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.
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.
Wild Nothing – Nocturne (Captured Tracks)
If you’re in downtown Athens, Georgia and you find yourself needing to take a shit, you aren’t going to find a better place to go than the University of Georgia’s main library on north campus.
REVIEWED IN WORDS Animal Collective – Centipede Hz (Domino)
The new Animal Collective album bores the shit out of me. It’s tedious and unimaginative. It is lazy in every conceivable sense — lyrically, melodically, sonically, creatively.
REVIEWED IN WORDS: Cat Power – Sun (Matador)
Sun isn’t as haunting as Moon Pix, but it’s every bit as full. It’s the first Cat Power album that isn’t afraid to look you in the eye. You can dance to it. It’s sexy and confident in a way that makes you feel sexy and confident. It’s a personal triumph as much as a musical one.
