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Post by Kapitan on Apr 7, 2020 13:09:16 GMT
British folkie singer-songwriter Laura Marling is the first artist I've come across who has pushed up her album release so that it does come out during our assorted isolation orders. Song For Our Daughter, originally scheduled for summer release, will come out this week instead.
The first song, "Held Down," is an interesting one, immediate in its up-front acoustic guitar and lead vocal but with disconcerting strings(?) and strange, raw vocal harmonies stacking.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 10, 2020 13:37:04 GMT
I am really enjoying the aforementioned Laura Marling album, which was released today. Here is a 5-star review from NME about it.
And here is (so far ... I'm not through it all yet) the most uptempo and rhythmic track, "Strange Girl," which I'm enjoying.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 10, 2020 21:47:31 GMT
In some thread somewhere--I think in the on-topic discussions forum--KDS and I were talking about the potential of artists making "coronavirus albums."
Well it turns out that I was right about John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats. He has released Songs for Pierre Chuvin, recorded (voice and acoustic guitar, almost exclusively) directly to boombox, which was what he did in the '90s as a young indie fella. I got the album today via their Bandcamp page, as it isn't on iTunes (at least yet). He describes the project thusly. Forgive the length, but I think it's an interesting read.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 11, 2020 17:09:48 GMT
Hey, there has been announced a contender for the "Worst Album I Can Imagine" Award!
Lana Del Rey has announced she will be releasing "an audiobook of poems" titled Violets bent backwards over grass. Yes, a spoken-word album. (It will also feature music by producer Jack Antonoff.) The most overrated, pretentious hack in modern music history goes all-in with poetry? Kill me.
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Post by kds on Apr 12, 2020 12:40:51 GMT
Hey, there has been announced a contender for the "Worst Album I Can Imagine" Award!
Lana Del Rey has announced she will be releasing "an audiobook of poems" titled Violets bent backwards over grass. Yes, a spoken-word album. (It will also feature music by producer Jack Antonoff.) The most overrated, pretentious hack in modern music history goes all-in with poetry? Kill me.
But, she's obviously so so deep.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 17, 2020 12:35:15 GMT
Fiona Apple's first album since 2012 was released today, Fetch the Bolt Cutters. It's insane and it's really good. Contrary to the Jon Brion/Van Dyke Parks collaborations of her earlier work, this is more like The Idler Wheel..., sparse instrumentation based on piano, stand-up bass, and sometimes drums, but more often than that percussion provided by claps, stomps, and her voice.
It's funny. It's deliciously nasty. It's musically really smart. It's lyrically really smart. I love this album (having listened just once).
Here is "Shameika."
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Apr 24, 2020 17:18:59 GMT
This is pretty good.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 24, 2020 23:46:34 GMT
Funny that I saw this a day after listening to CSN and while we have a Byrds thread, because local (Mpls) band Turn Turn Turn--initially a coffeehouse cover band side project for Honeydogs frontman Adam Levy and singer/songwriters Savannah Smith and Barb Brynstad--released its first harmony-rich single "Cold Hard Truth" in advance of their June 1 debut album of originals.
I like it well enough.
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Post by Kapitan on May 8, 2020 12:23:23 GMT
Bob Dylan's third recent new single, "False Prophet," was released overnight. I like it much more than the previous two. This one actually has a song in there, with words that aren't just naming points of nostalgia. And while it's not quite a barn burner, it has a little more movement to it, a bit of spirit.
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Post by Kapitan on May 15, 2020 12:56:14 GMT
Today was the release date for the Magnetic Fields' Quickies, at least one single from which ("The Day the Politicians Died") I'd posted previously.
Twenty-eight songs that, as the title suggests, don't take long, ranging in length from 2:35 on the high end to 0:17 on the lower end. Most of them are sardonic and clever, not long enough to have more than a primary and maybe a brief secondary musical idea, resulting in little more than sarcastic anti-jingles of sorts.
As usual, the instrumentation ranges from pianos to toy pianos, cellos to xylophones, cheesy drum machines to unidentifiable noisemakers. There are several singers to keep things interesting ... especially useful because the songwriter and primary artist (Stephin Merritt) has a low baritone with limited range.
Very enjoyable. Silly, but fun. If you've got 47 minutes or so, you can whip through all 28 tunes and have a laugh. The song titles alone cracked me up: "Death Pact (Let's Make A)," "You've Got a Friend in Beelzebub," "I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again."
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Post by Kapitan on May 15, 2020 13:40:51 GMT
OK Go, probably best known for their videos, released a new single, "All Together Now." Because the world loves to bug me, naturally it's pandemic related. But that said, it's a pretty tune and modestly interesting video considering the obvious limitations these days.
While I like the song and the melody, I don't care for the singer's falsetto, which is weak and breathy. I don't know that I've heard it before, despite knowing a few OK Go songs.
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Post by kds on Jun 5, 2020 14:51:00 GMT
I forgot to post this, but last Friday, Jimmy Buffett quietly released his first new album of original material since 2013 - Life on the Flip Side. I've listened a couple times, and ordered a CD copy. It's following the pattern of Buffett's 21st Century releases in that in includes more country - esque music a little more in line with his earlier material. This song, Slow Lane, is a favorite so far.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 19, 2020 12:11:00 GMT
Besides the new Dylan album, yesterday saw the release of the first new song in 11 years from the Fiery Furnaces, a relatively obscure brother-sister indie group from the '00s, "Down at the So-and-So on Somewhere."
The group has been known for their long, musically complex songs often with elaborate narratives. This one is relatively straightforward, built atop a cheesy sounding synth drum part. While it is never as gaudy as much of their previous work, the synth arrangements throughout are interesting. (And there's a really funky sounding synth bass. In fact, other than what might be some real drums in parts, I think the entire track is synths.)
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Post by kds on Jun 19, 2020 12:31:17 GMT
That's funny. The opener for Buffett's new album is "Down at the Lah De Dah"
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 19, 2020 21:42:19 GMT
The Lemon Twigs have released a pre-album single from their upcoming Songs For the General Public, "The One." It's a refreshing piece of classic rock-pop, the sort of thing one expects from this glam-and-classic-rock-derivative but talented group. Two and a half minutes of melodic, uptempo, string-tinged rock and roll.
This one is (obviously, hence the quote) a few months old now. But it just popped up on shuffle, and goddamn if it isn't still great. I'm both excited and nervous for this album. Excited because I know they can do great things; nervous because I know they can fall into boring pastiche (and I know that being excited is a recipe for letdown, says the pessimist).
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