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The Album Bin    

Click on an artist/album name to go to the review or scroll down to browse
The Arcade Fire/Funeral.....Andrew Bird/Armchair Apocrypha.....Camera Obscura/Let's Get Out Of This Country.....
Isobel Campbell/Milkwhite Sheets.....Neko Case/Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.....Devin Davis/Lonely People of the
World, Unite!.....The Decemberists/Picaresque.....Envelopes/Demon..... David Fridlund/Amaterasu.....Dawn Landes/Fireproof.....
Juana Molina/Son.....Okkervil River/The Stage Names.....One Star Hotel/Good Morning, West Gordon.....Emma Pollock/Watch the Fireworks.....John Vanderslice/Cellar Door.....Laura Veirs/Carbon Glacier.....

updated 8 May 08

Dawn Landes Fireproof
Cooking Vinyl
2008

free & legal download: "Bodyguard"

Fireproof is an unassuming, sneaky sort of record, performed with such casual, comfortable intimacy that it seems as much like an overheard impromptu house concert as much as a studio recording. And Landes herself is an unassuming, sneaky sort of singer, in the unadorned, plainspoken tradition of Suzanne Vega, but with a subtle quirkiness that brings Jane Siberry, occasionally, to mind. Her music, while not overtly odd in any way, eludes precise description, probably because of the offbeat but uncluttered mix of instruments she's engaged here, which include a banjo, harmonica, pedal steel, organ, optigan (this being a strange, organ-like instrument made by Mattel in the '70s), bells, and toy piano. Most of the songs take a while to sink in, both musically and lyrically. Some saunter by with an Americana-ish, by-the-campfire aura ("Tired of This Life," "Twilight," "Dig Me a Hole"), while others exploit Landes' eccentric musical landscape in divergent ways: the Waits-ian carnivalia of "Picture Show," the tinkly tranciness of "Goodnight Lover," the stripped-down urgency of "Private Little Hell," the languid, semi-surreal banjo-funk (?) of the mysteriously alluring "Bodyguard." She sings often of dreaming and darkness and nighttime, and her lyrics make discomfiting leaps in both thought and image. Listen to how she uses her quirky chamber group to great effect on her affecting cover of the traditional (and yet, strange) song "I Don't Need No Man," with some of the percussion playing, it would seem, across the room, while burbling synth sounds frolic with the fast-strumming hoedown of guitars and mandolin. Another highlight: "I'm in Love With the Night," all lonesome-prairie torchiness and fugitive heartache. +   [buy via the Fingertips Store] 8 May 08

Emma Pollock Watch the Fireworks
4AD Records
2007

free & legal downloads: "Limbs" "Adrenaline"

"If Silence Means That Much to You" is the best song of 2007 that you probably haven't heard--three minutes and forty-seven seconds of delightfully unfolding interpersonal melodrama, with engaging rhythmic shifts and a memorable chorus featuring a melody that swings effortlessly between the beats. This is the work of an assured songwriter and it is one of many unmitigated pleasures on Watch the Fireworks, an album that you may not heard much of either. The first solo album to emerge from a member of the late, lamented Scottish band, the Delgados, Watch the Fireworks seems to have vanished without much of a trace, as Delgados records tended to do here also. It's inexplicable, really. Pollock has an uncanny capacity to keep her songs interesting, infusing them with stimulating melodies, engaging changes, and a sense of honest humanity. Her voice glows with a lucent authority that hits both the louder and the softer notes, the faster and the slower ones, with easy confidence. (Two other highlights are quieter tunes: the former TWF pick "Limbs" and the swaying, commanding "Fortune," which withholds its most powerful melody until one-third of the way through.) Despite its lack of overt trendiness, the album has by and large received solid critical praise--it's really just too good for anyone with even half an ear to dismiss. And yet since its September release, Watch the Fireworks has pretty much slipped quietly away. Or maybe this is not quite so inexplicable, if one asks: would this be happening if Pollock were younger and more of a babe? The artist behind this mighty record is, merely, a serious and seriously talented singer and songwriter. Not good enough for the blogosphere (37 mentions to date on the Hype Machine--two of them here--versus 210 for Lily Allen, for example), or for the adult alternative radio stations that should have been all over this CD this fall but have by and large ignored it. I strongly suggest that you do not make the same mistake. $   [buy via the Fingertips Store] 8 Dec 07

