Album Review - Avett Brothers "I and Love and You"

Review for Avett Brothers new album: (I haven't listened to it yet, thoughts on it?)

Longtime fans held their breath when Rick Rubin took the Avett Brothers under his wing. What would the co-head of Columbia Records — a man known for his business savvy, rap-rock production, and resurrection of Johnny Cash — do with a small-time folk trio from North Carolina? The answer is "relatively nothing," as the band's major-label debut continues charting the same musical course as Emotionalism and Mignonette. The Avett Brothers have steadily expanded their reach since 2000, adding elements of pop and hillbilly rock to a country/bluegrass foundation, and they carry on that tradition with I and Love and You, whose songs introduce a newfound emphasis on piano and nuanced arrangements. Working with a major label's budget allows the group to add small flourishes — a cello line here, a keyboard crescendo there — but the resulting music is rarely grand, focusing on textures rather than sheer volume. Scott and Seth Avett share vocals throughout the album, delivering their lyrics in a speak-sing cadence that sounds both tuneful and conversational. Given the opportunities presented here — the ability to flank their melodies with string sections, organ swells, and harmonium — the two devote more focus to slower songs, eschewing the barnburning bouncefests of their previous albums for material that better displays such sonic details. The result is an intimate, poignant album, laced with rich production that enhances, not clouds, the songwriting itself.

Album Reviews: 5 in 1

Latest round of albums and their reviews:
Gavin DeGraw "Free"
Peter Bjorn and John "Living Thing"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz!"
Jim Gaffigan "King Baby"
Whitest Boy Alive "Rules" (to accompany Greg's post)

Album Review - Andrew Bird "Noble Beast"

Andrew Bird's latest "Noble Beast" was reviewed by relevant magazine.

In my own opinion (and I believe Gregarious agrees) this is a fantastic album. Andrew Bird just continues to amaze me, especially on this album where he experiments with more drum beats and different rhythms then he is used too. Still has the same great Andrew Bird violin and voice. Great stuff, check the album out or at least preview it on iTunes. But for now, enjoy this video:

Album Review: Fiction Family "Fiction Family"

As posted earlier by Gregarious, Fiction Family features the joining of the lead from Switchfoot and the guitarist from Nickel Creek. Since then they've released their album and Allmusic has a good review of it. Only got 3 stars but sounds promising.

Album Review - Heavy D "Vibes"

Wait, what? Heavy D has a new album? Nice, that brings me back...Wait, it's classified as "Reggae-pop"? This should be interesting, Allmusic reviews.

Album Review - Guns N Roses "Chinese Democracy"

Way too late from the big days of GNR, but here is the review of Guns N Roses latest. (This used to be my favorite hair band back in the day - there is still a place in my heart for Axl)

To put Chinese Democracy in some perspective: it arrives 17 years after the twin Use Your Illusion, the last set of original music by Guns N' Roses. Consider that 17 years prior to the Illusions, it was 1974, back before the Ramones and Sex Pistols, back before Aerosmith had Rocks and Toys in the Attic, back before Queen had A Night at the Opera — back before almost anything that Axl Rose worships even existed. Generations have passed in these 17 years, but not for Axl. He cut himself off from the world following the trouble-ridden Use Your Illusion tour, retreating to the Hollywood Hills, swapping every original GNR member in favor of contract players culled from his mid-'90s musical obsessions — Tommy Stinson from the Replacements, Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails, Buckethead from guitar magazines — as he turned into rock's Charles Foster Kane, a genius in self-imposed exile spending millions to make his own Xanadu, Chinese Democracy.

Like Xanadu, Chinese Democracy is a monument to man's might, but where Kane sought to bring the world underneath his roof, Axl labored to create an ideal version of his inner world, working endlessly on a set of songs about his heartbreak, persecution, and paranoia, topics well mined on the Illusions. Using the pompous ten-minute epics "Estranged" and "November Rain" as his foundation, Axl strips away all remnants of the old, snake-dancing GNR, shedding the black humor and blues, replacing any good times with vindictive spleen in the vein of "You Could Be Mine." All this melodrama and malevolence feels familiar and, surprisingly, so does much of Chinese Democracy, even for those listeners who didn't hear the portions of the record as leaked demos and live tracks. Despite a few surface flourishes — all the endless, evident hours spent on Pro Tools, a hip-hop loop here, a Spanish six-string there, absurd elastic guitar effects — this is an album unconcerned with the future of rock & roll. One listen and it's abundantly clear that Axl spent the decade-plus in the studio not reinventing but refining, obsessing over a handful of tracks, and spending an inordinate amount of time chasing the sound in his head — that's it, no more, no less

