Wolfgang Press - The Legendary Wolfgang Press

The Legendary Wolfgang Press and Other Tall Stories compiles the EPs Scarecrow, Water, and Sweatbox, three strong, eclectic efforts produced by Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie. Displaying marked leaps in sophistication and textural variety over their earliest work, the set establishes the trio as witty and incisive pop deconstructionists: a tongue-in-cheek cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" reveals a newfound sense of humor, while Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" undergoes such a radical transformation that it even receives a new title, "Heart of Stone."

His Name is Alive - Xmmer

His Name is Alive is well known for their ethereal, last night meditations but on this new amazing album the band picks straight up where last years Detrola left off. Pitch fork media gave Detrola an 8.5 and described it as "someone singing softly right in your ear".

By adding percolating afrobeat hints (no doubt from Warn Defever's tenure in Nomo) to the lo-fi 70s R'n'B and post-rock electronics of last year's "Detrola," HNIA continues to spin out a skein magically uniting their previously fractured 4AD dreampop and indie-folk discography with their so-called "difficult" albums "Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth" and "Last Night."

Fuzzy classic rock guitar underpins songs that span from the creepy, icy "When You Fall For Someone" to springy plucks on "Come Out The Wilderness," to the irresistable, unpredictable pop grooves of "How Dark Is Your Dark Side" and "Come To Me." It is the sort of electric blues guitar playing -- anethema in indie rock -- that many bands would have to be forgiven for, but HNIA's main man Defever captures a magnetic urgency that comes across as spartan and recedes into the more complex arrangements of kalimba, acoustic strums, and strings.

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Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog

The three EPs on Secretly Canadian leading up to this record have been solid songcraft mixed with pop wackiness. Expect more of the same here, only better. He must have been saving his best songs for the album, because there isn't a dog in the bunch. Kicking off with the warped "Tram #7 to Heaven," which begins with the deathless lyrical couplet "Did you take Tram #7 to heaven/Did you eat your banana from 7-11," delivered in Lekman's best deadpan Jonathan Richman voice, the album is a wild ride punctuated by clever samples, drop-dead gorgeous melodies, tender feelings, and silly jokes. The best songs are filled with moments that leave you startled by the level of invention, enthusiasm, and starry-eyed wonder: the careening steel drum samples of "Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa," the bubbling "You Are the Light," which is a thrilling mix of Dexys Midnight Runners, Saturday Looks Good to Me, and the best baroque pop/soul of the '60s (think the Left Banke mixed with the Rascals), the fluttering violins of the fragile and queasily intimate "A Higher Power," and the tilt-a-whirl harp samples of the aforementioned "Tram #7." The low-key ballads can be affecting too, especially "If You Ever Need a Stranger" (taken from the Rocky Dennis EP), on which Lekman offers his services as a wedding singer and desperate lover ("I would cut off my right arm to be someone's lover"), the folky "Julie," and the sweetly strange "When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog," a song that has Lekman's most intimate and honest vocal on the record. Lekman knows how to craft songs that stick in your mind. Almost every song here is the kind you find yourself humming at odd moments. "When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog" won't even come within sniffing distance of the U.S. charts, but don't let that stop you from discovering one of the goofiest, most artlessly charming talents to arrive since Beck.

Two Of Diamonds CD

Personnel: Mick Harvey (electric piano); James Johnston (electric guitar); Rosie Westbrook (double bass); Rob Ellis, Thomas Wydler (drums); Julitha Ryan (background vocals).

Mick Harvey's fourth solo outing, TWO OF DIAMONDS, finds the former Bad Seed mining similar noir ideas as on his previous projects, but building on them with gorgeous orchestrations and patient tempos. His baritone--could a Nick Cave co-conspirator have anything else?--resonates beautifully in the arrangements that unfold meticulously and cinematically throughout the album's 12 tracks. The song cycle also boasts appearances by fellow Bad Seed James Johnston on organ and guitar, and Rob Ellis from P.J. Harvey's band on piano and drums.

Mick Harvey - Two Of Diamonds

Personnel: Mick Harvey (electric piano); James Johnston (electric guitar); Rosie Westbrook (double bass); Rob Ellis, Thomas Wydler (drums); Julitha Ryan (background vocals).