Okkervil River The Stage Names
Jagjaguwar Records
2007

free & legal download: "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"

Immediately engaging and craftily put together, The Stage Names solidifies Okkervil River's status as one of the decade's most accomplished bands. Frontman Will Sheff has an agreeably nasal voice--sometimes he reminds me of a smoother, in-tune-ier Jonathan Richman--and a headful of ideas that are, at least partially, driving him insane. Much tends to be made of Sheff's so-called "literary" pretensions--and small wonder, when you are a former music critic, when your songs are packed full of smart rhymes and well-drawn images, and when in fact you have named your band after a short story by the contemporary Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya. Even so, this is a band that comes across at least as visceral as it does cerebral, whether pounding out a gut-satisfying rocker such as "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe," its frenzied tension augmented by an almost Spector-ish bash of sonic drama, or spilling out a downcast ballad (the gorgeous, and beautifully arranged, "A Girl in Port" perhaps the best of these). While not a full-fledged concept album, The Stage Names has a theme, and it's semi-autobiographical--Sheff appears to be writing about what it's like to be an almost-but-not-quite-well-known indie rock guy out on the road. I sense that many of the record's references are beyond the casual listener's ability to understand them, but even so, Sheff drowns neither in his own cleverness nor his own self-involvement, thanks to two things: his oblique writing style on the one hand (half the time it's hard to know exactly what he's singing about, which is intriguing rather than confounding), and his uncanny tunefulness on the other. Sheff is fastidious about offering deep and honest melody in every song; for notable examples, I'd point you to the giddily attractive and percussive "Unless It's Kicks" and the half-heart-rending, half-comic "John Allyn Smith Sails," a recounting of the ill-fated life of poet John Berryman, which mashes a flowing, melancholy tune onto a cover of "Sloop John B." $   [buy via the Fingertips Store] 17 Oct 07

Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha
Fat Possum Records
2007

free & legal download: "Heretics"

The classically trained violinist and world-class whistler Andrew Bird is back with another mysterious collection of intriguing, expertly arranged songs. In lieu of standard hooks and a distinct sense of verse and chorus, Bird uses intertwining instrumental themes and brief, recurring melodic motifs to construct his elusive but beguiling songs. An air of bittersweet melancholy suffuses the CD, often the result of his engaging mix of pizzicato strings with standard bowing. And no I'm not sure why that creates an air of bittersweet melancholy but it does--listen to "Plasticities" for just one example (and while there don't miss a stellar instance of his wonderful use of instrmental themes, in this case the deep guitar line that first goes down, then up, after the words "precious territory"). Lyrically, Bird exists in his own world: he uses concrete words and phrases ("beige tiles and magazines," "milk that sours is promptly spat," "mascara," "tangles," "bootstraps") to construct mystifying mini-epics that are surely telling us something if only we have the patience to figure out what. There's just enough meaning to tease us along, and more than enough music to keep us coming back for more. Early favorites are "Imitosis," the aforementioned "Plasticities," and the (yes) seven-minute long semi-title track, "Armchairs," a deeply satisfying musical adventure with truly puzzling lyrics: "Yeah this armchair calls to you/ And it says that/ Some day/ We'll get back at them all/ With epoxy and a pair of pliers." + [buy via the Fingertips Store] 14 Mar 07

Isobel Campbell Milkwhite Sheets
V2 Records
2006

free & legal downloads: "Beggar, Wiseman or Thief" "Cachel Wood" "O Love is Teasin'"