Album Review - The Killers "Day & Age"

Stereogum's premature review on the Killers release tomorrow. I'm always curious on what the Killers are going to do next but I can always guarantee it's going to be another brand of their Vegas indie pop/rock...aka fun and memorable.

Album Review - Q-tip "The Renaissance"

One of the most influential hip-hop artists in history (and my top 5 personal favorite) has returned with an album although sadly without the rest of Tribe Called Quest. Still satisfies the Q-tip portion though. Allmusic reviews:

When the best rapper/producer in hip-hop history spends almost a decade without a record on the shelves (despite his best efforts), it has to be considered a crime — if not a tragedy. Difficult to tell, though, is why Q-Tip was bounced to five different labels within six years. He never pronounced himself angry about the situation, saying only that he continued to work, reportedly recording three full albums that were never released. (At least one of those, 2003's Kamaal the Abstract, was a reality, since it was only denied a release after promos were sent out.) His long-awaited return on The Renaissance is no disappointment, offering more of the same understated, aqueous grooves and fluid rapping that the Abstract Poetic has built his peerless career on. Although it has a few more message songs than his dance-heavy debut from 1999 (Amplified), many of these tracks are club grooves painted with the same production touches as ten years earlier; his work is still excellent 20 years after his career began, but he seems less interested in spinning four minutes of fluent rap for each track. (Granted, he's carrying this show alone, with no Phife Dawg to take every other verse.) Some of the songs are built with a live group (including guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel), although they usually sound programmed. One thing is for sure: Q-Tip is still a master of pacing and atmosphere, structuring the first half of the record so smoothly that listeners may not notice a transition until the sixth track, "We Fight/We Love," which contrasts the perspective of a man in the middle of war with a woman left alone. The closer, "Shaka," got the most attention leading up to release, since an early version sampled Barack Obama (perhaps coincidentally, The Renaissance was originally scheduled to be released on Election Day). Sounding like a latter-day Midnight Marauders and The Love Movement, and very similar to the unreleased Kamaal the Abstract, The Renaissance is a worthy comeback for the man who's arguably done more to make hip-hop enjoyable than any other figure.

Update - Ray Lamontagne album "Gossip in the Grains"

Since posting the review of his latest album I had a chance to listen to it and I am very impressed. Never before has he combined so many great and different sounds on an album without straying away from who he is. "You Are the Best Thing" is his upbeat soulful sound, "Let It Be Me" is his classic lonesome song, "Sarah" is a great change of pace but sticks with his somehow upbeat relaxed style and also features a mandolin so I love that. "He Me, Hey Mama" features the banjo and a southern blues sound that he's never done before. "Henry Nearly Killed Me" is an upbeat bluesy song that comes across very well for being different from his norm. Finally I wanted to highlight two bonus tracks on iTunes in "Empty" and "Be Here Now" both live recordings and both great. Those are two of my favorite songs of his and I'm glad they including them on some album. "Empty" has this sounds that puts me in this great longing mood every time I hear it...so good.

Do yourself a favor and go to iTunes and take a listen. You might just be buying his album after you do. I did.

Album Review - Ray LaMontagne "Gossip in the Grain"

One of my personal favorites just released his third album "Gossip in the Grain". I have no opinions of it yet as I haven't heard it so I'll leave Allmusic to do my bidding. Anyone have any thoughts on the album?

