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CD Review: Matt Pond PA, Last Light

BuzzSugar — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:30:17 -0700

I don't know who chose today as the release date for Matt Pond PA's new album, Last Light, but the music couldn't be more perfectly suited to the waning days of summer. From the painfully timely title track to the gentle acceptingness of the final song, "It's Not So Bad at All," the music perfectly captures that mix of depression and optimism that has plagued my summer-fall transition since my first year of school.

Not surprisingly, I picked this record as one of my September must haves. For what I thought, and to hear one of the standout tracks,

CD Review: Feist, The Reminder

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:16:40 -0700

When I first picked up Canadian singer-songwriter Feist's breakthrough album, 2004's Let it Die, I thought it was perfectly pleasant background music. Her '70s-infused, lounge-y songs seemed perfect for a dinner party, or for playing faintly while I flipped through a magazine. Only the catchy "Mushaboom" really made me sit up and take notice, wedging itself in my head for days on end.

With her new album, The Reminder, Feist has delivered a set of songs that owe more to "Mushaboom" than to the rest of Let It Die — and that's a wonderful thing. Feist shines on the uptempo songs on The Reminder, doesn't lose my interest on the ballads, and stocks her tracks with the kind of arrangements that show she's grown as a musician since her last effort. For more on the album, and to hear my favorite track,

CD Review: CocoRosie, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:30:57 -0700

There is a whole breed of baby-voiced women — Joanna Newsom, Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof, and, to a lesser extent, Bjork — whose singing style suggests that of a tiny girl stranded on an amusement park ride. When the creepy/cutesy effect works, it's stunning, and when it doesn't, it can just be grating. That can definitely be said of CocoRosie, comprised of sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady, whose third album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, hit stores this week.

In keeping with the nursery-rhyme-sounding title, CocoRosie's childlike trip-hop mixes tinkling music-box melodies with silly animal sounds, operatic singing, and other quirky aural effects. For more on my take and to hear one of my favorite tracks,

CD Review: Bright Eyes, Cassadaga

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:00:38 -0700

If you're a regular BuzzSugar reader, you know how much I've been looking forward to the new Bright Eyes album — that is, very much, for months. Each new track that trickled out only heightened my anticipation. If the whole album was as well-crafted as the fiddle-laden "Four Winds," I thought, then Cassdaga would do nothing but rule.

You might argue that no album can live up to those expectations, but in its best moments, Cassadaga is brilliant. When it suffers, it's merely a matter of misguided ambition. After the personal and folksy I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, much has been made of this album's political bent. But actually, this Bright Eyes is more spiritual than political — at once rejecting established belief systems and trying to figure out what to follow in their absence.

Fittingly, the CD is packaged in gray-patterned paper that, when viewed under the enclosed "decoder," reveals a myriad of messages and shapes invisible to the naked eye. Inside, we get some of Bright Eyes' grandest sound to date. To hear a track from the album and more about what I think,

CD Review: Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:15:05 -0700

In the din of hype surrounding the new albums by Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, and the forthcoming Wilco and Bright Eyes, you might miss the quiet genius of Andrew Bird's new release, Armchair Apocrypha. But after spending a few weeks with the album, which hits stores today, I'm already willing to say it's likely to end up on my year-end best list.

The hippest thing ever to happen to the pizzicato violin, Andrew Bird is just as adept at crafting string-laden pop songs as he is writing rhymes so sing-song, it takes you a moment to hear the words. In his definition of pop music — and the extremely catchy folk-inspired tunes are undoubtedly pop — plink-plunks of strings and winds combine with twisty, turning electric guitars for melodies that carry you right to the edge of chaos, but not quite. For more details and to hear one of the album's best tracks,

CD Review: The Besnard Lakes, Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse

BuzzSugar — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:00:50 -0800

Listen to The Besnard Lakes' "Disaster," and I guarantee you, the first musical reference that comes to mind will be the Beach Boys. All of the elements are there: the languid falsetto, lightly woven harmonies, and muted brass and sleepy surf strings. But then you realize: The Besnard Lakes actually sound nothing like the Beach Boys.

In fact, the latest band to break out of Montreal has a quite novel sound, at once chilly, grandiose, and catchy. Better yet, the more I listen to the group's just-released second album, Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar), the more complex it becomes, so

CD Review: Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 05:34:01 -0800

Explosions in the Sky convey all of the vastness of Texas with none of the twang. In fact, the Texas quartet's stirring and soaring instrumental music — which often serves as the soundtrack to the "Friday Night Lights" series and the preceding movie — sounds more like Iceland's Sigur Ros or Canada's Godspeed You Black Emperor! than anything ever to come out of the Lone Star state.

As compared to albums by its instrumental-rock peers, the band's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, which comes out today, is more orchestral than experimental and more triumphant than dreary. To hear more of my take and a track off the album,

CD Review: Bloc Party, A Weekend In the City

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:30:04 -0800

The weekend in the city that Bloc Party envisions on its sophomore album is ruled by party-ready riffs and thumping beats. But beneath the pop-punk surface of A Weekend in the City lurks a sort of disheveled, drug-fueled dystopia, giving the melodies a much-needed edge.

Fans will appreciate that the follow-up to Silent Alarm never veers too far from its predecessor's path, with frontman Kele Okerere's regal, slightly overwrought vocals coating some of the most soaring guitar work in rock.

But while Bloc Party's lauded 2005 debut was a fast and furious high — I listened to it constantly for weeks then burned out — Weekend never quite kicks in like it should. For the rest of my take and to hear a track off the album,

CD Review: Julie Doiron, Woke Myself Up

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:18:13 -0800

I'm pretty hot or cold when it comes to music by girls with guitars. I love me some Cat Power and Carole King, but too often, folksy female singers rely too much on pretty poetry and gently strummed chords and not enough on innovative songwriting.

