NA In the UK: Craig Finn, Pulled Apart By Horses

Hey all, we’ve got some fine new releases on the UK store this week, so let’s get into it, shall we? Craig Finn, Leila, First Aid Kit, Pulled Apart By Horses, Nada Surf, Liz Green, and more, after the jump.

Craig Finn, Clear Hearts Full Eyes – Hold Steady frontman’s latest solo effort not a concept album about the late, great teen-football drama Friday Night Lights, as the name might hint, but is rather a stolid, humble serving of Finn-styleAmericana.  Here’s Austin L. Ray’s take:

Considering the motif of lapsed Catholicism that crops up repeatedly throughout the catalog of the Hold Steady, the frequent references to Jesus on Clear Heart, Full Eyes — the first solo record by HS frontman Craig Finn — shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. But while his past releases occasionally handled religious topics with a healthy dose of cynicism, one can’t help but wonder if this is Finn’s coming-out party as a card-carrying Believer. He explains the album title, which gives an admiring nod to critically-acclaimed football drama Friday Night Lights, as follows: “‘Clear Heart’ signifies honesty and transparency, and ‘Full Eyes’ suggests experience.” In other words, it’s about being optimistic and open without succumbing to the weariness of doubt that comes with age and experience.

First Aid Kit, The Lion’s Roar — Two sisters, one fair and flaxen-haired, one raven-dark and pale, sing misty songs of enchantment and etc. Seriously, have you seen these two? It’s almost frightening how out-of-time and spellbinding their simple folk music is. Performing live, they will wheel you back at least three centuries. Singing, man. Who knew!?  Here’s David Greenwald, providing something just a bit more cogent:

The Lion’s Roar is a record of romantic pragmatism and bold orchestration. Producer Mike Mogis (notable mainly for his work with Bright Eyes, whose Conor Oberst appears briefly here on “King of the World”) helps clothe the naked twang of the band’s debut with light-handed percussion, pedal steel, strings and rippling pianos, keeping the spotlight brightly on the Söderberg’s familial harmonies. A Neko Case-like minor-key gloom rolls in on the title track and “I Found a Way,” among others, but most of the songs stick to the sunshine. Gram and Johnny can rest easy — First Aid Kit can take it from here.

Pulled Apart By Horses, Tough Love – Barnstorming, air-raid-siren hardcore rock’n'roll, reminiscent of DFA 1979 and Hot Snakes. Lots and lots of fist-pump here, and plenty of songs to scream along to until your veins bulge. There is an anthemic, furious Something sweeping through UK indie right now, between this, the throat-shredding art-metal fury of Enter Shikari, the ragged indie-rock hymnals of WU LYF…a lot of hands-in-the-air waving and really, really caring.

Gonjasufi, M.U.ZZle EP –  Compellingly blown-out, grainy followup EP to 2010′s breakthrough A Sufi And A Killer. Rob Young writes:

Warp Records are classifying this as an EP, but MU.ZZ.LE – the follow-up (in ten short tracks) to 2010’s A Sufi And A Killer – sounds in many ways like the bigger record. Taped somewhere out in the Mojave, this dubbed-out desert music occasionally trips into emotional ditches bleak enough to soundtrack an end-times movie like The Road. MU.ZZ.LE sounds as if it were recorded on filthy equipment salvaged from Radio Shack dumpsters, with Gonjasufi’s searing, blurted vocals dissolving immediately upon emerging from the speaker cones.

Leila, U&I – Brilliant, crunching, dystopic-thriller electronic landscapes, also from Warp Records. Look for aneMusic Q&A with Leila on the site soon.

My Best Fiend, Higher Palms ­– More from Warp! This sounds promising as well, a new signee, with surf guitars that sound like they’ve been submerged in some viscous liquid and soft-focus chimes creating a beach-sunset sort of melancholy.

Nada Surf, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy – The indie-pop survivors are back with their newest album, a slightly more Teenage Fanclub/Jade Tree-sounding take on their patented dewy, anthemic power-pop. Ryan Reed writes:

Though there are only three of them, Nada Surf are still the inverse of a power trio: Daniel Lorca’s bass pumps along merrily underneath Caws’s rich guitar flourishes, while drummer Ira Elliot plays just enough to not overplay, content with four-to-the-floor pulses and splashy cymbals that punctuate every phrase. Melody, as always, is the star of this show — Nada Surf are just along for the ride.