Ray LaMontagne's third album, Gossip in the Grain is as different from 2007's Till the Sun Turns Black as that album was from 2006's Trouble. The deep, heart-of-night atmospherics of the preceding disc have been jettisoned in favor of a brightly lit palette of textures and instruments that legendary producer and multi-instrumentalist Ethan Johns uses to illustrate LaMontagne's considerable ambitions as a writer. The set opens with the singer channeling his inner Memphis soul man on "You Are the Best Thing." Horns, strings, and a female backing chorus underscore LaMontagne's heartfelt uptempo rasp that touches on Sam Cooke as much as it does Tim Buckley with a hook worthy of Stax/Volt. In terms of sequencing, it certainly grabs the listener, but it is also arguably the best track here. "Let It Be Me" follows with a folksier, looser soul groove, where acoustic guitars, a Telecaster, piano, and strings underscore the hypnotic lilt in the verse. But LaMontagne can write a coda and a bridge and he gets his voice right into the meat of the lyric. We may have heard lyrics of this type a thousand times before, as they evoke loneliness and longing, but rarely have they been expressed this authentically and this dramatically. Echoes of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks are apparent in the gorgeous chamber jazz of "Sarah," and eerie, psychedelic British Isles folk — complete with an otherworldly pedal steel — haunts the grooves on "I Still Care for You." LaMontagne and Johns are able to create varying yet webbed atmospheres in these songs. Ray can find a style and write in it as if he'd created it. Johns adds so much depth and dimension in the mix that it feels as if both singer and songwriter will never be able to extricate themselves either from the emotional intentions expressed in his lyrics, or from the sound itself. The most notorious track on this set is the humorous yet tender "Meg White," for the White Stripes' drummer. With its imaginative use of an Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti western intro, Johns playing Wurlitzer and Mellotron, a Pink Floyd cadenza, and drumming of the sort White trademarked, it's no throwaway; add to this a seemingly sincere offer of friendship and empathy and there is an undeniable emotional appeal. "Hey Me, Hey Mama," has a back porch singalong feel, and features a banjo, trombone, and trumpet. The rambling free-form blues of "Henry Nearly Killed Me, (It's a Shame)" touches on Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, and the Rolling Stones; it's another high point here.

Gossip in the Grain is LaMontagne's most adventurous recording, yet in many ways it's also the most focused and well executed. The partnership with Johns has become almost symbiotic at this point; his songwriting has become so confident, sure, and expressive — despite the ready intimacy in its subject matter — that he's become a kind of force majeure. One thing is certain, that given the consistency and vision LaMontagne has shown on all three albums, punters are certain to follow him wherever he goes next.

Album Review - Keane "Perfect Symmetry"

I've heard that the new Keane album detracts from their previous very good album "Hopes and Fears". The first line of Allmusic's review captures that very well. I haven't heard the album yet but have heard a few songs and I'm not as thrilled as with "Hopes and Fears", but there is hope for it.

Keane bids adieu to uplifting ballads and ushers in a different style — '80s-influenced pop — with Perfect Symmetry. While the album isn't solely devoted to exploring that new genre, it's certainly the focus, and "Spiralling" appropriately kickstarts the set with whooping vocals and retro synthesizers. "When we fall in love," sings Tom Chaplin in his Wembley-geared voice, "we're just falling in love with ourselves." Coming from the same mouth that once crooned the over-earnest strains of "Somewhere Only We Know," those lyrics are wholly different — a sign that four years spent in the shadow of U2, Coldplay, and other like-minded bands have convinced Keane to make their own Achtung Baby. Of course, that album saw U2 turning sonic experimentation into something entirely inventive, which Perfect Symmetry doesn't quite accomplish with its own mixture. This isn't quite art, after all; it's mostly just fun, shot through with a self-consciously cheesy approach that's engineered to sound little like the department-store rock of 2004's Hopes and Fears. "Fun" seems to be at the top of the band's agenda, though, and Perfect Symmetry accordingly succeeds in doing away with most of the pre-conceived notions that accompany Keane records. The "old" sound doesn't even surface until midway through the album, when the album's title track offers up a combination of sparse piano notes (later giving way to dense, double-fisted arpeggios) and a meteoric melody in the chorus. But that's the exception, not the rule, and Perfect Symmetry sounds more comfortable during its truly unexpected moments: the spacy blips and bleeps of "You Haven't Told Me Anything," the synthesized anthem "Again and Again," and the energetic "Wooooooh!" that opens the entire album. The band's underlying strength remains Chaplin's ability to turn a melodic phrase with grace and dexterity, which fails to lose its vitality no matter the musical context, but Keane's willingness to take these left-hand turns deserves its own share of accolades.

