Dump - On The Right Track Now
Plea for Happiness
This record was pretty spotty, in my opinion, but it was also home to a few gems. This is one of them; “Made for it” and “My head in your hands” were the others. I still listen to them years later (one was even in a Ben Stiller short).
Lupine Howl - Sometimes
The Carnivorous Lunar Activities of Lupine Howl
I never listened much to the rest of this album, but “Sometimes” is one of the few one-off tracks I still regularly listen to that I got during my great college music expansion period. I love the lines “The universal gift must always be returned/and everything can be unlearned.” It’s long but broken into three parts, which helps the pacing.
My Education - “Snake in the Grass”
Italian
You have to listen to this one all the way through. It sneaks up on you and the payoff is at the end. These guys have a great ear. I’m getting to know their other albums; they’re shockingly little-known as far as I can tell. If you see this, guys, come to Seattle and play with Kinski.
The Lovely Feathers - “Photo Corners”
Hind Hind Legs
Got a new love for this album over the weekend, having usually turned it off after “Wrong Choice” for no particular reason and not getting a chance to love the later tracks. The half-major, half-minor singalong feel of this song is pretty unique to The Lovely Feathers. It’s like the best possible cross between the Libertines’ Up the Bracket and The Unicorns.
Tiny Vipers - “Eyes Like Ours”
Life On Earth
Life On Earth is a darker and much more spare album than Hands Across The Void, focusing more on Jesy’s voice and guitar, and with a bit more a bleak and minor-key a feel to it. It doesn’t have the rawness of her self-titled EP or the mystical flow of Hands, but she sounds more confident in her writing and certainly performs it admirably.
Crime in Choir - “In search of plunder (bum convention)”
The Hoop
The final track from another great Crime in Choir album. This one is short and relatively straightforward. Synth-rock doesn’t attract me fundamentally, but these guys really, really pull it off.
Hank Williams Sr. - “If you’ve got the money honey, I’ve got the time”
Great old song. Congrats to Kaz and Tenny, who turned me on to this one, on their marriage and everything else.
Marches - “Cold Hands Warm Heart”
4AM Is The New Midnight
This album is absolutely strange, and none of the tracks are at all like any of the others. This weird electro-R&B and its staccato horn section really caught my ear, though.
Early Day Miners - “Marauder”
The Last Snow EP
Normally a very sedate band, Early Day Miners pull out the big guns on this track. Well, they’re normal-sized guns compared to everyone else, but still. Relatively big.
Skygreen Leopards - “The Heron”
One Thousand Bird Ceremony
One of my favorite songs, period. Just the absolute pinnacle of jangly forest-folk. From a fantastic album (their follow-up was disappointing).
Gustav - “Total Quality Woman”
Verlass Die Stadt
Gustav has always been hit-and-miss for me, but it’s rewarding listening. This song is very far from her normal oeuvre, but it’s still a fun little thing, and you get a good idea of her strangely idiomatic and not exactly correct English.
Bibio - “Mr. and Mrs. Compost”
Vignetting the Compost
This beautiful, micro-sized bite of a song is a bit of an exception on this album due to its primary vocal focus. I have to say that Vignetting the Compost is one of my favorite albums I’ve gotten this year.
The Wind-Up Bird - “That I’ve”
Whips
I wrote this album up at length here. What a fantastic, crushing album. Joe Grimm has moved on to a new album under his own name which I need to check out.
Broken Social Scene - “Baroque Social”
To Be You And Me
BSS like you never hear them. Actually sounds like Do Make Say Think’s “Chinatown” crossed with Loscil. Great track no matter what.
Crime in Choir - “Crystal Cakes”
Gift Givers
I’ve been meaning to check these guys out for a while. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is pretty great: it’s kind of like they took the instrumental parts of Pink Floyd’s Animals and just extended it and augmented it. Very cool, very dynamic.
