For country fans two of the best this year are on eMusic:

Bill Kirchen, Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods and

David Ball Heartaches By the Number — great classic country extremely well done. If you like trad country, you can’t go past it.

Pigeon Detectives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1kKeFWV8Nc&NR=1
This one is in the line of the British invasion, a bit like the Rakes and like Little Man Tate. Although their sound is maybe more raw and energetic. And yes they have a thick accent too.

Blackfield (album preview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMP8lS7FQTo
Keyboards, guitars and great vocals make up this Israeli - UK collaboration. Almost sounds epic at times.

Oi va Voi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxM0b2CYlzQ
According to Wikipedia: experimental Jewish music. Pretty much says it all. Ok I’ve got to admit that this first single is absolutely not representative for the whole album. The rest is much more quiet and most of the songs features a, at times, fragile women’s voice.

(I just saw that the Oi-Va-Voi album is due in the UK at the 9th of July, they must have released it earlier in the Netherlands because of their tour)

I love it. The drum sound is great (as always), I love the use of echo and silent spaces, the hooks are sharp as ever, and the addition of horns suits the songs really well.

Having said that, the test for me these days isn’t how I feel about a disc upon its release, but whether I’m still regularly listening to it in a few months. That’s one downside of the easy access to new songs now. It can increase the disposable feel of music. If something doesn’t grab me quickly, I tend to zip forward on my iPod.(n.1) If something grabs me quickly, I’ll listen to it intensely for a while, then tend to disregard it (and return to it much later, when I can listen to it again with “fresh ears,” so to speak). This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon; similarly, I can’t listen to a lot of stuff – e.g., most of the Beatles catalogue – because it’s so played out that it has become a cliché to me.

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(n.1) I eventually give album cuts a chance after I’ve tired of the most immediately appealing songs. Many times these become my favorite songs on the disc.

also, daniel, i have to say i’m not nuts about the spoon record. i wish i were.

the next post will have my favorite non-emu songs and albums so far, btw. some great stuff out there.

Anyway, I look forward to tomorrow’s post.

Low – Drums and Guns
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
Panda Bear – Person Pitch
Deerhunter – Fluorescent Grey (EP)
Apparat – Walls
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Kathy Diamond – Miss Diamond To You
The Nat’l – Boxer
The Twilight Sad – 14 Autumns, 15 Winters
Tinariwen – Aman Iman
Vieux Farka Toure – Vieux Farka Toure
The Clientele – God Save
Sally Shapiro – Disco Romance
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

The Spoon disc is now streaming on the band’s website, so I consider it fair game. I’m still digesting James Blood Ulmer’s Bad Blood In The City, but I’d bet it will be high on my list by year’s end (although the fact that it’s half cover songs may hold it back some). I really like Neon Bible, but it’s worn on me. And I’m torn on the discs from Deerhoof and Of Montreal, both of whom are often too cutesy to – and grating on – me.

And if the forthcoming disc from The New Pornographers is as good as the first single (Your Rights Vs. My Rights), which is posted on the band’s MySpace page, it will leap to the top of my list. But I’m a big fan of TNP, which I’m sure influences my view.

On the top of my eMu list for 2007 are (no particular order):
Rakes - Ten New Messages
Blackfield - Blacfield II
Pigeon Detectives - Wait For Me
Oi Va Voi - Oi Va Voi

Still had no chance of evaluating some new arrival from this month but I’m looking forward to the National/The White Stripes and the new Vive La Fete.