So when I wrote my April album reviews (in June, of course,when everyone was writing reviews of albums they bought in April, ha ha ha ha), I had only listened to this album once, maybe not even all the way through.
Um, hello, what was I thinking? It’s upbeat and lots of fun and some of it’s really pretty and it turns out for a slow-ass not really running when she’s “running” runner like me, it’s the perfect running music! Not so insistently rhythmic that you find yourself running to its beat, but peppy enough to keep you going.
I *love* especially “Heers” which reminds me of what Josh Rouse sounds like live (but not what he sounds like on his albums, which are much, let’s say, calmer).
I’m 90% sure I bought this based on a review on Andrew Taylor Recommends although I am far too lazy to go looking for it right now. I don’t know the dude but I am totally into his “random posts about everything” type of site and I will mention that he recently reviewed some Cinnamon Buns icecream that I am dying to try, and he has also done some Mt. Dew taste tests and you know how I feel about the Dew. Don’t you? Do you know how JenG. feels about the Dew? Or AmandaJean? Oh, the Dew.

Absolutely Love & Adore:
The Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely” – Another rocking album from a great band. Can Jack White write a bad song or produce a bad album? Not so far! “Old Enough” and “Top Yourself” are my faves. If you get the chance to see them live, I highly recommend it.
Joe Purdy “You Can Tell Georgia” – There’s nothing unexpected here, but it’s all good: lovely lyrics, pretty arrangements, melancholy but not super sad. I mean, except for “Ode to a Sad Clown”. “Can’t Get It Right Today” is also great, even if it is on a commercial.
Meg Hutchinson “Come Up Full” – This album has been on repeat since I bought it, at least once a day, I swear. Can’t get enough. Listen to “Ready” “Home” and “Come Up Full”, then come tell me how you love it.
Joseph Arthur “Crazy Rain” (EP) – Digital, dark, dirty, scratchy. Magnificent.
Joseph Arthur “Could We Survive” (EP) – Very different than Crazy Rain. Choral, thick, harmonic. Insistent.
Fleet Foxes “Sun Giant” (EP) – Gorgeous. Layered. I might actually love this EP more than the full album. CSNY harmonies, but without that country/folk twinge. I’ve heard it called freak folk (?) but somehow I missed out on ever knowing about that genre. Whatevah! I’d call it “Alternapop” myself, ha ha ha ha. (If you like Sea Wolf or even Shearwater, I think you’d like this too.)
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):

• “Buildings & Mountains” The Republic Tigers
  
• “She Loves Everybody” Chester French
  
• “Roadway Hymn” La Rocca
  
• “Dust” Augustana
  
• “Everywhere” (Paul Devro blend…) Fleetwood Mac
  
• “Tick of Time” The Kooks
  
• “Heart of Mine” Peter Salett (old! from a fave flick: “Keeping the Faith”)
  
• “Fighter Girl” Mason Jennings
  
• “New Soul” (Yael Naim cover) Tristan Prettyman
  
• “Rise” Will Dailey
  

Other Albums I Liked:

• The Magic Numbers “Undecided” (EP) – Always love their harmonies.
  
• Duke Special “Songs from the Deep Forest” – Very theatrical and dramatic. Seems like it should be the soundtrack to something. Unusual.
  
• Jason Anderson “The Hopeful and the Unafraid” – Has a very Springsteen/Jesse Malin vibe to it. My faves are the last two “The Post Office” and “The Half of It” that are really, really reminding me of someone else but I just can’t put my finger on it. Morrissey? maybe? Listen and tell me who you hear, it’s on the tip of my tongue…
  
• Girlyman “Remember Who I Am” and “Something Different Now” (Live) – I’m really into the live album, it really captures their energy.
  
• The Submarines “Honeysuckle Weeks” – Boy/girl vocals. Poppy, electronic. Kinda ’80s feelin.
  
• She & Him “Volume One” – This one really grows on you if you give it a chance. Has some very fun, rollicking songs (“This Is Not a Test”) and I’m really into Zoey’s voice. LOVE the Beatles cover.
  
