Vek is still young, but the six-year gap between releases raises flags about his long-term growth and development as an artist. Leisure Seizure offers much to get excited about and a great deal of potential from which to build. However, there is just as much material to skip over, which on the other hand raises concerns about Vek’s DIY mentality.
There’s something endearing about a handwritten note in a promo or review album copy. And that’s what this writer found in Old Californio’s Sundrunk Angels. Some might see it as currying favor, but when an album is this strong, no note is really necessary.
Rabbits on the Run is unequivocally Carlton’s best effort yet; a beautiful culmination of years of soaring highs and devastating lows, rolled into an elegant, thoughtful collection of ten songs.
Deep inside an electronic jungle there lies a creature with a personality that is characterized by the unique sounds that it spews into the atmosphere. It’s those individualities that make up the sound of Swedish electro-jazz-pop quartet Little Dragon and the subtleties that keep their sound ever evolving within itself. The band, whose identity was discovered through creative frustration, returns with their third album on Peacefrog Records titled Ritual Union, an album that works within the structure of diverse beats, yet explores beyond those boundaries extensively.
The same year Tapestry appeared Carole King recorded a concert at Carnegie Hall, but it wasn’t released until 1996, when it came out on CD. Mobile Fidelity has now put out a remastered 2-LP version of the concert on 180-gram vinyl. As audiophile releases go, this is the flip side of such sonic spectaculars as Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Pepper’s or Close to the Edge.
When’s the last time you heard an album that was both familiar and refreshingly new? Buzz hip hop act Shabazz Palaces have just created exactly that.
This collection should please fans of revivalist music from bands like The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers and hopefully serve as a light on the performers who originated the style on hundred years ago.
The Errant Charm, Vetiver’s fifth full-length album (and second with Sub Pop) continues a process that began with Tight Knit, moving the band away from this unorthodox folk into more traditionally structured California pop. Overall, most of the album has a subdued and gossamer mood, but to its credit, there is also an eclectic mix of breezy, sanguine arrangements combined with robust moments like “Ride, Ride, Ride that recalls an A.M.–era Wilco.
The first in a series of EP releases, Pro*Whoa! finds Nikka Costa cooing and screeching over six freaky funk tracks reminiscent of Prince and Stevie Wonder.
Sondre Lerche’s latest new self-titled release is a musical kaleidoscope filled with a plethora of stops, starts, and turns. Filtered through his trademark classical pop sensibilities, Lerche’s album will ring a few bells of familiarity to listeners. He pays homage to McCartney-esque Beatles: the dreamy “Coliseum Town”, Belle and Sebastian theatrical leanings: the lead single, “Private Caller”, and even hits a Chris Martin type falsetto on “Domino” before borrowing Wilco’s searing guitar squeal for the song’s ending.