Mick Harvey's fourth solo outing, Two Of Diamonds , finds the former Bad Seed mining similar noir ideas as on his previous projects, but building on them with gorgeous orchestrations and patient tempos. His baritone--could a Nick Cave co-conspirator have anything else?--resonates beautifully in the arrangements that unfold meticulously and cinematically throughout the album's 12 tracks. The song cycle also boasts appearances by fellow Bad Seed James Johnston on organ and guitar, and Rob Ellis from P.J. Harvey's band on piano and drums.

Gothic Archies - Tragic Treasury: Songs From A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Magnetic Fields mastermind Stephin Merritt dons his Gothic Archies guise for the second time (the first being 1997's The New Despair EP) on this 2006 collection of wonderfully woeful songs, which serves as a companion piece to the witty and morose 13-book Series Of Unfortunate Events by author Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, who plays accordion here). With the exception of two bonus tracks, each tune focuses on a specific installment of the tale, beginning with the delightfully downbeat "Scream & Run Away," in which the deep-voiced Merritt introduces the villainous Count Olaf character. For fans of both Merritt's inventive indie-pop and the Snicket books, The Tragic Treasury will be a welcome dose of musical misery.

Japan - Adolescent Sex

In 1977, the German label Hansa held a contest that elicited entries from over 1000 bands. The eight winners, including Japan (and an unknown group called the Easy Cure who later became the Cure) received recording contracts and, a year later, Adolescent Sex hit the shops. Perhaps because of its glamrock-esque cover art (this at the height of the first wave of English punk rock), it was largely ignored.

The band's vocalist David Sylvian is legendarily unhappy with the record, and it is possible to guess why: it contains some fairly misguided lyrics--especially on "Wish You Were Black." The album probably seemed pretty edgy and hip at the time, however, complete with its truly odd version of a Barbara Streisand standard, "Don't Rain on My Parade," complete with "ooo-eee-ooo" backing vocals. The record does contain at least two lasting classics: the title track, with its growling "Just keep on dancing" lyric, brittle guitar shards, and punchy rhythm section, and "Communist China," featuring several of Sylvian's early vocal experiments. However, as with all of Japan's albums, the unsung star is Mick Karn's stunningly versatile bass playing, and that is more than enough reason to disagree with Sylvian.

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DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

Though the sleeve notes of DJ Shadow's exhilarating long-playing debut speak of his devotion to "vinyl culture" and "sample-based music" (a guide of which is contained within), it's all just double-speak for hip-hop. Undoubtedly, this is the musical culture that lit up the life of young Cali-boy Josh Davis, inspiring him to construct these vocal-less, found-sound collages. Not the hip-hop that a dime-a-dozen MCs have turned into a cartoonish, excess-filled formula, but the hip-hop of such sonic anarchist producers as Afrika Bambaataa and The Bomb Squad. To put it mildly, DJ Shadow sides with the dope beats, not the bland blah-blah-blah.

Shadow's skills with a drum machine power Endtroducing... as much as his innovative def-ness with a sampler--which says a lot for someone who's been called the Jimi Hendrix of sampling. The songs shift tempos in a blink, incorporating multiple time-signatures, and it's to Shadow's credit that he's as comfortable hinting at Elvin Jones' or Dave Grohl's rhythmic attacks as he is citing old faithfuls like Clyde Stubblefield. His wide array of samples color the album's beat-heavy text. Ethereal horns, ambient keyboards, orchestral strings, vocoder vocals, whole film scenes--each is made a part of the sweeping focus, part of a grand postmodern design.

Brian Wilson - Smile

Between 1967 and 2004, the Smiles essions were pretty much the Dead Sea Scrolls of pop music. Well documented as head Beach Boy Brian Wilson's answer to the Beatles' masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (which was itself largely an answer to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds), the tracks laid down in '67 for the projected SMILE album were the furthest afield anyone nominally operating under the pop/rock umbrella had ever ventured. Notoriously, intraband conflict (Mike Love, in particular, found the Wilson/Van Dyke Parks-penned conceptual work too far out) kept the record from being released. With several oceans' worth of water under the bridge, Wilson finally decided to finish the aborted project three-and-a-half decades later, adhering closely to the original blueprints. The results are as timelessly breathtaking as the original version must have been to the lucky few who first heard the initial tapes.

