These are a few of the recently released albums that have been punctuating my days of late. Design observation: it’s funny how many of them (and other new releases) feature head shots… of sorts. The profile pic is back.
Hot Chip: One Life Stand. My favourite electro-pop band from London has finally released a fourth album! A fun fact I recently learnt – the boys from Hot Chip went to the same school in Wandsworth that produced Burial and newcomers The Xx. Favourite songs thus far include Thieves In The Night, Alley Cats and the title track One Life Stand. Pleasingly the vocal quality has drastically improved since the days of Over and Over in 2006. Not that they were bad then, but Alexis and Joe now seem to have a lot more control over their chords.
Warpaint: Exquisite Corpse. I do love an all girl experimental-art-rock band! Hailing from Los Angeles, Warpaint ticks most of these boxes; with Jenny Lindberg on bass and vocals, Emily Kokal on vocals and guitar, Theresa Wayman rocking the vocals, guitar and keys, and Josh “Jocelyn” Klinghoffer on drums. There’s only 5 songs on the Exquisite Corpse EP and they are all stellar, but my favourite is Billie Holiday. It’s a sweet, quiet song and the name of our heroine is chanted letter by letter.
Vampire Weekend: Contra. NYMag cleverly suggested “Now your little cousins may very well be rocking “Horchata” while they’re tacking up their Taylor Lautner posters” – indeed Vampire Weekend are doing well for themselves in the ‘mainstream’. They deserve it. Contra is a slick album, with more calypso and sharper lyrics. My picks: Horchata, Cousins and California English: “Blasted from a disconnected light switch / Through the condo that they’ll never finish
Bounced across a Saudi satellite dish / And through your brain to California English”.
Dead Man’s Bones: Dead Man’s Bones. We know Ryan Gosling is a hot piece. Turns out he is an accomplished musician as well. With his best friend Zach Shields, they have released a concept album under the name Dead Man’s Bones. The single Pa-Pa-Power seems to be permanently playing in my house. Often I see children’s choirs as gimmicky but on this record, it really works with the spooky pseudo “Halloween soundtrack” theme.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: IRM. IRM is Charlotte’s third studio album. The daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin released her first album in 1986 and the second in 2006 – a long time between records. 2010’s IRM was produced by Beck, and he duets on a couple of songs, including the lovely Heaven Can Wait. My other favourites are Master’s Hands and Time Of The Assassins – but the whole album is rather nice – you can imagine it as the soundtrack to a bildungsroman film set in the outskirts of Paris shot in cracked, flaking 16mm. Or something.
Yeasayer: Odd Blood. Yeasayer’s sophomore offering is a gem. Could this be another Merriweather Post Pavilion – the best album of the year, released at the first breath of the calendar? ALL THE SONGS ARE BRILLIANT. I’m looking forward to sampling a few remixes – so far enjoying Ambling Alp (The Very Best ‘Mulomo’ Remix).
What have you guys been cranking on the stereo of late? Feed me new noises please!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
These are all good, my favorites right now are Acid Tongue from Jenny Lewis and Monsters of Folk.
you know it’s funny, I think “Califonia English” is by far the worst song on an otherwise solid album. Too much auto-tune for me. Yeep. Solid lyric though.
When I read the title of this post, I though to myself “She must have Odd Blood!” And you did, and I completely agree, all the songs are brilliant. I think I’ll stop looking for another best album for 2010, this is it.
Diana: Thanks for sharing – I hadn’t heard of the Monsters of Folk project. But now I know… Conor Oberst – swoony!
Dan: Do you think it’s meant to be “ironic”? You’re on the ground. Tell me what the kids think. Also, they sang about cheese-steaks. Genius.
Sarah: It. Is. Amazing. All my last.fm stats have been blown out of the water by this album.
Warpaint Ep! so cool, you can get it off me if you don’t have x
Ahahahahahahhahahahaha
I’m SUCH a dick I just saw that in here, it’s cos I read this when it came up on my RSS a day ago then I just re-read/skimmed it and thought I’d respond to your “call to action”.
fail