»Album Reviews For Release Date: 03.23.10
by Joshua Krage

Great vocal variety and some amazing production work are high points on this week’s list, from Inara George’s calming coo to Serena Maneesh’s walls of guitar haze, from Love Is All’s Josephine Olausson testing your stereo’s trampoline integrity to Zooey & Matt’s sunny-stroll sequel. Lots of goodness to cover and, speaking of covers, all you hipster Hall & Oates fans (and who isn’t one?) can rejoice, too:

Archie Bronson Outfit, Coconut – supposedly a garage-rock outfit out of the UK, this third LP comes on with strong psychedelics and rampant noise layers like something Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT) might produce. Still plenty of scuzz (for any of you familiar with their first two efforts), but acid trips filtered through a strong indie aesthetic rule the day here, with some tracks waxing dance-y and some waning into echo-chamber obscurity. Everything I heard on this LP really reminded me of the latest Lips album (Embryonic, in a good way), so if you liked that album, then you’ll find some great sounds here.

Autechre
Barenaked Ladies

the bird and the bee, Interpreting the Masters, vol. 1: a Tribute to Daryl Hall & John Oates – everything Greg Kurstin produces seems to turn to gold, and Inara George’s smooth, nonchalant voice could make Metallica sound sexy, thus any covers project this duo undertakes will always be a good idea; when it’s covering the effortlessly memorable soul/pop hits of Hall & Oates, it’s golden. Eight H&O classics and one smartly-penned tribute tune comprise this mini-album, executed with deft touch by Kurstin’s light-electropop layering and George’s strong serenade all the way through. Really it’s a no-brainer: great songs with dynamic updated arrangements done by a band who knows how to make it sound top-notch. Check it out.

Joe Bonamassa
Bonnie Prince Billy & the Cairo Gang
Bonobo
Bright Eyes / Neva Dinova
Dillinger Escape Plan
Disturbed – “Sickness” 10th Anniversary
Drink Up Buttercup
Gaudi

Goldfrapp, Head First – the acoustic-heavy mellow of their last album was fine and all, but with this album, we can welcome this UK techno/pop duo back to the dancefloor with unabashed retro-wave relish. A lot of this LP makes me feel awash in a sea of glitter while cruising a mid-’80s Miami danceclub, even in the slower moments toward the second half, but it’s all in a good way, and not too derivative of that Scarface-era Giorgio Moroder sound. This stylistic shift is much more welcome than their last one, and everybody’s dancing.

Inspectah Deck

Sonya Kitchell, Convict of Conviction EP – the combination of jazz inflection and pop/rock motivation in this siren singer is incendiary, and every track she turns in burns with slow, confident fire which rarely blazes, but smolders with intense heat in these more measured-pace compositions. Great strings sections and arrangements all around here, showing a marked maturity from her humble jazz/pop beginnings into adult contemporary stardom.

Let’s Wrestle

Love Is All, Two Thousand and Ten Injuries – a raucous slice of noise-punk out of Sweden, with fiery frontwoman Josephine Olausson performing sonic somersaults over music that’s downright irrepressible in its kinetic energy. Strong and sharp production mark a dramatic improvement of their overall sound quality on this third album, so it’s bonus all around.

Mindy McCready
Monica
Coco Montoya
OST – Hot Tub Time Machine (I still can’t believe John Cusack is in a movie with this title, but after 2012, should I really be that surprised?)
OST – The Runaways
Pet Shop Boys
Poema
Radar Brothers
Saliva – hits

Serena Maneesh, No. 2: Abyss in B Minor – a gloriously painstaking collage of shoegaze, punk, and sheer volume, recorded in a Norwegian cave and pieced together around the world by sonic mastermind Emile Nikolaisen. Comes off a lot like what would happen if My Bloody Valentine had more energy and a bit of world flavor, so expect lots (LOTS) of glorious guitar layering and moody soundscapes, but with a surprising major-key-lift resolve on the end track which is both unexpected and a perfect fit.

Bettie Serveert

She & Him, Vol. 2 – the title is fitting here since this album is, for better or worse, basically more of what made vol. 1 what it was, in all its sunny, classic-pop vintage feel and aw-shucks adorability. Zooey Deschanel’s twee, earnest voice is just as whimsically yearning and shakily confident as on previous efforts, and M. Ward’s magically sepia-toned instrumentation and spot-on room-reverb guitar playing set the perfect tone on every track. Endearing vocal arrangements are again a high point (especially on the album closer ,”If You Can’t Sleep”), and some of Ward’s solos are seriously blazing, but the cuteness level is a bit excessive at times (overload? It’s close) and Zooey’s lyrics are still strongly rooted in the girl groups of the ’60s and ’70s (like I said, pretty much more of the same). So if you liked their first album, you’ll really like this second helping; conversely, if that first LP brought you to your breaking point on the sunny-tinged optimism scale, this one might just send you running to the goth/emo spectrum for solace. I went in knowing what to expect, and found it enjoyable once I checked my hipster snark at the door.

Snoop Dogg
The T.A.M.I. Show
The Weakerthans
The Who – live

Mmmm, that’s a good meal. Upcoming weeks have some noteworthy albums dropping from places I would have never suspected, so gear up for an interesting spring and I’ll see you back here next week.

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To view past reviews, visit our archives.

Premiered over the span of nine different websites, eight Hall & Oates covers and one original song, “Heard It On the Radio,” can be previewed from a wide array of websites, from Brooklyn Vegan to Perez Hilton. (Opposites!) It even gives you a reason to maybe log back into your MySpace account again! Who knows?

You can find all nine tracks on the websites listed below. (But remember, if you can’t get enough of that “Maneater” cover, your browser history may paint a very false and possibly even unsavory picture of you, so get the latest info on Robsten and then clear that browser history!)

the bird and the bee’s Hall & Oates tracklist rundown:
1. Heard It On The Radio – MySpace
2. I Can’t Go For That – Brooklyn Vegan
3. Rich Girl – SPIN
4. Sara Smile – Entertainment Weekly
5. Kiss On My List – Idolator
6. Maneater – PerezHilton
7. She’s Gone – AOL Spinner
8. Private Eyes – USA Today
9. One on One – Prefix

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Learn more about the bird and the bee at thebirdandthebee.com.

The album will be released on March 23rd via Blue Note Records, but feel free to check it out (live!… kind of!) here tonight:

Track List:
“Heard It On The Radio”
“I Can’t Go For That”
“Rich Girl”
“Sara Smile”
“Kiss On My List”
“Maneater”
“She’s Gone”
“Private Eyes”
“One on One”

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Learn more about the bird and the bee at thebirdandthebee.com