Washed Out - Feel It All Around

Chillwave. Glo-fi. Silly hipster bullshit. It's a beast comprised of many names and entities, resembling the Lernaean Hydra of Greek mythos... that is, if it were decked out in plaid and high-tops. Washed Out brings us this emerging brand of music from the confines of his very bedroom, enveloping everything in his reaches in a smokey haze of surrealism. The lethal combination of chillout and lo-fi creates true hypnotic sound, lulling you into a relaxed and vulnerable state. If you want something to throw on when you're crashing tonight, or even if you're staying up and doing a ton of work like me, grab this track.

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Tim & Jean - Come Around [Transcribed lyrics included]

These two gentlemen are Tim & Jean. Tim & Jean have composed the track that has broken my rabid dubstep addiction. With an eerie similarity to Passion Pit, as noted by countless other individuals [read: everyone, PERIOD], Perth's Tim & Jean have worked up a musical storm with their warm & sparkling feel-good hit of the late summer, "Come Around." These skinny-jean-rocking blokes from down under compound the vibrancy and exorbitance of electro-pop with a lot of fun tropical, hazy elements and top it all off with some fucking cute lyrics. "When sunshine comes around, will you still be with me?" Fucking cute, right? Check it.

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Lyrics (because I've been unable to find them elsewhere, I transcribed them myself):

Tim & Jean - Come Around lyrics

When sunshine comes around, will you still be with me?
You know it's not the same, but you can count to three
Why don't you find yourself a nice dress to wear
While you're at it, you might as well even care [x2]

I can't complain with what I've got in this life
Possessions only make it hard to feel alright
That's why it's so much harder for people to smile

Hold on, girl, don't be talking like that to me
I'm the one who's been there through the misery
Fall in love, 'cause I'm supposed to be the bad guy
I just need to take a breath and look with my eyes

We're never gonna feel the same
Hey, no, look what you've done now
You should've been the one to blame
Hey, no, look what you've done now [x2]

I can't complain with what I've got in this life
Possessions only make it hard to feel alright
That's why it's so much harder for people to smile

We're never gonna feel the same
Hey, no, look what you've done now
You should've been the one to blame
Hey, no, look what you've done now [x2]

Vampire Weekend - Horchata

So I finally got around to listening to "Horchata," the most prominently featured and blogged about track off of Vampire Weekend's new album "Contra." It woefully pains the indie-hipster part of me to say I was pretty damn disappointed. I'm not the biggest Vampire Weekend fan by any means; in fact, I ostensibly opposed the hype surrounding the release of their debut album, "Vampire Weekend." But... because I couldn't beat 'em, I joined 'em, and they earned their rightful chance to grow on me.

And here we are, only...

"Horchata" seems to be a bit of a stretch for Vampire Weekend. It takes their laidback, summery afro-pop influences and touches them up with a heavier emphasis on synthesizers and symphonic / ambient sounds, but in the most tiresome, difficult way. The style IS mind-blowingly Vampire Weekend, and if you know them, you'll know what I mean once you listen to this track. As my situation concerning Vampire Weekend was prior to this, it just might have to grow on me, but with it's abrupt ending, painstakingly pretentious lyrics and over-relaxed / pseudo-cultural vibe, the days to come aren't looking the brightest for "Contra."

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If a frog can do it, so can I / The Shins - Australia

The more I play "Australia" by The Shins, the more I want to learn how to play banjo. The twangy, jingly-jangly back-country sound it emanates makes the song entirely what it is, bar none. I'm a little sad that they only use it during the chorus but the scarcity might be what keeps me coming back. In fact, I've been noticing the more prominent use of banjo in the music I've been listening to lately; Sufjan Stevens comes to mind as a huge example of that... re-listening to Michigan and Illinois has developed my new found love for the 5-stringed beast of an instrument.

The Shins - Australia

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Chiddy Bang - The Opposite of Adults (Kids) (ft. MGMT)

Philadelphia electronic/hip-hop crew Chiddy Bang have released one hell of a mixtape to the delight of internet bloggers spanning the world wide web, and the track that stands out in particular to me is "The Opposite of Adults." Chiddy Bang samples MGMT's dreamy, synth-laden summer hit "Kids," and fantastically reworks the beat around their snazzy flow and hypebeast lyricism, with the ever-welcome addition of catchy oscillation and percussion, of course. The vocal content isn't what shines on the track but compliments, to me, entirely their genius idea of sampling and re-editing MGMT. They transformed the nouveau-disco homage to the 80s into an arrangement of addictive and crunchy staccati. Start-stops never sounded so damn good. Check out the rest of the mixtape if you'd like... but for me, this gem shines the brightest.

