Interviews

When Michael Franti followed up his ambitious, politically-charged 2006 release Yell Fire! with dancehall mass-appeal on All Rebel Rockers back in 2008, it wasn’t entirely clear if he took a palpable 180° away from his activism, or more likely, just got swept up in his Jamaican studio environs. Apparently, the former proves truer as his latest effort, The Sound of Sunshine, takes it a step further as he reunites with Sly & Robbie in Jamaica for a portion of the record, and leans heavily on the formula that produced his first big hit the last time around: catchy-as-hell reggae grooves, dancehall sit-ins, and a fat dose of the Edge’s delay-laden guitar tone.

Media moguls and home-based bloggers have watched Wolf Parade evolve from the quirky newbies to the full-fledged masters of weird — now known for carrying their unconventional, multi-layered arrangements and howl-yelp vocal styles in tow like a pocketed trademark. The Montreal indie-rockers conquered "the debut album" with the brilliant Apologies to the Queen Mary in 2005, and avoided "the sophomore slump" by putting out the darker, yet still pleasant puzzler At Mount Zoomer in 2008. But now what?

Some albums come out and change the game of how music can be perceived and understood.  It doesn’t have to be The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Dr. Dre’s original, The Chronic or more recently, Radiohead’s quintessential, Kid A.  For The Glitch Mob, their debut album Drink the Sea-which hit shelves a month ago with the surprisingly genre-defying appeal, achieves this status, maybe without you even knowing it.