With sterling support from his backing band the Wondermints, Wilson meticulously pieced together the conceptual, orchestral puzzle of Smile into a rewarding, cohesive whole. Even decades down the line, it still sounds miles away from anything else in the world of popular music. A series of extended vignettes tied together with seamlessly arranged melodic latticework, Smile is a masterpiece that incorporates the influences of gospel, ancient hymns, Charles Ives-style avant-garde experimentalism, barbershop-quartet harmony, Stephen Foster, and more, in a churning cauldron of lush Americana. Strings, harpsichord, and a wide palette of orchestral percussion are just as important as drums and guitars, though traces of the PET SOUNDS sonic stew can be heard here as well. A triumph of the will for Wilson and a victory for art and humanity, Smile bears--among many other things--an extremely appropriate title.

Klaus Nomi - Simple Man

Coming off such a left-field debut, it was up in the air as to what Klaus Nomi would do for a follow-up. That second album was Simple Man, and if listeners were unsure if the first album was a put-on, this one certainly didn't do much to clear things up. While the album starts out promisingly with an atmospheric fade-in followed by a hard dance number with the occasional Birthday Party-style guitar thrown in, the rest of the album did its damnedest to move the album's overall tone to one of self-parody. Could one really think any differently listening to the hyper-sugary cover of "Just One Look," the faux-country disco number "Rubberband Lazer," or the version of "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead"? As with the debut album, Nomi's true capabilities are shown off by his versions of classical works -- in this case, "Death" (taken from Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas") and "Return" (which is based on a choral number by John Dowland). The thing is, those pieces are right at the end of the album and the listeners who would enjoy them the most will probably already have been long shaken off by all of the kitsch leading up to it.

Gene - Olympian

Kicking off with the sprightly "Haunted by You," Olympian immediately conjures images of the Smiths, particularly "This Charming Man." Martin Rossiter's voice also sways like Morrissey, yet his band plays their songs as if they were hard rockers, bringing a desperate edge to their best material. Most of Olympian's finest moments were singles -- aside from "Haunted by You," the epic sweep of "Sleep Well Tonight" and the gentle urgency of the title track form the heart of the album; two other singles were added to the American version, including the stellar "Be My Light, Be My Guide." While Gene manages to carve out an identity indebted to the Smiths but not dominated by them, they also fail to produce an album of consistently compelling material -- considering that it's a debut album, that's not a fatal flaw. And Gene's best material shows they are capable of transcending their influences.

Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary

Produced primarily by Isaac Brock, Wolf Parade's full-length Sub Pop debut, Apologies To The Queen Mary, initially garnered attention because of the Canadian quartet's associations with Brock's revered group, Modest Mouse. However, given the potent indie-rock punch that this 2005 outing packs, Wolf Parade easily stands on its own merits, particularly since the band benefits from two gifted singer/songwriters, Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug. On these 12 tracks, Boeckner and Krug's ragged, plaintive vocals careen over fierce guitar riffs, rambunctious rhythms, and buzzing keyboard lines, as some songs bristle with restless energy and others slip into hauntingly melancholy moments. Accolades for Apologies started flying around months before the record's release, and Wolf Parade's bold, inventive performances here reveal exactly why the album warrants so much praise.

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Kate Bush - The Whole Story

The Whole Story is a sampler of the early tracks that show the promise of Kate Bush, who never contented herself as an ordinary singer/songwriter. The always-experimental Bush had a knack for populating her songs with peculiar characters. There's Catherine of "Wuthering Heights"; there's Peter Reich of "Cloudbusting" (an extraordinary track in every way); there's the mother in the lilting "Army Dreamers"; and there's also the womb-confined baby who documents a nuclear blast in the moving "Breathing."

Bush also looks to eclectic sources for inspiration. "The Dreaming" was inspired by Rolf Harris's "Sun Arise" and the Aboriginal song "Aeroplanes, Aeroplanes." "Hounds of Love" took its inspiration from the film "Night of the Demon." This compilation covers the first decade of Kate Bush's career (until 1986) and is a great place for discovering her myriad talents. Many have followed in her footsteps, but few have matched her.