• The Weepies “Hideaway” – Aw, so sweet and melodic. As with Joe Purdy, you know beforehand what you’re getting. But if it’s what you like, you’ll be happy.
  
• Madonna “Hard Candy” – I know it’s cool to harsh on Madonna these days. I guess I’m just not that cool!!! I really like the upbeat dancy rhythms on this album. And the lyrics? Are SUCH a great contrast to the music. It kinda sounds like a breakup album, and you know I’m in a permanent state of breakup. “Miles Away”, “She’s Not Me” and “Incredible” are my faves. Despite what you may have heard, the JT songs are actually not the best ones, to me!
  

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Colin Meloy Sings Live! – I love a lot of these songs in their Decemberists arrangements. But I’m just not into it here. All very “one note”: every song sung with exact same level of intensity, same volume on both vocals and guitar, same earnestness. No ups/downs/louds/softs. Kinda boring. (These same songs on Decemberists albums? Not boring at all!)
Counting Crows “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” – I like some of the (faster) songs. But it’s a bit much and the second half really drags. On the other hand, it’s their best stuff in years. And I like the live versions I heard on Fuel/Friends a few months before this came out (a lot better).
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin “Pershing” – I like it the few times I’ve had it on..but I’ve barely listened to it. Too much else going on. It’s on my to-do list. 😉

So turns out I didn’t buy that much music in March. Not only did I not buy much (some of what’s below was gifted to me), but I didn’t listen much either… Maybe that 9-day trip to Japan had something to do with it? (And, no, before you ask, I still haven’t listened to much of the music I bought there [mostly rap], I’ve been too busy reorganizing music while home to listen to new stuff [and didn’t put those on the Pod/iTunes yet].)
Absolutely Love & Adore:
Jesse Malin “Glitter in the Gutter” – One of those (increasingly rare) albums that just WORKS all the way through. Really love it. I actually like it so much, I couldn’t even narrow down a favorite song for ya. Today it may have been “Happy Ever After” but other days it’s been “Black Haired Girl” and sometimes “NY Nights” and other times… Uh huh. It’s that good.
Gnarls Barkley “The Odd Couple” – The more I listen to it, the more I like it. It’s not getting the press or the play their first one did, but I think it’s just as good. A little darker, but still delish. Cee-Lo just has such a great voice, I think that boy could sing anything and make it beautiful. Favorite song: definitely “Going On”.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):

• “Rat Within the Grain” Damien Rice
  
• “Wonderwall” Noel Gallagher, singing the Ryan Adams’ arrangement of Noel’s song
  
• “Hideaway” The Weepies
  
• “Buckets of Rain” (my favorite all-time Dylan song) covered by Redbird (Peter Mulvey)
  
• “The Silence Between Us” Bob Mould
  
• “Changing Your Mind” Bob Schneider
  
• “Don’t You Worry” Jim Noir
  
• “I Woke Up Today” Port O’Brien
  
• “Vision in Red” Thao Nguyen

Other Albums I Liked:

• Hot Chip “Coming on Strong” (and) “Made in the Dark” – I kept reading about this band everywhere and wondering if I should be listening and CCB took pity on my lazy ass and sent me both of these. The former (CoS) is not what I was (for some unknown reason) expecting. Instead it’s melodic, kinda jazzy with some background fuzz, sweet and smooth. The second (MitD) is more what I had in my mind: disco-y electronic, rhythmic. Fun! 🙂
  
• Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Real Emotional Trash” – I never listened to Pavement back in the day; got turned on to them last summer thanks to Rob Sheffield’s lovely book so I’m new to the Malkmus fan club. On the rough, edgy side of rock. The first four songs don’t really pull me in but then we hit “Baltimore” and “Gardenia” and I’m a total goner… I could listen to those two (and the songs that follow) over and over!
  

