in church, which is nice.  Swedish nice.

You can find a much fuller review here at i’m waking up to blog.

Fredrick – Black Fur

Cold War Kids: Deep, heavy, beautiful

The Cold War Kids definitely have a unique sound driven by some strong gut feelings that can only escape through their music, and when they do, it is a gorgeous thing.  Composed of four guys, these California musicians create weighty songs that draw you in by their sheer gravitational pull.  And I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful vocals lead by Nathan Willett which bounce between falsetto and crooning or maybe howling, clean and smooth, going down like sticky syrup.  Deep concepts nagging the human psyche are belted in the simple lyrics of this album over droning bass and an occasional egg shaker.  Loyalty to Loyalty is Cold War Kids’ second album following their debut Robbers And Cowards.  This song is off of Loyalty to Loyalty, and really represents their feel in one shot, so if you like this, you’ll likely like it all.  But this is not a band for the faint of heart, so be warned.

Cold War Kids – Relief

The Streets: A wise and hopeful state borrowed

So to begin, The Streets aka Mike Skinner is from the good ol’ motherland, and belts his beautiful little raps for a living.  At first, it’s obvious that he is no music school grad.  His style on his slower songs could be best be described as the song your boyfriend wrote and sang for you in high school that you knew would never go platinum but still made you extremely happy and walk around with butterflies for the rest of the day.  The Streets recent album Everything is Borrowed really goes back to his older sound like on A Grand Don’t Come For Free, so if you liked some of his older stuff, you’ll totally appreciate this.  It really is a solid album, and by solid I mean that you can actually listen to the whole thing without wanting to press the skip button, a rarity in a lot of albums.  Full of wisdom and hope, it really is a different man and message behind this album, but who couldn’t use more wisdom and hope?

Oh, something else fabulous about Mike Skinner was how he introduced this album to the world.  He put a few songs on his myspace, and then put the rest of his songs off this album interspersed on other artists myspace pages.  So it was this mad scavenger hunt to find all the songs.  Pretty cool concept if you ask me.  It makes every song seem even more like a jewel.

This is a slower little love diddy and beautiful at that:

The Streets – The Strongest Person I Know

Los Campesinos! – Like dancing in sunshine puddles after a storm

I picked this album up at Pop Apocalypse not expecting too much.  I had heard about their last album Hold On Now, Youngster… getting some mixed reviews and never followed up thoroughly, but decided to give them a second chance since Anna would.  Let me first point out that this last album was released to the US in April of this year 2008, and they already have a completely new second album out just a few months later!  Applause.

So this new album We are Beautiful, We are Doomed almost seems like a response to any criticism about their last, kind of like a do-over.  And a good do-over it is.  It’s hard to get bored with this album, because with every second something else pokes itself out as awesome, it almost becomes tough to keep up with the pace.  Energetic, fun, carefree, and still Brit.  An eccletic mix of musical elements (hand-claps, cheers, too-artsy breakdowns, shout lyrics, duos) and cool Welsh accents, you really don’t need much more.  And did I mention that the lyrics are totally interesting.  Here’s my current fave, and seriously, every song on this album is just as interesting.

Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

And I can’t help myself, here is another one I’m repeating…

Los Campesinos! – Miserabilia

Conor Oberst: Goes Folk (and does it well)

So Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) has been shedding the hype of his younger years and stepped out of it all as a true musician, and his most recent self-titled album Conor Oberst is no deviation from that.  In high school I could never fully get on board the Bright Eyes train (though I tried numerous times my heart beat more punk than emo).  However, his new album has really surprised me!  His style shares most commonalities with Ben Kweller with both doing an indie-folk-country thing, and let me just say, it’s great.  I also happen to have a small soft spot for the folk.  Folk music is beautiful in its storytelling and plucking of the heartstrings in the process.  Conor is quite familiar with both these techniques, so his younger essence is hardly lost.  He also does a great job of giving his album the raw feel of being on the road.  All in all, it’s great, and I will definitely be spinning this record for a while.  These are some of my current faves from him, but to be honest it was difficult which to choose with such a solid album from which to glean.

Conor Oberst – NYC Gone, Gone
(Short and fun, it’s hard not to stomp your feet)

Conor Oberst – Souled Out!
(The single off the album, you check out the video here)