Luke Haines & the Auteurs - Das Capital

"Hostalgia" is a term Luke Haines uses in the liner notes to Das Capital. He's hostile towards nostalgia, and yet he didn't let that get in the way of making new versions of old songs that were written throughout a bygone decade. Haines felt the songs were "slipping out of view," so he went about re-recording them with full orchestra backing. The result is much more preferable to the cheap-fast "best of" routine that would've occurred, had the case been left up to someone else. As far as what songs were picked, it's not quite the best representation imaginable; neither "Bailed Out" nor "Light Aircraft of Fire" receive new looks, for instance. Shortly into the disc, it becomes apparent that it's intended to be taken as a record in its own right, not as a case of freshly polished trophies. The ornate, expansive arrangements that unfold and sway throughout make it all ideal for a large concert hall. Given the characters and happenings present in Haines' songs -- from showbiz kids to showgirl brides, from child murders to buildings set aflame -- it's only a matter of time before some troupe stitches together pieces of his back catalog for their own Mamma Mia. Three new songs fit into the scheme, all of which show that the prospect of a fifth proper Auteurs record is a necessary thing. "Satan Wants Me" is prime Haines, with slaying lyrics, ensnaring hooks, stop-start dynamics, and dizzying swirls of strings. On the New Wave standard "Starstruck," Haines is even more vulnerable than he was on the original, pushed further in that direction by the epic garden music that supports him. Whether considering his own work or the material he's dealt with songwriting partner John Moore in Black Box Recorder, Haines has proved himself to be one of England's -- if not the world's -- greatest, sharpest, most sinister pop songwriters. The unfortunate thing is that, instead of introducing his work to a new crop of people, Das Capital is more likely to function as a gift for the select few who have been following his work since New Wave. The select few will also enjoy reading Haines' reviews of his own records, provided here, complete with star ratings.

Julie Doiron - Woke Myself Up

Julie Doiron's first solo record in nearly three years, Woke Myself Up is an unofficial reunion of her 1990s dream pop band Eric's Trip, with all the members of that long-since defunct band regrouping to back Doiron's delicate and warm-hearted tunes. Doiron has grown into a compelling indie-folk songwriter, with haunting minor-key tunes that mesh perfectly with the confessional, poetic lyrics of songs like the yearning title track. Although this is a gentle album on the surface, the chaotic emotions of Doiron's compelling songs are soon enough revealed.

Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo

With Nino Rojo San Francisco Bay Area neo-folkster Devendra Banhart brings forth a companion to his acclaimed Rejoicing In The Hands, released earlier in 2004. Sitting barefoot by the metaphorical campfire next to Beck, Tiny Tim, Karen Dalton, and Vincent Gallo, Banhart plays acoustic guitar and sings in a manner that's quirky, catchy, and a bit spooky. Here the tunes range from loopy ditties ("We All Know"), warbled mantras ("Ay Mama"), and half-crooned/half-whispered sing-alongs ("A Ribbon") to works that include a little help from his likeminded friends, including Vetiver's Andy Cabic ("At the Hop").

"Little Yellow Spider" comes off like a perverse Raffi record, as interpreted by Mississippi Fred McDowell. Later, Banhart channels the vocals of both Blind Willie McTell and Marc Bolan for "Noah," which includes whistling and a mournful piano. The enhanced CD presents a great, "psychedelicized" video of Devendra and friends jamming on "At the Hop," which will surely cause pleasant flashbacks for anyone who's ever spent a weekend in a woodsy cabin full of hippies.

National - Alligator

The National's debut for Beggars Banquet Records boasts eloquent production and some of frontman Matt Berninger's finest songs. The Brooklyn band's sound includes elements of folk and swirling indie rock, with Berninger's literate, emotive tunes drawing heavily on the tradition of melancholic singer/songwriters. On "Daughters of the Soho Riots," Berninger's baritone croon recalls Gordon Lightfoot, yet his lyrics are incisive, confessional, and decidedly contemporary. The combination of surreal imagery and genuine pathos in "Baby, We'll Be Fine" (expressed in the song's repeated refrain) is also representative of Berninger's craft.