Album Review - Joshua Radin "Simple Times"

Allmusic has Joshua Radin's latest album reviewed.

My previous posts on Joshua Radin.

Album Review - Josh Rouse "The Best of the Rykodisc Years"

Allmusic reviewed Josh Rouse's latest album "The Best of Rykodisc Years":

Listening to this collection of tracks taken from his years recording for Rykodisc (1998-2005), it's plain that Josh Rouse arrived fully formed. From his first release (1998's Dressed Up Like Nebraska), he was already a thoughtful writer with a heartbreakingly intimate voice and the unfailing ability to wrap his melancholy in warm and sweet melodies. He made some very fine albums over the seven-year stretch and The Best of the Rykodisc Years selects three or four songs from each. The progression from album to album is slight but noticeable. Starting off on Nebraska, Rouse seems earnest and slightly restrained, but by the time of 2003's 1972 Rouse was feeling frisky enough to drop the stunningly poppy and pretty goofy "Love Vibration." His next album, 2005's Nashville, will probably go down as his masterpiece and the four songs here make a case for Rouse as one of the foremost practitioners of intelligent and adult, but also sweet and teenage, pop of his era. If disc one presents a strong over view of Josh Rouse, disc two of the collection presents enough rarities to send Rouse fans into fits of joy. It gathers up all the tracks from the 2001 EP Bedroom Classics, Vol. 1 (which includes a lovely, stripped-back version of "Sad Eyes," a track that later showed up on Nashville) and seven demos and previously released outtakes. It also includes a previously heard outtake, "Princess of the Porch," which was part of a rarities disc released with The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse DVD. If Ryko had added all the tracks from this disc two, it would have been an unbeatable package. As it stands, though, it works both as an intro to the heartwarming sound of Josh Rouse and as a collector's item.

Album Review - Kimya Dawson "Alphabutt"

Kimya Dawson, of Juno fame, has a children's album out. Allmusic reviewed:

Since Kimya Dawson's adult albums are filled with cutesy-pie rhymes and schoolyard singalongs, it makes perfect sense that the singer/songwriter has given herself over to a full-on children's album. It also makes perfect sense that it's called Alphabutt, as Dawson has always shown a propensity for juvenile jokes, and that title should also be a tip-off that just about every other song on this 15-track LP sports a joke about farting. Kimya doesn't limit herself to farts: there's poop and pee, even references to growing hair "down there," all delivered with a child's fascination with discovering their body -- and sometimes delivered with a couple kids singing along, too. Such enthusiastic participation from a few tuneless kids highlights the fact that Dawson designed Alphabutt purely for young kids. These are not songs for the parents, nor are these tunes meant to educate or even entertain: these are the kinds of songs that kids chant in the backseat when they mean to annoy their parents.

Album Review - Mitch Hedberg "Do You Believe in Gosh?"

One of my top three favorite comedians of all time Mitch Hedberg has a new album out called "Do You Believe in Gosh?". Great to see more Mitch Hedberg despite his life position of not being alive. Allmusic reviewed

Gone far too soon, Do You Believe in Gosh? is the first posthumous Mitch Hedberg release, one recorded live in Ontario, Canada in early 2005 when the surreal comic was working on an album that would never be. Anyone familiar with the Live in Chicago bootleg will recognize quite a bit of the material here and might also notice how it's being refined and worked into a routine worthy of official release. Unfortunately, it's not quite there yet and not up to the standards of Hedberg's two official albums -- Mitch All Together and Strategic Grill Locations -- which somehow did the impossible and linked a slew of Steven Wright-styled one liners into a cohesive end-to-end listen. This is Mitch warts and all, desperately trying to regain a rhythm when jokes start to fail and only sometimes getting in that Hedberg groove where "wow man" meets relaxed focus. The good news is that the drugs that ended his life don't seem to be affecting this set at all and the lines that do work are numerous and work splendidly. After wondering how clean the inside of cleaning fluid bottle must be, he offers "If I had a dollar for every time I said that I'd be making money in a very weird way." "Now is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or a really cool opotamus?" is typical Mitch and the riffing on how tough kids in Venice must have "canal smarts" is hilarious. The liner notes feature scribbles from Mitch's notebooks plus a short, sweet, and heartwarming note from his widow Lynn Shawcroft. Not the Hedberg CD to start with, but for his rabid cult following this is a necessary purchase.

