Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews: Precap 2010
by Joshua Krage

So as you may have surmised, the Album Review department pretty much took the month of January off, part for vacation, part for the traditional post-Xmas lack of music news. Don’t think, however, that we haven’t been keeping an eye on the store — we’ve still got plenty of that new music goodness on our shelves, and have assembled the backlog of not only this week, but the last four as well. Dig in, enjoy and do let us know if we missed any:

January 5th

The Cranberries live
Findlay Brown
Ke$ha
Katharine McPhee
Kanye West – Storytellers

January 12th

Diane Birch – iTunes Live Session
Jason Boesel
Nick Cave / Warren Ellis – The Road OST
Manu Chao live
Elvis Costello live

VA/Dengue Fever, Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia – an interesting and rare peek into a cross-section of Southeast Asian rock/folk fusion culture from the ’60s and ’70s, presented by a marvelous modern LA band with a serious jones for updating that sound.

Final Fantasy
T-Model Ford
Kathy Griffin DVD
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Charlie Hunter
Van Morrison
O.A.R.
OCR – The Lion King
OkGo
Omarion
OST – The Book of Eli
OST – Fame
Polysics
Ringo Starr

Vampire Weekend, Contra – not quite so Afro-pop influenced this time around, but the Ivy League indie icons serve up plenty of lush arrangements and light, cuddly snark on their second offering.

Laura Veirs – July Flame
Ween
VA/Capitol Records – “10 Great Songs” comps by big-name artists

January 19th

Aziz Ansari
Danny Barnes
Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself EP

Editors, In This Light and On This Evening – stateside release of third LP from UK deep-mooded post-punks and Interpol contemporaries. Some fine atmospheric and overcast grooves, all colored in muted tones by singer Tom Smith’s deep, fatalistic tenor.

Eels, End Times – a less thematic but strongly cohesive new set of songs, a mere seven months after his last excellent effort. A more lo-fi, low-key, and reflective tone peppers Mr. Everett’s tunes here but with a few barn-burners to liven up the works here and there, even getting “E” to stand for Elvis on one number. This guy’s still staying under the mainstream radar but is making the best work of his career.

Jethro Tull
Dawn Landes
Sonny Landreth – Mississippi Blues reissue
Motion City Soundtrack

RJD2, The Colossus – if you need reminding why this DJ is an underground staple, thankfully this LP is a solid reminder. Wisely ditching the idea of singing a lot, RJ sticks to what he’s best at: combining a deep back catalog of vintage samples with thick, danceable hip-hop beats and other odds and ends. Bonus collab with some high-end vocalists like the superb Kenna thicken up the mix as well.

Joey Ryan, Kenter Canyon EP – such a great, understated singer/songwriter out of the greater Los Angeles area, this willowy and soft-spoken crooner has written some of the catchiest tunes I’ve heard over the last few years, and this EP is but a taste of his compositional prowess. The real treat on most of these tracks is to see how his ear for production has matured — and bonus guest spots from Sara Bareilles and The Like’s Z Berg are but one of many highlights here.

Spoon

Surfer Blood, Astro Coast – the best kind of power-pop band, just getting off their feet on this debut album and coming off like indie beach bards. They come loaded with lots of reverb’d-out vocal harmonies, big drums, tight and hooky choruses, and a bevy of lo-fi guitars covering the surf/garage/punk landscape. Bonus for name checking some David Lynch. Call it Indie, Walk With Me.

Gretchen Wilson – hits

January 26th

AFCTG
Animal Collective

Beach House, Teen Dream – the serene, psychedelic indie hybrid duo out of Baltimore get their third LP out in style and amid a huge blog buzz that’s been building since last spring. Dark, alluring textures (courtesy of composer Alex Scally) and hazy, hypnotic vocals (courtesy of songstress Victoria Legrand) combine for a sort of happy, psychotic dichotomy, like listening to Edith Piaf sing the Beach Boys during an eclipse. This is a good thing.

David Bowie live
Basia Bulat
Buraka Som Sistema
Celtic Woman
Citay
Clipd Beaks
Day of Fire
Joe Firstman
Four Tet
Fozzy
Fucked Up

Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck, IRM – oh boy.  Her last album was produced (and largely composed) by French synth-ambient masters Air, and this followup finds Serge’s talented progeny teaming up with alt savant Beck for a trip further down the rabbit hole. Mr. Hansen handles most of the composition on this album, resulting in a wide array of styles, all delivered in trademark left-of-center fashion, with Charlotte’s breathy, understated vocals hanging in the air like a heavy wind current, gusting or lowing to suit tempo. Really interesting stuff, with a great mix of quirky electronic runners, acoustic textures, and lush atmosphere.

Patty Griffin
Hello Goodbye – DVD
Harvey Milk
Home
Yuka Honda
Whitney Houston
Michael Jackson – This Is It DVD
Joan of Arc
Kidz Bop 17
Los Campesinos!
Lostprophets
Robert Lowe
Pat Metheny
My Brightest Diamond – remixes
Youssou N’Dour – I Bring What I Love OST
Never Shout Never
Number One Gun
Oh No Ono
Owl City – 2CD deluxe
Pit Er Pat
Corinne Bailey Rae
Retribution Gospel Choir
David Sanborn
Michael Schenker – instrumentals
Scanners
Neil Sedaka

February 2nd

Christina Aguilera – hits
Album Leaf
Apparatjik (supergroup feat. members of A-Ha, Mew, Coldplay)
Bob Blank
Dommin
Nick Jonas (& the Administration)
Lil’ Wayne
Malachai
Mavis
Midlake
New Kids on the Block DVD
Nneka
Pierced Arrow
Priestess
Joe Satriani – Live in Paris
The Soft Pack
Toro Y Moi
Vedera
Rob Zombie

We’ll be back next week at full speed, with new stuff out from Massive Attack, Hot Chip, Sade, and the new Yeasayer LP. Say “Yea!”

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