Wow, another great-records-by-the-truckload New Arrivals day. Let’s go through a bunch of them together, shall we?
Metric, Fantasies — The fourth record from the band at the center of the Canadian-indie-rock-collective Venn Diagram that has also given us Broken Social Scene, among others. On very first listen, this one feels very widescreen — the same sort of “ok, they’re really going for it this time” feeling I got from the opening moments of TV On The Radio’s last one. After the jump, a music-crit adjective tag cloud you can pick and choose from to review it yourself!
Surging Sweeping cinematic anthemic soaring
Super Furry Animals, Dark Days/Light Years – Good to have these guys back. I haven’t listened to this in full yet, but the squelchy synths of “Crazy Naked Girls” and ersatz-Prince robo-funk of “Moped Eyes” suggest that these guys are back in full weird-whimsy mode. Pick hit: “Inaugural Trams.”
Yonlu, A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed is Inconceivably Mediocre – Joe has been looking forward to this one for awhile. Richard Gehr wrote a pretty eloquent review:
Some of the songs on this surprisingly uplifting collection — notably “I Know What It’s Like,” “Luana (Mêcanica Celeste Aplicada),” and “Waterfall” — stand up with the best Brazilian popular music on record. Others are obviously the work of a young experimentalist who had yet to find his voice and, in a very real sense, died trying … At his best, Yonlu combines the cerebral sophistication of tropicalia star Caetano Veloso with the tragic fragility of Nick Drake. Yet judging by the rough edits and musique concréte of tracks like “The Boy and the Tiger” and “Q-Tip,” Yonlu had plenty of room to grow as a sonic scientist. His wordless crooning in “Waterfall” is guaranteed to blend brilliantly with Panda Bear on your next heartbreak-inspired mixtape.
Yep, sign me up for that.
Easy Star All-Stars, Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band – Things always get a little uncomfortable over here whenever Joe and Yancey insist to Alex and me that we are unfairly dismissing Radiodread.
The Juan MacLean, The Future Will Come – So I love “Happy House.” Hi, I am a sentient human. If you want a somewhat more informed take on this new one, peep the words of a certain Todd Burns:
Despite its trio of lengthy floor-filling numbers, this is an album that always has its eye on some Utopian Billboard chart where Cerrone, Moroder and Chic radio singles still rule. It’s a world where electronic music is still actually played, with live drummers, impossibly warm synthesizers and handclaps upon handclaps. Despite its aforementioned 12-minute run time, closer “Happy House” is the culmination of this aesthetic, a joyous exultation that lovingly lifts its two chords from every house track ever (generally) and Dubtribe Sound System (specifically) and ends with Whang singing “Launch me into spaaaaaaaaaaaaace!” By track’s end, you’ll know exactly what she means.
John Doe and the Sadies, Country Club – There will be a review up of this tomorrow, but this is basically John Doe of X having a blast covering a bunch of country tunes. Great fun.
Rodriguez, Coming From Reality – Cold Fact was one of the most welcome and enduring surprises of 2008, and this earlier material, newly reissued, captures a slightly folkier, more mellow, Sixto.
Valery Gergiev, Mahler Symphony No. 8 – It might seem impossible that the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev is actually human, given his insane level of productivity. But he continues to take this Mahler symphonies to just celestial levels of resonance and gorgeousness. This one, the Eighth, is the “biggest” — it was nicknamed the “Symphony of A Thousand,” for the number of musicians onstage needed to perform it. (Not actually one thousand musicians, but still.)
Nigeria 70 Vol. 1 – Keeping up with these is blinding/frustrating. Especially since they’re ALL GOOD. Argh.
CaUSE Co-Motion!, Because Because Because EP – New Cause-Comotion! I adore these dorks. More tin can, tinker-toy, covering-Descendents-in-an-echoey-bathroom fun. Sooo invigorating.
I’ve written before at 17 Dots that The Juan MacLean was the artist I’d most love to see added to emu. The singles were great, and now that the new album is available here — in advance, no less! — mine is a Happy House indeed.
John Doe is one of the handful of my most cherished emu discoveries. This one’s obviously a bit of a (presumably) one-off detour, and after hearing the premise, I was very pleasantly surprised by how warm and intimate this is — quite unlike the hyped-up X kind of party thing I was expecting. One of my favorite things about John is that there’s no man in any genre who duets with women better. His last record, 2007′s A Year in the Wilderness, featured duets with Jill Sobule, Aimee Mann, as well as 3 tracks with Kathleen Harris, also prominently featured here.
