Got some more reviews for you.
Fool's Gold - Fool's gold
This band mixes indie with African influences. They sing in Hebrew a lot, but just like Matisyahu, it never outgrows the 'gimmick'-stage. I'm not even gonna rate this, the only song that could capture my attention is the opening track, which does have an infectious guitar riff. As for the rest, don't even bother and give "Cape kod kwassa kwassa" another spin.
Holly Miranda - The magician's private library (7/10)
Produced by Dave Sitek and with guest appearances from TV on the Radio, you're bound to hear some echoes of the previous work by these artists on this album (especially the Scarlett Johanssen album produced by Sitek). Some tracks remind me of Mercury Rev, and maybe some Portishead. Zero 7 without the dance aspect might also be a reference point. This is a pretty varied album, most of it consisting of 4-5 minute long, meandering, dreamy material, "Waves" being my personal favourite amongst them. Some songs sound a little more poppy, due to the instrumentation, "Forest green oh forest green" and "Everytime I go to sleep" nudge towards playful songs for children, "Sweet dreams" is a little more upbeat and has a catchy trumpet riff. Only track that fails to work, is "No one just is", where the triphoppy rhythm feels a little forced. Personal favourite "Canvas" has a definite "The XX" feel to it. I also appreciate the lyrical side of this record, which seems to focus heavily on relationships. I'd state this album definitely could work as a chill-out record. For the gym, not so much.
She & Him - Volume Two (6/10)
I'm gonna admit to having never heard Volume 1, so I can't compare this record to the previous one. In the second coming of the M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel collaboration, I think I can say the main influences here are country music and The Ronettes-style girl groups, although there are also some pop-moments. This disc contains a couple of winners and some fillers, so I'm a little torn about this. M. Ward does what he can to get the most out of the song material (like the unexpected guitar solo that closes off 'In the sun'), but overall, Zooey's writing isn't always great and -at times- a little bland and unimaginative, especially in the lyrical department (ignored is going to rhyme with bored, blame with ashamed, shoes with blues,... the list goes on), so good for her she's an actress and not a screenwriter. I won't say bad things about her singing, she's definitely trumping Scarlett in that department. For a pop record, I personally feel it's lacking in the singalong department. There's also 2 covers here: one ("Ridin' in my car") does nothing for me, the other ("Gonna get along without you now") is definitely among the best tracks on this album. The slow tracks tend to bore, so the highlights on this album are the more upbeat, emotional tracks: opener "Thieves" goes all-out country and hits the bullseye (intro riff sounds a lot like this though), "Don't look back" has a Greek mythology reference and a really long bridge to the chorus and "Over it over again" has a catchy chorus and offers a nice mix of the country and girl group influences. For those of you that were going to buy this for the Zooey pics in the booklet, tough luck for you, my friend! But you can always take another look at the scrumptious - college video's are always cool in my book - video for "In the sun" or the retro video for "Thieves".
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast (8/10)
In short, a more upbeat and joyous The Shins, coupled with some Weezer powerpop chords, seasoned with some Vampire Weekend-ish african guitar riffs here and there to really get the ultimate summer feel. Maybe a little Sonic Youth too. I have a strong feeling this album is gonna age well and you will be able to enjoy it during summer drives for years to come. Since you can find killer track "Swim" in one of my previous posts already, I'll serve you with 2 other tracks today: opening track "Floating vibes" and the very The Shins-esque "Twin peaks". Some meaningless snippet of trivia to close this off: apparently, these guys don't like surfing at all.
I also got some nice tracks from new(er) bands that you might want to check out.
School Of Seven Bells - Windstorm
The one and only Hendrik Reigarts got me into this band. Fitting right into the stream of dreamy pop songs we've had over the last couple of blog posts, here we have an ex-guitarist from Secret Machines and a lovely pair of twin sisters. "Windstorm" from the new "Disconnect from desire" album has some pretty cool vocal melodies and rhythms, whereas "My Cabal" is a more standard song but with a pretty cool video. I'm not really sure whether I'd be able to listen to this for a whole album, but as far as individual tracks go, I'm liking this a lot.
Sleigh Bells - Tell 'em
While we're on the subjects of ex-guitar players, one guitar player from Poison The Well now has this 2-man project. While the other tracks I checked have some elements in common with The Ting Tings or The Kills (and thus, fail to really surprise or spark interest), this track sounds simply sounds like Aaliyah singing over some loud guitar solo and mean elektro. Pretty awesome.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Say no to love
Keyboard player Peggy Wang stars in the video for this new track by these modern day The Cure adepts (well, the extrovert, poppy side of The Cure anyway). This track is by no means a great departure from their previous efforts, and... I'm not complaining. Are you?
Bombay Bicycle Club - Ivy & Gold
The previous album by these lads from London was more generic indie-rock, on their most recent album however, they're jumping the whole (more acoustic sounding) folk-rock bandwagon a little, and this track more particularly sounds like a track by Mumford and Sons, albeit slightly more relaxed maybe. The singer looks a little like Chris Martin, not sure if that's going to convince you to check it out, but I'm mentioning it anyway.
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