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Raising Sand” – Hmmm. You know, people kept occasionally playing me singles off this album and I thought “hey, maybe it IS as good as people are saying.” But apparently I only like it in singles because I almost fell asleep the three times I tried to get through the album as a whole. Pretty. But boring. Maybe I will like them better in person? We’ll find out in a few weeks…
Foo Fighters “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace” – I was a big big Foo fan…a long time ago. (Their live show was one of my faves of my NY years.) And although it seems odd to say about music, sometimes I just grow out of a certain band or sound. When I put this on, I think “oh yeah, sounds exactly like some Foo stuff I was listening to 10 years ago.” (Loved their first two albums. Loved.) So while this album is perfectly fine and good and enjoyable enough (and could easily be in the above category instead of here), I just don’t find myself listening to it. I’ve kinda moved on.
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Just the stuff I bought in Japan. 🙂

Absolutely Love & Adore:
Missy Higgins “On a Clear Night” – Such an awesome husky voice. (JenG., a huskier Meg Nathanson? I hope you are listening to this album! You would love it!) Uncomplicated arrangements, quietly emotional. Particularly lovin’ “Angela”.
Nada Surf “Lucky” – Lovelovelove “See These Bones”. And “Ice on the Wing”. And… Yeah. The whole album kicks ass.
Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago” – If you aren’t already sick of hearing me talk about Bon Iver, then you must be here for the first time. This album takes my breath away, shreds my heart into tiny little pieces, and leaves me wanting more.
The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir – So Much Frakkin Fun. Various vocalists. Different styles to many of the songs. “I Never Thought I Could Feel This Way for a Boy” is their breakout but I love “Then and Not a Moment Before” and “Aspidistra” just as much.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):

• “Forever Song” Josh Pyke
  
• “Gravedigger” Willie Nelson
  
• “Sing Along” Virginia Coalition
  
• “Goodnight” Zox
  
• “Grounds for Divorce” Elbow
  

Other Albums I Liked:

• Clare Bowditch & the Feeding Set “The Moon Looked On” – Not sure why I had to email Australia to get someone to send me this album. She SHOULD be hitting it much bigger than she is.
  
• The Magnetic Fields “Distortion” – Loud and buzzy and layered. Some really great lyrics on this album.
  
• Mike Doughty “Golden Delicious” – Big fan of this album. (“I wrote about a song about your car”! Yay!) Subtract a few songs from it (another version of “27 Jennifers”. Really?) and add the one that’s missing and I’d be all over it. 😉 Still, do like a lot of it.
  
• The Raveonettes “Lust Lust Lust” – Makes a good pair with the Magnetic Fields. Thick and dark and pulsing.
  
• Coastal Chill 08 – Random (primarily Aussie) singles. Sweet.
  

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Huh. Looks like I didn’t buy any albums I didn’t like in February. Woot, score one for me!
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:

• The Mountain Goats “Heretic Pride” – Bought it toward the end of the month, just haven’t really wound up listening to it.
  

A lot of the songs mentioned here wound up on this mix.

Is it my imagination or does he put out three albums a year, minimum?

Anyhoooooo, if you’ve seen the latest KIA commercials, you’ve heard his latest single “Can’t Get It Right Today” off his new(est) album “You Can Tell Georgia”, much of which I am enjoying. It’s not a new direction or anything, but it doesn’t need to be.

Dude sings pretty. What else do you need to know? 🙂

and p.s. he made me his friend on Facebook out of the blue (I mean, I hadn’t friended him or anything because, you know, I’m not all that stalker-y as I might sometimes seem). I expect soon we will be meeting for coffee, exchanging CDs, and staying up late watching BSG together. Oh wait, that’s not how “friend”ing on Facebook works, is it. Dang.

Boy, people are really harshing on Madonna these days. That article actually made me kinda sad. She’s not my very favorite artist…but there’s lots of songs of hers I have liked in the past and I do believe we need people that push mainstream culture’s boundaries, even if they are the fakiest of the fake when they’re doing it, whether they do it as “brands” or “media monsters” or whatever.

