Becky and Nathan Bliss are Barnaby Bright , a Brooklyn-based folk/pop duo blessed with a knack fine songwriting and Becky's lovely voice -- two qualities that are in abundant supply on the title track from their forthcoming April longplayer Made Up Of. We've written before of the "delicacy and grace" of the duo's meticulously crafted melodies and this swoon of a piano ballad, a self-described "song about loss -- based on a true story", is one of their [...]
Rosanne Mochado serves not only as the namesake of Brazilian folk/pop outfit Rosie and Me , she's also the band's frontwoman, songwriter and producer. The recent self-released debut full-length Arrow of My Ways follows the promising 2010 EP Bird and Whale , an introduction that made some waves here in the U.S. -- and a One Tree Hill song placement -- far from the band's home in the Southern Brazilian town of Curitiba. New songs "I Couldn't Reach You" and the lovely duet title track flesh out the airy [...]
Vancouver indie alt- popsters Said the Whale keep the witty, warbley jangle-pop razor sharp and full-bodied on their new album Little Mountain (March 13, Hidden Pony), the follow up to their 2008 debut full-length Islands Disappear . Last year's Juno-winning New Group of the Year began as a platform for songwriting dual frontmen Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft and then expanded into a dynamic five-piece band drawing on late 70's and 80's jittery post-punk and [...]
A rambunctious carnival atmosphere pervades The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook , the live CD and DVD concert performance from Elvis Costello (April 3, Hip-O) released last fall only as a $300+ "super deluxe" box set (and promptly badmouthed by Costello for the price tag). Revived 25 years after he launched the concept in 1986, the show revolves, so to speak, around Costello and his audience working together to randomly choose songs from his expansive catalog via the spinning of a 16 foot giant wheel with 40 song titles, concepts [...]
After watching the surreal freakout that is the video "Nancy From Now On" it's a little easier to understand why former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tilman - aka Father John Misty - speaks of his search for music that "actually excites my joy-glands". This is a collection of some strange, titillating images -- e.g. the shave and haircut from what appears to be a motel hooker -- that seems to match up nicely with lyrics like "pour me another drink and punch me in [...]
Sometimes -- just sometimes -- you're the "It Band" for a reason. For Australia's The Jezabels a series of three well-received EP's now give way to their dramatic alt-pop debut longplayer Prisoner (April 3 CD, Mom and Pop; Out now digitally), an album that plays out like some deliciously massive mashup of Muse, The Cranberries and Chrissi Hynde's Pretenders. Some songs take their time to worm their way into your psyche like a persistent tug on the sleeve. But some Jezebel tracks like the epic alt-pop anthems "Rosebud" and "Endless Summer" simply [...]
We've described Gemma Ray as a torch-singing, guitar-taming, pop-noir indie songstress -- traits that stream through brightly on "Runaway", the lead track from her forthcoming full-length Island Fire (May 29, Bronze Rat). Steeped in strings and girl-group nostalgia, "Runaway" is part Shirley Bassey James Bond theme and part twangy-guitar-meets-Phil-Spect or platter from some dusty roadhouse jukebox. Dig it. More DC on Island Fire here . Gemma Ray - "Runaway" (from [...]
Michael Kiwanuka -- Promising British singer/songwriter's distinctive brand of vintage acoustic soul and loose-fitting Nick Drake-styled folk has led to strong critical buzz in the U.K. and Europe as well as being handpicked for an opening slot on Adele's continental tours...the 24-year-old Kiwanuka, born of Uganda parents and raised in London, was recently named the winner of the BBC Best of 2012 listener's poll and wrapped a new track with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach...// Release : Home Again (March 13, U.K. Polydor; U.S. TBD) // Sounds like : Kiwanuka has been compared [...]
Denison Witmer - New collection of songs from the critically-beloved Philly-area tunesmith -- his ninth over fifteen years -- evolved after some life-changing experiences including the loss of his father and the birth of his son...what began as an EP project with producer/musician Devin Greenwood (Norah Jones) turned into an creative outpouring of personal reflection... longtime friends Rosie Thomas and Innocence Mission's Don Peris guest // Release : The Ones Who Wait (Just out digitally, CD: April 3, Asthmatic Kitty) // Sounds like : Witmer's intimate melding of strong melodies and thoughtful lyrics [...]
Last October, Brit folk revivalist Laura Marling performed with a full seven-piece band at England's York Minster, a gothic cathedral whose magnificent space lent the evening's proceedings an eerie, richly spacious sound. What she referred to as "the big daddy" of all the churches she visited on her inspired tour of regional cathedrals, York Minster now provides us with a 16-song concert recording that will be included as the second disc of a new 2-CD version of her 2011 album A Creature I Don't Know due April 2. For those who already [...]
Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of Beach House have been redefining their own brand surreal, flip-flop-gaze art-pop over the course of three albums including '09's breakout Teen Dream . New song "Myth" gives us a peak at their self-described "darker" fourth project due later this year, an album they say hopes to capture the feel of The Cure's Disintegration and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds . Pick up the free download by signing up at the Beach House site . [...]