High Places - High Places

Rating: 8
Links:
- Blogspot
- Myspace

For all you Animal Collective enthusiasts, High Places will take you to an abode most comfortable. The zips, zaps, and boinks that make up those familiar, maniacal rhythms you've come to appreciate from the aforementioned art-noisers seem to reign prevalent on this album. Tribal clicks and beeps give the songs a very primitive electronic feel, a Caveman's musique concrète. One very distinct feel is lent to it by a soft-spoken songbird by the name of Mary Pearson, unlike that of the high-pitched whine we've come to expect from Avey Tare and friends. The lyrics and vocals don't particularly strike a presence to me, partially because I'm not one to care for them, but I will add that they compliment the instrumentation in a way which is truly enjoyable. The variety of sound is daunting, with melodies crashing and criss-crossing through headphones and speakers every which way. If you like experimental, I can almost guarantee that you'll enjoy High Places.

Album Highlights: "The Tree With the Lights In It," "Gold Coin," and "Namer"

The Battle of Land and Sea - The Battle of Land and Sea

Rating: 8
Links:
- Official Website
- Last.fm

The Battle of Land and Sea consists of Sarah O'Shara and Joshua Canny, whose compositions are mere products of their voices, their guitars, and their love for music. This terrifyingly ethereal duo plays a brand of ghost-like indie pop on their self-titled album, their haunting and memorable vocals fusing with the atmosphere fashioned by dual acoustic guitars. O'Shara's trembling voice is soaked in complete sorrow, but where sounds of mourning are penned, there seems to be an equally powerful message of hope and buoyancy. I don't know if their songs have a purpose in their writing, but I don't think I want to know. Mellow, flowing rhythms carry themselves through each song effortlessly, strumming and eerie modulations intact. The lo-fi resonance of "Birdsong" drifts quietly through the air, enclosing in a bubble of tranquility anyone who crosses its path, leaving them at a standstill, exhausted and impassioned. "You Are a Sailor", the final track on the album, does the very same with terribly memorable discourse sung so lazily that you can't help but be swept up in their lethargic daydream. Go ahead and slip into magnificent phantasms at the hands of The Battle of Land and Sea. You won't regret it.

Album Highlights: "You Are a Sailor", "Saltwater Queen", "Birdsong", "I Built the Sea"

National Skyline - Bliss & Death

Rating: 9
Links:
- Official Website
- Last.fm

National Skyline is the kind of music you'd stare off into the distance to, but at the same time, remain blissfully aware of your surroundings, for fear of an impending attack. I barely have any idea what I'm talking about, really. To put it in not-crazy-terms, beautifully mixed shoegazing guitars, eccentric electronics and surrealist lyricism are the result of National Skyline's newest effort, "Bliss & Death." I hadn't heard of National Skyline before this, but from what I gathered, they came off as a normal "indie rock" band. I was serendipitously wrong, my expectations crushed. Of a far higher quality than anything I had expected, "Bliss & Death" from beginning to end never failed to impress me. From the catchy, Radioheadesque "Revenge" to the acoustic strumming against ranging, varied soundscapes of "Kingdom" to the album's very last song & instrumental fit for a king, "The Ghost II," National Skyline prove themselves to be a hell of a band and certainly earn my respect. Not many artists can consistently get better, and since I've, from first hearing this album, looked up reviews for previous albums and saw only good things, I must congratulate them on a job well done. My minor problems with the album stem only from "Bloom", a 7 minute song whose instrumental passages, as much as I loved them, could stand to be less lengthy; they lead into a rather abrupt ending for the song, and what seems to come off as a build-up reveals itself to be rather consistent playing. Other than that, bravo to National Skyline.

Album Highlights: Everything, especially "The Ghost II", "Solid Cold", "Driving Down", and "Kingdom".

Five O'Clock Heroes - Speak Your Language

Rating: 6
Links:
- Official Website
- Last.fm

Arguably one of the poppier records I've ever come across (my library's full of stupid ambient bullshit), Speak Your Language by British indie rockers Five O'Clock Heroes is something I've found I can't stop listening to. The album irritatingly dominates the "Recently Played" list on my last.fm account, but not without good reason. It's a guilty pleasure, really. Solid, although there are a few tracks that tend to get on my nerves. The chorus of "Alive" is bothersome so much so that I can't focus on anything I'm doing, but the almost dub-pop feel of "Don't Say Don't"s chorus seems to make everything better. The title track "Speak Your Language" is a whole lot of catchy in a good 2 minutes and 57 seconds. The lyrics are random indie cliches ("What was love that truly desire / There is nothin’ that I really want") but I guess you can't really expect anything less. The singing can be a bit much at times as well, but they're British so I guess they're allowed to get away with it. Overall, Speak Your Language is filled with attractive riffs, fetching drums and falsettos you can both chuckle at and appreciate.

Album Highlights: "Radio Lover" (catchy as fukk), "Don't Say Don't", "God & Country" (he yells and it sounds nice)