Country, Americana, Folk, Power Pop, Indie Pop
What a beautiful shock. I didn’t have a clue there was a new Le Futur Pompiste album coming up. But there is and it’s out on the ever lovely Shelflife Records on november 16th. However, if you preorder it now, you’ll get an instant download. So what are you waiting for.. and more importantly.. what am I waiting for. You can download the opener Five Hundred Beats for free on the Shelflife Website, in case you first need to convince your heart that you need this.
Liisa is an indie pop artist that moved from Finland to England in 2007. Last summer she started working on her debut album with a producer called Ken Stringfellow and you can hear the first snippet of these recordings on her website. This great song is entitled Julian’s World and you can download it for free after subscribing to her newsletter.
The Posies: Blood/Candy (Rykodisc, 2010)
I love The Posies. They will always hold the #1 position on my imaginary the best bands in the world -list. Sure they have some great challengers like Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles, Big Star, The Zombies, but still… I don’t need a tie-break to choose the winner. It will always be The Posies. After all, I haven’t listened to anything else half as much as I’ve listened to The Posies.
The new The Posies album Blood/Candy is finally here and the band is still in great form. Not that I ever expected anything else, because I really enjoyed Every Kind Of Light as well. I think it’s almost criminally unappreciated album and contains a bunch of wonderful songs. However, if I’m honest and of course I need to be, I was slightly disappointed with Blood/Candy during the first few days that we lived together. I instantly loved most of the songs. Take Care Of Yourself, The Glitter Prize, So Caroline, Notion 99, She’s Coming Down Again.. were just fantastic songs, but somehow the overall feel of the record, the arrangements and the production didn’t completely satisfy me. Basicly I thought it just needed a little more distortion, a little less sophisticated arrangements and a little more pure rock’n’roll. A minor part of me might still agree with my past self, but of course the reason is mostly the fact that I’m, as a fan, still stuck in the 90’s and they, as a band, are not. The majority of me have already set the clocks back to 2010 and have learned to appreciate also the ambitious side of the material like For The Ashes or Accidental Architecture. It would be impossible not to, because Jon Auer & Ken Stringfellow sing like two angels and are such a fantastic songwriters. One should actually praise them for being able to keep much of that old style of The Posies alive while adding some new dimensions to it. If I wasn’t such a simple fan boy whose sacred texts are called Frosting On The Beater and Amazing Disgrace, I might have instantly seen and accepted it.
Darren Hanlon: I Will Love You At All (Yep Roc, 2010)
Australian pop singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon should be famous. There aren’t many guys out there that can write moving pop songs about a kickstand and make squash sound like the most beautiful game ever. Darren is one of them. His new album I Will Love You At All is out on Yep Roc and it’s once again full of pop songs that make you smile. The lyrics are always brilliant and full of witty phrases that you can use as status updates and even the heartbreaking moments are delivered with subtle smile. The beginning of the album is truly amazing and I’m completely in love with the first four songs. That’s just amazing pop music. Unfortunately the album loses a bit of that magic during the latter half of the album and a couple of “just nice” tunes make appearances. Therefore I Will Love You At All won’t be able to challenge for the album of the year of award, even though it sounds just like the best album of the year during the early stages.
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