Album Review - Okkervil River "The Stand Ins"

Pitchfork had an album review of Okkervil River's sophomoric release "The Stand Ins". They received an 8.0 from Pitchfork which is quite high in their rating system. Excerpt from the article if you're too lazy to click the link:

Sheff wants to look beyond common pop song notions to discover something truer and more essential, no matter how disillusioning it may be, which is the central, enthralling contradiction for Okkervil River: Even as they ruthlessly deconstruct pop music, they make great pop music. The darker Sheff gets, the more honest he sounds and the more absorbing the song. By that equation, the stand-out on The Stand Ins is "Pop Lie", an exquisitely bleak dismantling of singer-songwriter pretensions. The pop singer lies in his songs, "and you're lying when you sing along!" (Hey, Hold Steady...) It's not hard to imagine a venue full of excited fans singing along, although it's difficult to determine whether he would view their participation as a bitter irony or a sincerely funny cosmic joke. Or if he would just smile and enjoy the moment, knowing that any listener can take that pop lie and make it true.

Album Review - Xavier Rudd "Dark Shades of Blue"

Allmusic recently reviewed Xavier Rudd's latest album "Dark Shades of Blue". They chose it for one of their album picks and gave it 4 out of 5 stars...pretty good in my opinion. I wrote about Xavier Rudd a while back and I really think he's going to come onto the scene and be pretty popular, at least in the acoustic/aussie folk/surf rock world. I haven't yet listened to the entire latest album but I tend to trust allmusic's reviews so I'm excited they picked this album as their AMG Album Pick. The only thing that I'm tentative about is that he went a little more electric on this album instead of staying his aussie folk/reggae/acoustic style. But that's not going to stop me cause he's great either way. From the review:

Dark Shades of Blue is special, and unique to Rudd's catalog. First off, it's an electric record, full of barely contained squalling guitars, percussion, and a more textural approach to recording. That said, it's hardly a sellout; in fact, given how comfortably he inhabits this terrain, this may be the record Rudd has desired to make for a long time.

You can preview five of the tracks on his site.

Guku and Edge of the Moon from "Dark Shades of Blue"


One of his older songs "Let Me Be":

Album Review - Donavon Frankenreiter "Pass It Around"

Allmusic had a promising review of Donavon's new album. If you bought Donavon's first album "Donavon Frankenreiter" that featured "Free" then you really liked him. If you then bought his second album "Move By Yourself" you thought "Did Donavon and Jamiroquai become one person and produce a funk disco album?". Let's just say his second album was very different. But there is hope Donavon F. fans:

This time out there is less energy and funk than on 2006's Move by Yourself, and also fewer memorable songs. It feels like a bit of a backslide from that album's ambition and drive, but still results in a perfectly fine record

Album Review - Conor Oberst "Conor Oberst"

Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes breaks off for a self-titled solo album. I haven't listened to this one yet but based on pitchfork's review with a semi-generous 7.3, I think I just might... I'm sure the album continues with Oberst's insightful, brilliant and smart writing styles.

"Sausalito" is a rollicking daydream about camping out on a houseboat in California; "NYC - Gone, Gone" is a stomping, distorted burst about leaving New York for Mexico. "Gone, gone from New York City,/ where you gonna go with a head that empty?" Oberst demands. "Milk Thistle", which closes the album, is a grim acoustic song about dying (Oberst never mentions alcohol explicitly, but milk thistle, a purported hangover cure, is often employed, holistically, to treat liver disease-- so it doesn't seem unreasonable to read "Milk Thistle" as a song about suicide-via-whiskey). "Milk thistle, milk thistle, let me down slow," he trembles. "If I go to heaven I'll be bored as hell." It feels like a fitting, if morbid, way to end a record about escaping life-- about escaping everything.

Album Review - Avett Brothers "The Gleam II"

Avett Brothers came out with "The Gleam II" on Tuesday. Here is AllMusic's review. I've yet to purchase or listen to many songs from it but I will say that "Murder in the City" is one of their best tracks of all time.

My previous "My Current Bandcrush" post and Concert Review post on the Avett Brothers.