It's not often I get to review a Scottish, or even Glaswegian, artist on this site and when I do it seems to end up being dross like Kassidy. Ugh. Three cheers, then, for the mighty RM Hubbert and his new record Thirteen Lost & Found.
Signed up to Chemikal Underground now, the former El Hombre Trajeado man once again showcases his marvellous acoustic guitar skills along with guest spots from the likes of Aidan Moffat, Alex Kapranos and Alasdair Roberts. It really is an excellent record, reminding me (perhaps not stylistically but certainly in spirit) of Papa M's Live From a Shark Cage. You can, of course, get the review at The Line Of Best Fit.
It's nice to know that when you click here, you'll be able read a positive review and hopefully go out and seek out the music.
As any regular passers-by to the site might now, I love a bit of country rock. If it sounds like Neil Young and Crazy Horse, I'm in. So, on listening to The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth, the second full-length from Seattle's The Soft Hills I was delighted to hear echoes of Laurel Canyon and psych rock, and of course old Shakey himself.
In thecontinuingsagaofbandswithonewordnames, enterBrooklyn's Milagres. SignedtoKill Rock Stars yetnotpossessing a hipsterswaggertospeakof, KyleWilson's band are a gangofindietraditionalistswith an earfor a littleexperimentation.
DebutalbumGlowingMouthisoutthiscomingMonday via Memphis Industries in theUKandveersbetweenquitelovelyandoccasionallydull. Youcanreadmore via TheLineOfBest Fit.
In a day for reviews of bands with short names, I turn my attention to Aussie duo Canyons, and their debut album Keep Your Dreams. A production and remix team, they've created a record of dance/rock moves, mixing techno and house with some indie and soft rock, and it's an interesting record, with some great and not-so-great moments.
As always, head to The Line Of Best Fit to read more. If you like Cut Copy and M83, you're in roughly the same ballpark, but Canyons are a wee bit more clubby, a wee bit more danceable....
Hello! It's 2012 and this blog is still going.....that's cause for celebration itself! High fives all round!
Someone should tell Howler that it's 2012 and not either 1977 or 2001. The great white hope have just released their debut album, America Give Up, in the midst of great acclaim from the likes of NME and The Fly (front covers all round, well done chaps), and the record is even released by Rough Trade. It says a lot about the state of music - or at least the world of music as the NME sees it - that a bunch of kids who are basically playing Strokes covers are being touted as essential listening.
Anyway, there are some decent songs on America Give Up, so it's not entirely devoid of hope, and to read more of my critical assault you can head to The Line Of Best Fit to read more.
And you thought the albums of the year list was it for the year.....well, you don't know me at all!
Keeping up the work ethic while the rest of the country has a two week skive, I've been listening to and reviewing records for YOUR pleasure, and the first of a handful of reviews in the coming weeks leading into 2012 is the latest from JEFF the Brotherhood, We Are the Champions.
Brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall used to be in Be Your Own Pet, but have spent most of the last six years as JEFF, creating rockin' sounds as a guitar/drums two-piece. On this new album, they sound like Weezer with the amps turned up to 11, and this turns out to be A Good Thing. As always, this review is brought to you by the nice people at The Line Of Best Fit.
So, clicky click hereto read all about it, and I'll see you in 2012!
So, we reach the top of the tree (so to speak) and there we find New Jersey's Real Estate and their sophomore album Days. As the weeks closed in on the end of the year and the thought of composing this list, I found myself listening to this album more and more, two to three times a day at one point, and in the end it just pushed Korallreven to number two. I could have copped out and had a joint number one, but what would have been the point of that? Days just snuck into my life almost unnoticed until it became a part of my daily routine; one of the most lovely and affecting - and utterly simple - records I've heard in many years.
Made up of singer/guitarist Martin Courtney, guitarist Matthew Mondanile and bassist Alex Bleeker, the band released their self-titled debut album in 2009, and followed up with this one - a record of simple nostalgia, yearning and nascent romance. Beautiful guitar lines grace Days from start to finish, like 'Major Leagues'-era Pavement, or the early jangle of R.E.M.
It's the simplicity of lines like "floating on an inner tube in the sun" from gentle album opener 'Easy' that capture the essence of this record. Each song seems like a variation on the same theme, and so Days hangs together wonderfully, from 'Green Aisles'. 'It's Easy', 'Out of Tune' and 'Wonder Years' (yes, such a track name was inevitable). Given the band are childhood friends, it's hardly a surprise they share the same warm and fuzzy memories.
It's a truly glorious record, and on 'Green Aisles', one of the finest songs of 2011, we find the perfect encapsulation of the whole theme of Days:
"the phone lines, the street lights, led me to you/
It's the album that's meant most to me in 2011, the one that I've enjoyed the most, and the one I catch myself singing songs from on a regular basis. If that's not reason enough, then I don't know what it. Days is a wonderful, charming guitar record, one that reaffirms that guitar music isn't quite dead yet, and shows that Real Estate are a very, very talented bunch of lads. Life-affirming music at its best.