Performed with a clarity bordering on starkness, Milkwhite Sheets, the latest musical left turn taken by Isobel Campbell, is an acquired taste. Inspired by traditional folk music, Campbell here performs a mixture of old and new songs (she wrote almost half herself) in an acoustic but not always mellow setting; some are stripped down to guitar and voice (one--"Loving Hannah"--is voice alone), while others offer a quietly dynamic range of other organic instruments, most played by Campbell (including cello, harmonica, dulcimer, and glockenspiel). While there's nothing electric plugged in here, the songs are given an idiosyncratic, one might even say D.I.Y.-ish treatment--an impression increased by Campbell's airy, pretty, but distinctly (charmingly?) flawed voice. This is a CD that demands a quiet listening space, which is I think the only way to appreciate the eccentric but fulfilling vibe, in which the sturdy folk melodies are brought to life by a recording so intimate I feel I can see hands on bows and guitar strings and hear the musicians shifting in their seats. The old and new blend beguilingly together, from the traditional "Reynardine," all crystalline guitar and forsooth-ful sentiment, to Campbell's cello-driven instrumental "Over the Wheat and the Barley": half yearning melody, half menacing background dissonance. I especially like her arrangement of "Are You Going to Leave Me?," its jiggy guitar lick offset by rumbly percussion and dark piano rhythms (plus seven or eight seconds of absent-minded tinkling--don't miss it!). While pretty much a background player during her stint with Belle and Sebastian, Campbell, on her own since 2002, has proven to be quite the eclectic and able musician. What she does next is anyone's guess, but I'll be listening.+ [buy via the Fingertips Store] 3 Dec 06

Juana Molina Son
Domino Records
2006

free & legal downloads: "Malherido" "Micael" "No Seas Antipática"

Juana Molina has become an unlikely pioneer in a decidedly 21st-century musical form that combines intimate acoustic sounds, electronic samples and beats, and found sounds. "Unlikely" because Molina comes to music as a second career, following years as a sitcom star on Argentinian TV; and yet maybe not so unlikely, as her age (mid-40s) and life experience may be precisely what allow her to come up with such a crazy but enticing batch of un-song-like songs. Molina's soft and steady compositions glide along with few standard hand-holds: no recognizable verse-chorus structure, no "normal" hooks, and, of course, no English words so at least you know what she's saying. Let go the need for obvious structure, however, and an array of weird aural pleasures are in store: the way "Yo No" dissolves in the middle into a rubbery haze of voice and electronics, roused back to vividness as a sharp hand-clap rhythm emerges front and center; the vigorously joyful clangy steel and wooden sounds which explode near the end of "Micael"; the synthesizer and bird combination solo deep into "La Verdad"; the quirky electronic "orchestra" that enlivens the charmingly urgent "Malherido." And of course all the way through there's the fetching familiarity of Molina's voice, which sounds perpetually like a whisper, even at full volume. Son ("They Are," in Spanish) may be easy on the ear but it's a vibrant challenge to the mind--making it surely one of the year's most distinctive and rewarding albums to date. + [buy via the Fingertips Store] 18 Jul 06

Camera Obscura Let's Get Out of This Country
Merge Records
2006

free & legal downloads: "Let's Get Out Of This Country" "I Need All the Friends I Can Get" "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken"

A resplendent amalgam of retro-'60s sounds and present-day know-how, the latest CD from Scotland's Camera Obscura, their third full-length, is a wondrous, bittersweet pleasure from beginning to end. The pleasure is in the inventively familiar-seeming songwriting and glistening production; the ache derives from the keen nostalgia draping the proceedings, the predominance of minor keys, and, most of all from the sad lilt in singer Tracyanne Campbell's fetching voice. The opening track, "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken," a tribute to Lloyd Cole's long-ago post-new-wave nugget, is a brilliant indication of what's in store, with its melodic guitar line, sprightly pace, reverb percussion, organ accents, and string enhancements. And then there's the always somewhat sad-sounding Campbell, delivering a crystalline pop melody amidst the free-flowing but exceedingly well-designed activity. Song by song, the band merges its various influences--girl group melodies, Phil Spector spaciousness, pre-Beatles R&B rhythms, Brill Building songcraft, and then some--into a delectable new stew, in which the distinct ingredients blend into something tastier than any single item. Among other highlights are "Come Back Margaret," with its heady string arrangements and heavenly chorus, and the toe-tapping shuffle "If Looks Could Kill"; but frankly I don't hear a weak track in the bunch, in part because the band was smart enough to keep things relatively short--just 10 tracks, about 40 minutes in all. Quality trumps quantity, every time. + [buy via the Fingertips Store] 7 Jun 06