I’m listening to her new album Hard Candy for the first time…and I’m finding lots of things to like. Maybe not LOVE. Maybe not OH MY GOD BEST ALBUM EVER. But there’s lyrics I’m likin’, and beats, and random melody lines, and I have always liked her admittedly not-the-world’s-best-ever voice.

Plus I prefer pretty much all my music with lyrics and that includes dance music, which is really what this is.

Absolutely Love & Adore:

Matt Costa “Unfamiliar Faces” – Quirky (his videos crack me up!) and fun. Melodic and rhythmic (which seems…obvious, but they’re not always both there!) and goofy and sweet. Really can’t stop listening to it. Particularly “Mr. Pitiful” and “Miss Magnolia”, both of which make me bounce around like a goofball.

Liam Finn “I’ll Be Lightning” – A month ago, I liked this but I didn’t love it. All I could think about was his dad. But then it kept coming up on shuffle and I kept thinking “Wow, I love his voice” and then I started listening to the album again, and then again, and… Yeah, I’m pretty much loving it. I love the chorus of “Second Chance” and “Energy Spent” is a lot of fun. I do think it runs out of gas a little, the last three songs just kinda of shuffle off for me. But it’s a 14-song album which is crazy in the first place!

Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kenny “Home, Vol. 5” – I’m so late to the party on this one, but I really love these songs. Lowkey but lush in their own way.

Tracy Johnson “Dreams in Cold Weather” – Fun, girlie pop. Sassy, emotionally edgie lyrics. Perhaps Alanis-reminiscent to some. (Makes me think of Merrill Bainbridge, myself.) Lovin’ it!

Random Singles:

• “Brown” and “Anemones” Half Acre Day
  
• “In a Little While” (live, San Jose Arena, 4/20/01) U2 (old, yes. beautiful, yes.)
  
• “Gimme Some Truth” (cover) Rogue Wave
  
• “Number One” Miss Fairchild
  
• “Thing About Trouble” Doug Burr (sounds like Ryan Adams)
  
• “If It’s the Beaches” Avett Brothers (SWOOON)
  
• “You Cross My Path” The Charlatans (UK)
  
• “The Faraway Sound of Cars” Reichenback Falls
  

Other Albums I Liked:

• Reichenback Falls “Ravens & Chimes” – Michelle, are you listening to this? I think you’d like it. A little Polyphonic Spree-feelin’. And some of it is so strongly Arcade Fire-reminiscent that they fool my ear (particularly “This Is Where We Are”, “Saint Jude in the Village Voice” and “General Lafayette! You Are Not Alone!”).

• Cat Power “Jukebox” – I like this a lot…but not as much as I like her originals. I love a well-timed cover, but I get a little bored when they’re the entire album. Don’t you?

• moe “Sticks and Stones” – Straight up rock’n’roll. Feels (and sometimes sounds) like old Rolling Stones, with a touch of the Southern/gothic rock thrown in. “Darkness” is awesome and I love the rhymin of “Cathedral.”

• Chris Bell “I Am the Cosmos” – Very old but new to me.

• Kathryn Williams “Relations” – Soft and folky. Pretty. Not sure I’ll ever listen to it that much though.

• Rilo Kiley “Under the Blacklight” – I’d purposely avoided this one (long story, or maybe not so long). But it’s quite nice, some good songs.
  

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:

M.I.A. “Kala” – I just don’t get it. Didn’t get into it at Lollapalooza, don’t get into it at home with the album either. I may not be worldly enough. 🙂

Patrick Wolf “The Magic Position” – I really like the first two songs. But the rest just doesn’t grab me.

Okkervil River “Golden Opportunities (mixtape)” – Download available on their site. I like their albums a lot (both “Black Sheep Boy” and “The Stage Names”) but this is (more) rough and ragged and I just don’t really find myself listening to it. Not representative of this band, to my mind.

Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:

• Lucinda Black Bear ” ‘Capo My Heart’ and Other Bear Songs” – just can’t seem to get around to this one. Soon?
  
• Good Shoes “Think Before You Speak” – Listened once. Thought it was punky! And fun! But haven’t managed to listen again.