Two pairs of brothers--Aaron and Bryce Dessner (guitars) and Scott and Bryan Devendorf (bass and drums, respectively)--keep things alternately chiming, churning, and appropriately atmospheric. The startling relationship sketch "Karen," for example, rides a light rock pulse dominated by piano and augmented by strings, making it one of the album's shining moments. "All the Wine" turns Berninger's usually dark self-exploration on its head with its semi-ironic self-aggrandizement. Alligator's 13 tracks testify to the National's standing as one of the more distinctive and absorbing bands around.

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Beta Band - Heroes To Zeros

Scotland's Beta Band made their name at the tail end of the 1990s by mixing contemporary electronic production techniques with '60s/'70s prog/psych influences and utilizing an inclusive and eclectic post-Beck aesthetic. Three albums in, they're still mixing and matching like drug-addled patchwork quilters; funky synth bass rubs up against Beach Boys-like harmonies and jangling Britpop guitars, while a penchant for sonic experimentalism nestles with surprising ease alongside more conventional songwriting values. Despite the gloriously hither-and-yon approach, though, there's more of a consistent and substantive feel on Heroes To Zeros than could be found on its predecessor, Hot Shots II, boding well for the group's longevity.

Xiu Xiu - Knife Play

I'm tempted to favor the strangest turns, as on the Thighpaulsandra-esque "Homonculus," where dissonant piano figures are obliterated by crunchy bass bombs. But the piece that seems to resonate with everyone the most is "Suha," a relatively straightforward ballad about a mother who is going to hang herself; it's stark enough to make you start eyeing your own wrists. The band admits that most of their material is directly autobiographical, and a dark, voyeuristic pleasure enters play when you realize that Stewart's addressing other band members in a few of the songs. That ability to marry oblique sounds and a sense of mystery to a sentimental, personal narrative makes these patchwork vignettes incredibly affecting, and it's no wonder that the disc scans as a bizarre love child of synth-pop, no wave and goth. So *screw* your 'art damage' and your 'pathetic self-pity.' Intensity this overwhelming makes you reevaluate your opinion on what emotions music has the right to explore. Knife Play may have its weaknesses, but it's oddly cathartic to immerse yourself in, peeling back layer after layer.

Primal Scream - Screamadelica

Primal Scream's understanding of rock's varied vistas is encapsulated on this release. At its core are a series of dance-oriented tracks that broach several musical barriers. Samples, tape loops, dub and plangent chords gel together over various grooves, at times uplifting, at others ambient. Mixmasters Terry Farley and Andy Weatherall add different perspectives to individual tracks, with gospel choirs, pumping brass and spaceward basslines bubbling around several selections. Former Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller generated the spirit of Beggars Banquet for the rousing "Movin' On Up," while elsewhere the group imply acknowledgement to talismen the Beach Boys and Big Star. Screamadelica is the ultimate confluence of rock and rave cultures.

Low - Things We Lost In The Fire

Rating: 8.7
When Low emerged from snowy Duluth, Minnesota with their 1994 Kramer-produced debut, I Could Live in Hope, their trudging funeral marches, sparse instrumentation, and Royal Albert Hall production values were strikingly fresh. Though they were preceded in the slowcore movement by earlier innovators like Galaxie 500 and Codeine, it was Low that defined the genre's sound.

Of course, by their third album, 1996's The Curtain Hits the Cast, the formula began to wear thin. New producer Steve Fisk brought little to the trio's sound, which remained virtually unchanged. While Low turned out a few great songs on the record-- namely, "Anon," "Over the Ocean," and "Lust"-- the near-Canadians failed to branch out, save for the 15-minute jam session "Do You Know How to Waltz?"

Low began loosely experimenting on 1998's Songs for a Dead Pilot EP, but returned to less adventurous songwriting the following year with the full-length Secret Name. The album sported crisper, less dramatic production, but failed to deviate from the concept the band had begun with five years earlier. Regardless, the songs were of a similar caliber to those on previous outings, and a whole legion of new fans sprung up.

read the entire pitchfork review