Envelopes Demon
Brille Records
2006

free & legal download: "Audrey in the Country"

Rarely has a band managed to sound so simultaneously cuddly and dissonant as the four Swedish guys and one French woman who call themselves, together, Envelopes. Whether this is the result of incredible knowledge and training or sheer dumb luck is hard to say, but this quintet could give many a contemporary classical composer some lessons in how to give your ears a smackdown while still being effortlessly entertaining. I mean, sheesh, listen to the first words Audrey (aforementioned French woman) sings, on the heels of an alternately sprightly and heavy instrumental intro: "It is the lawwwwww," she moans, stretching it out unaccountably, and losing her breath in the middle of the odd musical phrase she appears merely to be attempting. No prob, she takes a quick one and keeps going. Not pretty but surely interesting. Then what about the bizarrely off-key synth intro on the second song, "Glue"? (I didn't know synthesizers could be off-key.) A guitar takes over and it too seems to have been tuned on another planet. I'd write the whole thing off as a lo-fi mess, except, somehow, the mess is making me smile rather than grimace. The glue, if you will, that ties it all together is the band's indefatigle sense of melody. Outside of a couple perhaps over-simple boppy-riffy tunes, most of the songs are anchored in solid melodic know-how, and enlivened continually by instrumental invention. Even after listening to this playful, indomitable CD any number of times, I find myself surprised at the sounds that await me around each odd-shaped musical corner. + [buy via the Fingertips Store] 3 May 06

Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Anti Records
2006

free & legal downloads: "Star Witness" "Hold On, Hold On"

Listen to Fox Confessor distractedly, without focus, and you'll hear a brilliant (if reverb-heavy) voice singing mysterious songs that often don't seem to have structure or purpose. The challenge, in our info-overloaded world, is to stop and really listen. Then, things begin to emerge: the tough-minded tension and fierce beauty of "Hold On, Hold On," the rollicking dirt-road gospel of "John Saw That Number," the gorgeous yet casual tragedy of "Star Witness." Quick-listening, snap-judging ears may miss the deep, organic musicality on continual display throughout this magical CD--the unexpected chord played here, the silence left there, the sparkly substance of all the background playing; indeed, the various ensembles Case uses song to song meld into offhand brilliance just about any moment you choose to pay attention. As for Case's flavorful singing voice, I find myself wowed in particular by how she sings in two distinct and distinctive voices--her lower register at once rich and chalky, her upper register pure and keening--that sound almost nothing alike if you concentrate; and yet she also, only, sounds like just one person. It's a mystery. Also a mystery: what on earth she is singing about. The inscrutable title, inspired by a Russian fairy tale, is a hint at the elusive, and perhaps allusive, world we're entering. A fine line it sometimes is betweeen meaningful inscrutability and perplexing nonsense, but Case's voice here is key, and now I mean her artistic voice--voice as character, voice as expression of depth and soul. She always sounds like she knows what she's talking about, and the musicians around her (including the indomitable Garth Hudson, the Band's ageless keyboardist) play with this incredible sort of loosey-goose intensity, giving the impression that they know what she's talking about also. I probably never will but I will keep listening, because there seems always more to understand each time. +  [buy via the Fingertips Store] 17 Mar 06

Devin Davis Lonely People of the World, Unite!
Mousse Records
2005

While not branching into any of the alternative genres open to industrious rock'n'rollers in the 21st century, Devin Davis reminds us how much verve and life is to be found in and around the musical palette bequeathed to us by good old classic rock. Although alluding to Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, T. Rex, Neil Young, and others along the way, the Chicago-based Davis channels Ray Davies with particular panache, both vocally and melodically--not only in the sparkling, beautiful "Sandie" but in the crisp opening rocker "Iron Woman," the irresistible "Turtle and the Flightless Bird," and, well, what the heck, most of the others too. Exceedingly well-crafted, lyrically elusive, classically melodic, respectful of rock'n'roll history even as it feels totally alive in the moment, Lonely People of the World, Unite! is all the more impressive as it is largely the work of multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter/producer Davis by himself (although he does bring in the occasional horn player, to wonderful effect). Rarely does music produced in isolation sound this spacious, loose, and alive--a whole lot like some of the classic rock which has so clearly inspired this smart, entertaining debut. $  [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 3 Aug 05

