U.S. Girls – Gem (FatCat)
Is it Gem’s frozen nature that makes me feel encased in glass? Or is it my own detachment that keeps me from finding a way in?
Titus Andronicus – Local Business (XL)
If anyone in The Hold Steady was less than 45 years old, they might sound like this.
Bat For Lashes – Haunted Man (Capitol)
This half-assed Paula Cole bullshit bores the crap out of me. Its Enya-esque sonic soundscapes make me wretch.
Tame Impala – Lonerism (Modular Fontana)
It’s the psychedelia of sitting around your friend’s teenage bedroom smoking shitty weed, listening to people say the most banal shit, and wishing you could leave.
Buzzbands I Have Known
People don’t know shit about predicting the future of music.
Melody’s Echo Chamber – S/T (Fat Possum)
Guitars dissolve in smudged razors, pushpins hidden in your lipstick. There may or may not be a horror show lurking within your candyfloss.
Matt & Kim – Lightning (Fader)
Say what you want to about the quality of the music, it makes an excellent litmus test for weeding out fluff-eating imbeciles.
Grizzly Bear – Shields (Warp)
Shields is a city album. It functions as a nice urban version of Fleet Foxes — a sound born out of concrete rather than forests, glass instead of rivers, subways instead of trails.
The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth (Merge)
Darnielle fashions Hallmark epiphanies out of his Wal-Mart realism.
The Go-Betweens – Quiet Heart (EMI Australia)
In my 20s, I liked the Go-Betweens. In my 30s I loved them. As I prepare to enter my 40s, I am in awe of them. By the time I reach my 60s, they might be all I listen to.
