The Sound Of Girls Aloud

Kylie Minogue- Light Years

butterfly boucher - flutterby

Feast On Scraps - Alanis

Maria Taylor - 11:11

enchanting is the only word that comes to mind to describe it ...

I'm especially loving "The next messiah." It's pretty epic.

Hello...x - Tristan Prettyman

So my boyfriend finally lent me his copy

ani difranco - red letter year


this is ani's most organic and fluid sounding record. it's also her most direct and most accessible album. finally an album that i knew ani was capable. everything sounds so smooth and in every possible good way.

Is it as good as "Out Of Range" and "Not A Pretty Girl" then?

Acid Tongue – Jenny Lewis

Now that I have had time to listen to this cd numerous times I feel like I can explain it better.

In a word - gorgeous. From the opening Black Sand where Jenny goes new places with her soprano to the nearly 9 minute long The Next Messiah where she crams all sorts of different musical tastes. I am absolutely loving this cd. There is something to be said about every song here, no filler or throwaways to be found. Very eclectic beats, jams, and vocals throughout. For example; the drums in the middle of See Fernando work perfectly WITH the song, but if you were to hear just those drums you would expect a 1940’s flapper to start twirling about.

Love this cd!

BTW, it debuted at #32 - go Jenny!

Ladyhawk- Ladyhawk

what? those two don't even compare to this one. red letter year is one of ani's finest works yet. if not her finest. not a pretty girl is a classic example of what i was talking about before. it's very patched together. at least it sounds that way. aside from 32 flavors anyway. that one she pulls brilliantly. she does show her capabilities, but on most albums it's not as consistent as it is on red letter year.

sorry i am is also a great song!

i think ani difranco has a lot of great songs, but often times her albums are scatter shot and usually has about 3-4 great songs. while the rest are good or just ok. sometimes even meh. red letter year is the first consistent album from her for me. the songs sound and flow so smooth. none of the instruments sounds out of place. i think the time she took to make this record helps and it really shows. she slowed down and made her most consistent record and her best probably.

I really love all the songs on out of range and not a pretty girl but the rest of them are as you discribed.

todays album:

Hey CC (and anybody who may have heard it), what do you think of Acid Tongue? I am really loving it, especially New Messiah, See Fernando, Carpetbaggers, Jack Killed Mom, Acid Tongue, well – the whole thing really, lol. Sing a Song for Them totally reminds me of Tori.

Reviews?

I guess she is touring with one of my fav people, Mr. John Doe (from X).

Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke

Revisiting an old favorite. Bettie Serveert's Palomine may be considered a twin to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. It came out in the same year of 1993. It was released by the same label, Matador. The music is equally searing. The lyrics, intense and similarly relationship-centric. The singer's delivery is as effective as Phair's in the dissection of every nook and cranny in a union's dissolution. This is an indie classic. Why aren't more people heralding this as such? It's fantastic. It's like PJ Harvey meets Liz.

Amanda Palmer's stellar debut.

kings of leon - only by the night

Emo Side Project - Planes, Trains, And Long Goodbyes

Cranes - Cranes

I don't know if it's the time apart or the music itself but this is probably going to be in my top five releases of the year. This self titled effort by the beloved Cranes is downright beautiful. Opening with a tinkling, twinkling instrumental, they quickly get into a flashback of their earlier, aggressively dreamy sound. "Worlds" would have been at home in Loved or Forever. But this is a different band now and the rest of the album explores just how exquisite serenity can be. The mellowness is not be frowned upon because it gives Alison Shaw's gorgeous, unchanged vocals the stage it needs to fully assault your senses. The shadow of shoegaze is still lurking in some of the more achingly desolate instrumental passages but this is a band that has found its way from the storm of noise to land in a calmer but nevertheless interesting sonic terrain.

ghost of a dog. the best music laid to tape.

lol
you get more hilarious by the minute, wly

note for note it's the best album ever put out. there isn't a misstep on the album. the whole thing is amazing and it's not an album or sound that has ever been copied. many may try, but they fail. the electric guitar solo in 10,000 angels is absolutely the best piece of guitar work laid to tape. the rhythm section on that song is absolutely stunning as well. no one could ever get their rhythm section sound except for them. a very underrated band. i don't expect anyone else to agree with me though. this is more than likely my view and my view alone. which is fine. we all like what we like. nothing wrong with that.

oh my

Again

emmylou harris - all i intended to be

THE ORGAN - THIEVES EP

Don't trust this review. I gotta tell you this right away. I am in love with The Organ. I died when they broke up. I was resurrected when I learned they were going to reunite for this six song EP. Now, I'm listening to it on repeat for hours because I am convinced if I stop, I'm going to dissolve or just fade away into the air.

Thieves is more than a little heartbreaking in so many contexts. We have Katie Sketch's voice, more urgent as if she really couldn't stand to be in the room with these other girls. You can hear the tension. Her grip on her words is strong and emotional and tremulous. Of course, it was like this before but because this is their last effort, one can really hear it. I can almost touch it.

The instrumentation is less romantic this time around. In their debut album, the new romantic sound is thick and sweeping. The band in Thieves is angry, regretful and not so tender. It's a breakup album, dammit.

The six songs leave me breathless. There's slight, youthful humor in that sad/sweet/embarrassing line about skateboard not being a verb. There's Deb Cohen's guitar playing which perfectly dominates the instrumental outros like a dreamy flashback to the eighties. There are those dancey basslines and that forceful drumming, reminders of the strife involved in heartbreak. And of course, there's the organ, in and of itself one of the most mournful instruments. It adds another dimension to these songs, making them sound solemn, even the most uptempo tracks.

All these elements coalesces into the heartstoppingly beautiful closer. "Don't Be Angry" serves as a plea to the band's ardent fans. don't be angry/ i will die lonely. I seriously thought Katie was singing to me, along to a whimpering acoustic strum and the haunting sound of the organ.

Exile In Guyville

death cab for cutie - narrow stairs