The Decemberists Picaresque
Kill Rock Stars
2005

Crisp, multisyllabic, and original, the Decemberists are a gift to the music industry, whether the music industry realizes it or not. The almost bizarre but ultimately charming sort of 19th-century-style rock'n'roll this Portland band produces is the perfect antidote to the soul-deadening parade of mass-market music (whether rock or pop or hip-hop) we've been wrestling with for the last 25 years. Not a corporation on the planet could conceive of any song on any Decemberists album. "Eli the Barrow Boy"? "The Mariner's Revenge Song"? And listen to them!: the poignant, ocean-infested melodies, the eccentric instrumentation (I'm doubting there has otherwise been a rock CD crediting a shofar player), and of course the curious words singer/songwriter Colin Meloy seems incapable of holding back: palanquin, pachyderm, veranda, corduroy, motorcar, gadabout, privateer, and so forth. It would all seem ready for novelty status but for the sturdiness of the songs and the post-ironic passion with which they are performed from beginning to end. Check out, for instance, "From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)"--the recurring melodic motif, those gratifying two extra beats sandwiching a major chord amidst the minor despair, sounds like something from a forgotten whaling lullaby, anchoring a simple sad tale from the unmentioned past. At the other end of the spectrum is the high, complex drama of the aforementioned "Revenge Song," nearly nine minutes of intermittently Klezmer-ish, accordion-driven, seafaring tragicomedy. Picaresque proves what fans already knew: that the Decemberists have uncovered something new to do with rock'n'roll, even if it means looking back into the dusty corners of history to find their way. $ [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 15 Jun 05

David Fridlund Amaterasu
Hidden Agenda Records
2005

More than three and a half minutes into the thirteenth and last song on David Fridlund's sophisticated and consistently surprising solo CD, Amaterasu, the Swedish singer/songwriter has yet one more shift in store for us. The song, "The Past Floats Like Stones," has proceeded until this point with a ticking, restrained assuredness, a Bruce Hornsby-ish piano riff underscoring a growly verse and plaintive chorus. A quiet trumpet comes in to assist, tastefully, and back we go to the verse and chorus. For many songwriters this would be a good enough song but Fridlund appears to specialize in delightful changes deep into his songs, and so in this case we hear the piano gain steam at around 3:35 and lead us into a new, insistent melody that both creates a gratifying climax and leads, further, into an energetic, trumpet-laced coda. A number of the album's other songs, including "Circles," "White Van," and "Before It Breaks," offer similar surprises (each, however, differently) in their second halves. In the hands of a less mature songwriter, these changes might seem pastiche-like or gratuitous; here they emerge organically as yet another sign of the marvelous depth of a CD filled with both aching melancholy and resolute (if grumpy) spirit. (Amaterasu is the Japanese Shinto sun goddess, just so you know; her name means "She who shines in the heavens.") While it is consistently difficult to decipher exactly what the songs mean--Fridlund sings in only slightly accented English, but writes in elusive phrases--the overall effect is of a sensitive intelligence trying to make sense of the senseless parade of life. Fridlund is beautifully assisted by long-time collaborator Sara Culler, who sings with him (and sometimes alone) on six of the album's songs.+ [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 23 May 05