But Julie Doiron's just-released album, Woke Myself Up, manages to avoid those pitfalls. In fact, it is a testament to Doiron's musical ability that I was transfixed by each song's texture — including the unpredictable vocal melodies and the piles of guitars that come crashing down on top of them — way before I started listening to the lyrics. And once I started paying attention, I was immediately struck by how perfectly the music echoes each song's sentiment, so

CD Review: Menomena, Friend and Foe

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:58:56 -0800

Menomena is so weird it makes me giddy. The Portland, OR, band named its first album I Am the Fun Blame Monster, which is an anagram of "the first Menomena album." It favors baritone sax almost as much as it uses guitars, and the band even wrote its own software to compose its utterly bizarre songs. Yet, Menomena manages to pull off all this weirdness while making music that's entirely accessible, utterly unpretentious, and — in the case of its new album, Friend and Foe (Barsuk Records) — hypnotically catchy.

In fact, it's astounding that such fun pop songs can be crafted from a songwriting process that's downright dizzying. Not only does Menomena sound unlike any other band out there, but each off-kilter song draws on the band's formula in a completely different way. To read the rest of my take and hear a song off the album,

CD Review: The Shins, Wincing the Night Away

BuzzSugar — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:37:03 -0800

I've never been as smitten with The Shins as my music-listening peers, including Zack Braff and the hosts of most dinner parties I attend. The band's debut, Oh, Inverted World, was a jangly indie-rock pleasantry but often mellow to the point of boredom, while Chutes Too Narrow was catchier and twangy but not particularly deep.

I had high hopes when I heard the first track off the Shins's new album, Wincing the Night Away, which hits stores today. About one minute in to the slow-burning "Sleeping Lessons," vocalist James Mercer sings "Eviscerate your fragile frame / and spill it out on the ragged floor" with a sudden and chilling falsetto that later explodes into a wall of Strokesian guitars. The totally expected progression made me think this album would be different — catchy and complex in a way that earlier Shins albums just hinted at. But as with the Shins' other CDs, the standout tracks on Wincing the Night Away just make me long for more surprises, so

CD Review: Rosie Thomas, These Friends of Mine

BuzzSugar — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:16:20 -0800

In the spirit of Lisa Germano or Gemma Hayes, Rosie Thomas writes very pleasant little pop songs that are just as stripped-down as they are sweetened up. Not surprisingly, this CD isn't the slightest bit offensive — it would be ideal for a calm, classy dinner party — but it's not particularly challenging either.

Before I heard this album, I was smitten with "Much Farther To Go," a chilling, raw, and beautiful ballad buttressed by gentle strings and banjo. But the rest of the album, with its cutesy lyrics about kites and paper dolls, is light and airy to a fault. To hear about the highlights and low points,

CD Review: Jay Z, Kingdom Come

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:25:18 -0800

I got Kingdom Come with the hopes of including it on my Top Albums of 2006 list, but Jay-Z's lackluster eighth album didn't quite make the cut. Yet, while the music isn't as revolutionary as earlier Jay-Z, the biographical bent forges new ground in terms of what a rap song can be about — namely, settling into and accepting adulthood.

Though some have criticized Kingdom Come for its narcissism — as if that's unique among hip-hop records — only occasionally does the self-focus get tiresome, as on the predictable momma homage, "I Made It." But in the spotty but thoughtful "30 Something," the Def Jam CEO justifies his veteran status, boasting "I'm young enough to know the right car to buy / yet grown enough to know not to put rims on it."

For more on the highs and lows,

CD Review: The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:18:21 -0800

There is a distinct subset of music fans who grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen, graduated to punk and grunge in high school, and spent their 20s getting just a little bit too wasted. For that discerning generation, there is The Hold Steady.

At its most basic, the New York-by-way-of-Minneapolis band plays pure, triumphant rock with a steady beat and the occasional piano bludgeoning. What sets The Hold Steady's rock apart is the band's ability to capture the drastic highs and lows of youth, lust, and indulgence. On the band's third full-length, Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant), the music makes you want to join the party one minute, and the next thing you know, you're being dragged into the dark and eerie comedown.

Last year's Separation Sunday, with its lapsed Catholic melodrama, is arguably the better album. But Boys and Girls in America is the by far best showcase for the band's stellar lyrics, delivered in frontman Craig Finn's unique hybrid of singing, shouting, and slurring, so

CD Review: Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:46:06 -0800

Gwen Stefani may be channeling Scarface-era Michelle Pfeiffer on the cover of The Sweet Escape (Interscope), but her second solo outing is squarely rooted in eighties pop, with a little bit of Sound of Music thrown in.

While the bizarrely alluring first single, "Wind It Up," has Gwen yodeling and sampling "The Lonely Goatherd," the title track (produced by and featuring Akon) is a veritable kitchen sink of new-wave references, cramming in chimey keyboards, punchy brass, tambourines, and a catchy "whoo-hoo! yee-hoo!" refrain. But the nostalgia doesn't end there. "U Started It" is a well-executed Prince homage, with its sultry vocal melody and synthesized strings, while "Orange County Girl" has Stefani rapping through her life story: "A lot of things have changed but I’m mostly the same / These are a few of my favorite things."

But while the standout tracks on "The Sweet Escape" are undoubtedly unique, most of Stefani's pop/hip-hop hybrids start to sound saccharine after just a few listens. For the rest of my take,