Liz Green, O Devotion – Long-awaited, haunting/haunted slab of bluesy indie-folk. Chris Nickson writes:

“Gallows” is as scary and bleak a piece as you’re ever likely to hear — just voice and guitar, building its quiet intensity until a surprising nursery rhyme quote shatters the tension like someone dropping a glass, and then the song returns to its original rhythm. It’s gorgeously, darkly creepy. It’s blues, but not in any conventional sense. Instead, there’s a shadowy, disturbing sense of sorrow that underpins everything, accented by the splinters of New Orleans horns that float like ghosts around the back of tracks like “Luis” and “Hey Joe” (not that one) and Green’s deliberately expressionless tone, a voice that seems to come from somewhere out of time and ups the fear factor of it all. Even her promise of “a whole lot of fun tonight” is tinged with menace.

Neil Cowley Trio, Face of Mount Molehill – Melodically adventurous, yet songful and always ingratiating, piano-combo jazz. Joe Muggs writes:

The sweetness of the record is incredibly uncontrived – it never feels like it’s trying too hard to please, but instead like the musicians are just revelling in capturing and exploring a mood on each track. On the slower pieces like “Meyer,” “Distance by Clockwork” and “Siren’s Last Look Back,” this creates some deliciously evocative results, perfect themes for bittersweet scenes in films as-yet unmade. Faster tracks like “Rooster Was a Witness” and “Fable” get into a springy groove and run with it, but those grooves are quirky, as close to Bartok or motorik Krautrock bands as to anything in the jazz/funk continuum. More often still, the mood shifts between the contemplative and the repetitious bounce, as if an idea is allowed to develop until suddenly it takes on a life of its own. It might be pleasant, but its pleasure is in its stimulation: In a very real sense, it’s a refreshing listen.

The Kabeedies, Soap – Breezy, gentle, lightly soulful jangle-pop, inflected with some one-drop reggae lilting. This sounds like something to hold onto for when the sky turns blue again.

Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Lost Paradize Edits – Rare edits of brilliant NYC-art disco legends.

Wiley, Evolve or Be Extinct – This came in late last week, but wanted to spotlight it so no one missed it. Latest from insanely prolific grime stalwart finds him insisting “I’m weird/But I’m not a bipolar” in his patented tar-thick accent over kitchen-sink production.

DJ Food, The Search Engine – Ninja Tune latest is from Strictly Kev, a DJ who was once one of the four in the collective that  comprised DJ Food. Now he is a solo act, but the album is richly and densely layered with the same clattering bongo loops and deft snip-and-paste aesthetic that has made past DJ Food releases so vitally nourishing.

Concrete Knives, You Can’t Blame The Youth – Rousing MOR indie. File this under the “This Sounds Decent Enough” Files.

The Orange Cardigan, Cassette Tape Recordings, 1979-1982 – The name of this band feels so on-the-nose that it’s easy to imagine it being some obscure record-nerd hoax, but lo, they are a real band and they really existed in the explosively fertile post-punk era. RecordCollector, take it away:

You would think that ultra-niche labels such as Only Fit For The Bin must some day run out of lost material, but it would seem the sheer number of worthy bands that fell between the cracks during the highly fertile post-/punk era provides an inexhaustible supply … These recordings may be raw and a little hissy, but clearly show that the Cardigan were one of those stark, jerky, clever post-punk acts of the time – and a superior one at that.

Gangrene, Vodka & Ayahuasca – Awesome little beat-tape project from Oh No, the massively underrated but rising indie-rap producer who is Madlib’s younger brother, and New York rap veteran The Alchemist. A lot of scowling skullcap-wearing rapper on here sounding tough and dead-eyed and menacing. It hits a perfect little Queensbridge-rap sweet spot.

Mano De Dios, Sleep Through the Morning Light­ – Just a riotously fun record. Ian Gittins wrote a great review for us, which I’ll share a chunk of:

Mano De Dios boast members of Spanish, Cuban and English provenance and their forte is a vivacious, irresistible strain of flamenco-hued Latin party music that suggests an edgier, more attitudinal take on the Gypsy Kings. Their trump card is Spanish singer/guitarist Jackson Scott, whose prodigious songwriting talents incorporate punk, rumba and samba tropes while never straying far from good old rock ‘n’ roll.

Various Artists, This One’s For Him: A Tribute to  Guy Clark – Like it says on the tin! Featuring Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Shawn Colvin, and others.