(To finish the argument re: John’s duetting, add Neko Case, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Veronica Jane…not a stunt appearance in the lot. Just comfortable, organic partnership.)
It’s also nice to see that John’s songwriting holds up well against some of these classics, suggesting that my hunch that John’s songs will be remembered for a long time is a good one.
And Jayson, DUDE, do NOT tell me that you’ve not shown proper love to Dread Zeppelin either.
my favorite find today — by a long shot — is track two on this.
Haha Tim, between this and Lisztomania, I have a hunch that I am in your personal dog house list for most of the rest of 09. I have not heard Dread Zeppelin, no. I will listen to Radiodread, I promise.
Listened to a few of the Yonlu samples and the first thing they reminded me of, strangely enough, was Elliott Smith.
So how does Nigeria 70 – Lagos Jump relate to Nigeria 70 Vol. 1? By Vol. 1 do they mean Vol. 2? Or did emusic get them out of order?
Also this (http://www.emusic.com/album/Mulatu-Astatke-The-Heliocentrics-Inspiration-Information-3-MP3-Download/11404549.html) could be interesting for folks who like ethiopian jazz. I wasn’t all that into Strut’s previous collab records but this one could be interesting…
Ahhhh Dread Zeppelin the Reggae LZ coverband with a Elvis Impersonator as the Front-man. Memories of 120 Minutes floating in my head (There very of Black Dog is Classic).
Glad to see the Yonlu, gonna check him out.
Worst New Album of the Week:http://www.emusic.com/album/Rape-X-False-MP3-Download/11414823.html as I said on Twitter. . . THIS the totally not Jazz
And I expect to hear some of it on EVR hahahaha
Jayson, have you listened to any DJ Vadim? he’s someone I think you’d like here’s his newest on Emusic http://www.emusic.com/album/DJ-Vadim-Hidden-Treasure-MP3-Download/11404546.html
is the new Joyce album, Visions of Dawn, coming to emusic??
Nigeria 70 – Lagos Jump is Vol. 2. Nigeria 70 Vol. 1 is indeed the first one.
Thanks for mentioning the Mulatu-Astatke & The-Heliocentrics – nspiration Information 3. It definitely sounds interesting.
Not sure this is a NA but it is new in 2009 and yummy. Sin Fang Bous. My heart went pitter pat, it did.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Sin-Fang-Bous-Clangour-MP3-Download/11325612.html
Nergal — thanks for the recc…I will check out!
Saradevil — yay Sin Fang Bous! That record is awesome, and is one of the rare, total “consensus faves” among us. So glad you dig.
On the contrary, much love Jayson. I think that Lisztomania is required viewing. I think it’s a better movie than Tommy in most ways…some of them lysergic. If you’re going trippy, leave it all on the court, man. It’s just that while Tommy is ultimately irrelevant, Lisztomania’s social context **at the time** was the door of endless drugs and sex apparently opened by our older hippie friends slamming shut behind us as it leads straight into soulless ego. (And if you watch with that in mind, you can see it as a subtext of the film itself — the universal truths of art are unmasked as smug self-aggrandizement and petty competition among contemporaries.) But it’s truly a gas, and rather than being out of print, deserves Blu-ray resurrection more than any film of the era.
And I loved your choices for the best of the new releases. But to Nergal’s 120 Minutes memories, I’ll add the video for Heartbreaker (At the End of Lonely Street. Talk about lysergic! And actually more of a mashup — lyrics from Heartbreaker and Heartbreak Hotel woven together by a bizarrely faithful treatment Zep’s music. If you’re going to check out reggae covers of great bands (The Beatles, Zeppelin, Radiohead), you might as well hear at least one of ‘em sung by a husky Elvis, uhm, impersonator.
Just bringing the Old School, yo. I clearly spent too much time in film school AND watching MTV.
Agreed there are plenty of new albums of out there with the DM Stith and Black Dice records currently top of my pile…
…and there’s the new Sunn O))) record ‘just round the corner.
Ummmmm eMusic is trying to entice me into coming back by offering me 75 free downloads. I however have never left my beloved eMusic. I would like 75 Free tracks though . . . should I quit eMusic and come back