Brooklynite Monica Lionheart applies a luminescent trip-hop sheen to her alt-pop solo debut album Indian Summer , a laid-back, 2am soundtrack of chilled electro-acoustic songs streeting April 10. A producer, DJ , songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Lionheart also uses her airy vocals to sublimely angelic effect on songs such as the dreamy, string-enhanced "Let Go" -- with cellist Yoed Nir (Regina Spektor , Rufus Wainwright) -- and beat-driven "Rocks to Ankles", a [...]
Bruce Springsteen 's long-awaited, oft-debated and generally well-received Wrecking Ball drops today, an album that reinforces Springsteen's reputation as one of music's most compelling and intelligent social critics and voices of the working "99 per cent". From the backwoods of the Carolinas we also have the fine new rural art/pop of Beth Tacular and Phil Moore -- aka Bowerbirds -- and we head over to London for 20-year-old songwriter and bluesy folk/pop singer Jodie Marie and her promising debut "Mountain Echo." Andrew Bird continues his off-center tunes with his mostly live-off-the-floor collection [...]
Fresh from massive exposure via her vocals on Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know", extraordinary New Zealand singer, songwriter and force of nature Kimbra will see the U.S. release of her best-selling Down Under album Vows on May 22 via Warner Brothers. While the album was a commercial success in her native land and Europe Vows is being revamped for America with additional songs recorded in L.A. with producer/songwriters Greg Kurstin and Greg Elizondo. One issue with the original Vows was what we termed the project's "cluttered, [...]
Great Lake Swimmers - Toronto folk/rockers led by frontman/songwriter Tony Dekker return with their fifth album in a decade and the follow up to the Juno nominated 2009 album Lost Channels... producer Andy Magoffin is again at the helm but this time Dekker and band opted for a real studio instead of their usual rustic "field recording" environs // Release : New Wild Everywhere (April 3, Nettwerk) // Sounds like : the studio surroundings may have been pristine but Dekker says "there is something very elemental about this album as a whole" [...]
Inspired by fellow Aussie tunesmiths Missy Higgins and Sarah Blaskow, nineteen-year-old Emma Louise has been fashioning her own wise-beyond-her-years songs since her mid-teens, turning critical heads and leading to the 2011 release of "Jungle", a pulsing and dreamy folk/pop award winner and radio hit. Spurred by Down Under success and some European buzz, Emma Louise gets a U.S. launch this month including the release of her debut EP Full Hearts & Empty Rooms on March 13 via French Kiss, a radio feature with tastemaker Nick Harcourt and some high-profile showcases including L.A.'s [...]
Some songs just feel right. Witness: Lindsay Fuller 's "One More Song". A church setting is naturally appropriate for the video from her forthcoming March 27 full-length You, Anniversary (ATO), a collection we described as "black shrouded hymns of regret, remorse and revenge." Producer Paul Bryan keeps things shadowy and mysterious, balancing the acoustic strums with some haunting, jagged guitar riffs as Fuller bites off her words and spits them out with doleful disdain. One of the best songs we've heard this year. [...]
Composer, keyboardist and singer Neeta Sarl leads Polaroid 85 , a London-based seven-piece outfit drawing on trip-hop, international rhythms and jazzy folk/pop influences on their new three-song EP Fuzzy Mornings . Strings, woodwinds, drum-'n-bass and electronica fuel the free-spirited progressive piano pop backdrop on the winning title track, a glistening, sprawling piece that echoes a Zero 7 and Portishead foundation but then shoots off on its own spiraling trajectory. Sarl's lush, light vocals twinkle above the scattered rhythmic fray like a songbird's melody on "If" and the smartly arranged "Daydreamer", adding a distinctive pop [...]
There's always been a fist-pumping ebullience to Bruce Springsteen 's raucous arena anthems, a sing-a-long spirit of a revival preacher laying out the gospel in defiant, exhilarating and mesmerizing terms. But the giddy blast of rush-inducing roots rock that has primarily defined his music of the last three decades -- from Born In The U.S.A. on -- is tempered in grim economics and political helplessness in Wrecking Ball , his highly anticipated new album. Working without the E Street Band and primarily with producer/instrumentalist Ron Aniello, Springsteen has chosen to shift not [...]
The music of L.A. songwriter Cathy Heller embodies much of what might be described as the "Ingrid Michaelson" effect: sincere, sweetly turned out acoustic pop that's lightly glazed with strummed ukuleles, chiming guitars and tightly spun vocal harmonies. Forthcoming five song EP Imagine Nation , due April 20, was produced by Bill Lefler (Ingrid Michaelson, Cory Brothers) and Heller co-wrote the songs with her "beautiful partner in crime" Kyler England (of The Rescues). At turns heartfelt and sunny, tracks such as the spirited "Breaking Free" and DC pick "Fly Away Home" reveal a [...]
Direct Current
![Father John Misty - Nancy From Now On [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/iS84BMFszW0_130.jpg)
![Great Lake Swimmers - Easy Come Easy Go [Official Music Video]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/vimeo/35617422_130.jpg)
![Emma Louise - Jungle [Official Music Video]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/cvzu3bKgt5Y_130.jpg)
Avicii – Two Million
Yellow Magic Orchestra edit from Chrome Canyon
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
