CD Reviews: November 2011 Gillian Welch The Harrow and the Harvest Acony Records; 2011 The mistress of morose lyrics treads on familiar ground with this gorgeous new album of emotionally exposed songs. Gillian Welch sings about loss and despair with a world-weary voice as warm and as comfortably inviting as your favorite flannel shirt, and this release finds her collaborating with guitarist Dave Rawlings, whose brilliant accompaniment on “Scarlet Town” starts the album off with an Appalachian... [Read more...]
Kitten Sunday School Atlantic Records; 2011 Let’s focus on the music here and not the fact that Kitten’s singer, Chloe Chaidez, is only 16. This debut EP boasts five very different songs, ranging from aggressive rockers like “Chinatown” to the smart, sugary pop of “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny,” a song that suggests an affinity for Florence and the Machine. It also sounds as though the quartet grew up listening to the best of John Peel’s radio show for all the territory... [Read more...]
Washed Out Within and Without Sub Pop; 2011 For me, Moby’s appeal peaked at Play, but when I stumbled across Within and Without I immediately felt like I’d been transported back to everything I loved about that classic. Washed Out’s debut evokes similar sensations and has the added bonus of hiding some darker, sexier undertones. Imagine 1980s synthpop mixed with chilled-out lounge music from at least three geographical regions at once; just when you think you know where it’s... [Read more...]
Bon Iver Bon Iver 4AD/Jagjauwar; 2011 I first heard Bon Iver all the way through during a drive with my fiancé to the seashore for my birthday, and from the opening chords of “Perth,” I knew this self-titled release was going to be the one to beat for me this year. I watched the swamp become a blur as we made our way; it was a beautifully sunny day and we had a picnic ahead of us. Behind my sunglasses, my eyes were overflowing. This isn’t a record you listen to, but something you... [Read more...]
Adele 21 Columbia; 2011 You know you’ve made it in America when one of your tunes is on “American Idol” and “Glee” within the same month. While the British songbird Adele is no newcomer to American fans, she’s finally getting the broad public exposure she deserves with “Rolling in the Deep,” the first single off her second album, 21. Titled after the singer/songwriter’s age, this record is a beautifully landscaped journey through the falling... [Read more...]
The Unthanks Last Rough Trade; 2011 One of the most stirringly beautiful and original albums to have appeared in a long time, Last owes as much to the comforting past as it does to the confounding present. Though ostensibly “folk,” this fourth release from the British troupe fronted by sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank is something much more than a studied rehash of old forms. Buttressed by soothing crooning and gossamer string arrangements, Last harks back to the roots of English balladry... [Read more...]
ViliFi Common Eyes SH Music; 2011 Though this is ViliFi’s debut album, the band are no strangers to the local music scene. The Merritt Island trio, comprised of Shain Honkonen (guitars/vocals), Chad Berney (bass), and Jake Hogeland (drums), were known and loved, until recently, as oNe, an outfit than can be said to have improved through this new, more focused incarnation. With the 13-track Common Eyes, ViliFi make their intentions clear at the outset with blistering opener “Sympathy,”... [Read more...]
R.E.M. Collapse Into Now Warner Bros.; 2011 Though 2008′s audacious Accelerate was generally well received, its aggressive garb never really suited R.E.M., so a reversion to their old sound was bound to happen. For as U2-like as they’d like to be perceived, the trio don’t really have the swagger in them, no matter how hugely popular they’ve become since their modest 1983 debut. It’s fitting, then, that Collapse Into Now’s strengths reside in songs like “Blue,”... [Read more...]
Gruff Rhys Hotel Shampoo Ovni Records; 2011 Like the small shampoo bottles and toiletries he’s collected over the years while on tour fronting Welsh band Super Furry Animals, the songs on Gruff Rhys’s third solo outing aren’t so much components of a lucid, binding concept, but rather a jumble of sundry lagniappes: useful freebies to the enlightened; landfill dross to the grouch. Yet suggesting that any of these tunes are merely the adequate throwaways of a distracted songwriter... [Read more...]
Gorillaz The Fall EMI; 2010 Edging further from the realm of ingenious concept into the land of shameless gimmickry, Damon Albarn (the mind behind this virtual cartoon collective) dangles his latest album from another intriguing hook: that it was recorded entirely on his iPad while on an American tour. While cynics might cite this as merely a canny, cross-promotional marketing tool, it’s really just a footnote, a fact that has little bearing on The Fall’s essential merits. Drawing so... [Read more...]
