1. I lost my notes on last week, so no recap of last week. And yes, handwritten notes. I also own two typewriters.
2. Bizarro world. I started this project listening and compiling the week's new music because I wasn't satisfied with what I found when searching out new music. I didn't want to click through to every single post or article on each individual album or single. I was becoming dissatisfied with the musical tastes of my former favorite go-to spots. And to be honest, to me the whole "my opinion is gold" or "check out this cool thing because I'm cool" vibe gets old fast. And so ta da - Friday Refrain was begun out of curiosity and impatience. A concise list of releases mostly without the reissues, live and best-of albums (though I will include some today and have before when I find it interesting or something I'm excited about) plus some recommendations on where to start therein. And while I bend some of my initial rules sometimes, maybe being a bit judgy or including a best of, I definitely do not think my opinion is gold and I am anything but cool.
Did I just write my origin story? That's creepy. Anyway, so why the origin story? Because for the most part, I feel like my taste in music might sit outside of the normal stream. However this week, I'm really into a lot of the things it seems other people are into. And it's kind of weirding me out. But hey, it happens. Stars and planets sometimes line up, I guess.
All right, let's delve into this a little concisely, shall we?
One Pick Wonder
Country: Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music - His voice is amazing.
Dance: Chromeo, White Women
Glam Rockish Throwback: The Last Vegas, Sweet Salvation
Children's Album: Walter Martin, We're All Young Together - it's been a bit since an alt-rocker took on the almighty children's genre and The Walkmen's Walter Martin does it superbly.
Sunny Day Rock: La Sera, Hour of the Dawn
Cover Art: Cosines, Commuter Love - I want this framed and on my wall.
Oddball Things I Like:
Django Django, Late Night Tales - Especially the final track... (I'm still a little sore that wasn't the actual track on the Record Store Day release though)
I Saved Latin! A Tribute to Wes Anderson, Various Artists
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, Are We Not Men? We Are Divas! - It opens with "I Will Survive"
Two Things That Were Not As I Thought They'd Be:
Dawn Golden, Still Life - I was thinking curly haired hippie singer-songwriter. Not Bon Iverish chill out music.
Little Dragon, Nabuma Rubberband - Okay, I've listened to the singles, so I had already had this happen. But I seriously listen to some of the tracks and have to relisten to their previous work to make sure I'm thinking of the correct band. So don't go into this thinking, "This will sound like Little Dragon." Because it doesn't. They did new stuff.
Light Chill Out
Mimicking Birds, Eons
Amen Dunes, Love
To-Listen List: Things I want to delve into a bit more
Joseph Arthur, Lou
Crobot, Crobot
Kris Delmhorst, Blood Test
Incognito, Amplified Soul
Mirah, Changing Light
Kishi Bashi, Lighght
Caterina Zapponi, Romantica
BOYTOY, Boytoy
Flesh Wounds, Bitter Boy
All right, so there you have it. A little bit to get you started on this week's music. The recap! Just in case you haven't heard, there's a new (kind of?) Blondie album, plus Tori Amos, Rascal Flatts, Dolly Parton, The Black Keys, Michael Jackson, and Guided By Voices (yes a new one even though it's only been 2 months).
Happy listening!
Friday Refrain is a weekly post regarding what new releases have caught my ear for the week. I try to compile a pretty comprehensive list of releases of the week and see what is available for me to listen to on the web. This is just my non-scientific, highly-subjective, randomly-listened-to list of stuff from the week. Oh, and I don’t always listen to lyrics or look at album art/music videos, so appropriateness is left up to the listener