The Arcade Fire Funeral
Merge Records
2004

This one is not merely as good as most have already noted--Funeral ended up on many, many best-of lists in 2004--but, with the benefit of a couple of extra months of listening, I believe it's even better. Playing with a gorgeous sort of crazy-quilted musicality, this Montreal band has produced a relentlessly engaging, tuneful, strangely brilliant CD--very likely a defining classic of its era. The Arcade Fire emerge through these 10 songs as experts in melding the familiar with the unfamiliar so that the listener loses track of which is which--the way "Wake Up" transmogrifies from an anthemic sort of alternative rock epic into a Motown jam session, for instance, or how "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" manages to weave a plaintive violin motif into the heart of a sparkly update on Talking Heads-style funk. Central to this capability is how skillfully out-of-left-field sounds--from xylophones to finger cymbals--are incorporated so that each seems precisely what is called for at the moment. And maybe the greatest strength of all on display is the band's ability to give your ear a memorable theme to latch onto, in the midst of each song's dense bravura. That these musical themes are often instrumental--a melodic line played on a keyboard or a violin or an accordion that repeats through the piece--adds unusual depth and grandeur to the proceedings. Belying its gloomy name, Funeral is a thoroughly uplifting experience. $  [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 17 Mar 05

One Star Hotel Good Morning, West Gordon
Stereo Field Recordings
2004

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve Yutzy-Burkey sounds like an at-peace-with-himself version of Jeff Tweedy, much as One Star Hotel sounds like an at-ease version of Wilco, with no incomprehensible demons to exorcise. Not that this makes for a bland record, by any means. There is more than one path to musical wholeness; not everyone needs to splatter the canvas with paint to make a statement. As a songwriter, Yutzy-Burkey has an impressive capacity for subtle melodic twists and gratifying chord changes that keep your ears delighted without having to shock you into paying attention. As a band, One Star Hotel have a marvelous ability to play loose and tight at the same time, and an uncanny knack for putting their sounds together (the band self-produced this very well-produced record). From the good-natured Allman Brothers-inflected "Can't Be Trusted" to the meditative "This Fall" to the propulsive "River Drive," with its at-once rocking and gorgeous chorus, Good Morning, West Gordon is an album packed with comfortable, concise, and spirited songs that sound quickly like a group of old friends come to visit. + posted 4 Jan 05

John Vanderslice Cellar Door
Barsuk Records
2004

Combining an unerring knack for melody with an uncanny ability to know just what sort of sound is required at any given moment in any given song, John Vanderslice is a major talent doing time as an idiosyncratic internet-oriented musician. As illustrated on the gripping Cellar Door, Vanderslice writes and produces with incredible care; never mind the fact that there is not a weak song on the album--there is barely even a weak moment, so filled with compelling lyrics, memorable melodies, and brilliant instrumental inspiration are these 12 songs. I like that he has the intellect and sensibility to open the CD with a song based on a Shelley poem ("Pale Horse", inspired by "The Mask of Anarchy"), and the wherewithal to make it sound urgent and down to earth in our current, extremely un-Romantic era. And this is certainly not a Romantic CD, filled as it is with matter-of-fact tales of violence, dysfunction, and foreboding--perhaps the entrance implied by the title is to the unconscious forces lurking below the surface in our troubled (but interesting) times. A high point on an album of strong material is "White Plains," truly as compelling a coalescence of melody and storytelling as I've heard this year. $  [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 10 Dec 04

Laura Veirs Carbon Glacier
Nonesuch Records
2004

From its vivid opening notes--stark acoustic picking against a languid, penny-whistle-ish synthesizer--Carbon Glacier sounds both instantly familiar and instantly unusual. This seems well suited to an album (Carbon Glacier: black and white) steeped as it is in a transcendent embrace of opposites: at once relaxed and precise, tuneful and jarring, private and public, fragile and sturdy, concrete and mystical. Laura Veirs is a mighty songwriter and compelling if idiosyncratic performer; through brilliant chords, decisive phrases, and a rugged adherence to theme, she all but single-handedly propels the venerable singer/songwriter-with-guitar genre into the 21st century. She sounds like a weirder, younger Suzanne Vega, a more intellectual, less brash Liz Phair; the songs are prickly ("Icebound Stream"), gorgeous ("Rapture"), mysteriously catchy ("The Cloud Room"), reverberantly inward ("Shadow Blues"). So precise and assured does Veirs emerge through this nature-linked song cycle that what begin as questionable idiosyncracies (her wobbly pitch, her sometimes unusual instrumentation) turn ultimately into deeper charms. $ [buy via the Fingertips Store] posted 3 Dec 04

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