Now that we have our host issues situated, we can get back to business! Christmas comes early this year as this is easily one of the largest release weeks of the year. There isn’t one overall album I can recommend, but there are many that stand out for me. Rilo Kiley’s Under the Blacklight and The New Pornographers’ Challengers would be two high-profile albums that I would instantly pick up. I’ve heard mixed reviews on Rilo Kiley’s major label debut, but i’ve listened to Challengers many times and I can honestly say it has some of the best song contributions that Neko Case and Dan Bejar have ever done for the group. It’s much more deserving than that ridiculous 6.0 Pitchfork gave it.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg as the great releases don’t stop there. A few other albums I have been listening to heavily are Caribou’s Andorra, Architecture in Helsinki’s Places Like This, Imperial Teen’s The Hair, The TV, The Baby & The Band and Over the Rhine’s The Trumpet Child. Most of which you can find previous posts on in our archives. I’ve probably only mentioned half of these releases, though the rest of these I haven’t had a chance to listen to yet.
What albums are you picking up this week? Better yet, how much money are you willing spend?!
Architecture in Helsinki | Places Like This
Caribou | Andorra
Earlimart | Mentor Tormentor
Imperial Teen | The Hair, The TV, The Baby & The Band
Jeremy Enigk | The Missing Link
Josh Ritter | The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Ladybirds | Regional Community Theater
Luke Temple | Snowbeast
M.I.A | Kala
Minus The Bear | Planet of Ice
The New Pornographers | Challengers
“My Rights Versus Yours”
Over the Rhine | The Trumpet Child
“Let’s Spend The Day In Bed”
Rilo Kiley | Under The Blacklight
Travis Morrison | All Y’All
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Hey! You forgot Josh Ritter… oh, but it’s Ok, because I just posted on it.
ah, my bad. added.
Caribou is definitely one of the best releases of the year so far.
Ugh, I love Jeremy.
And I war-paint my face to listen to heart it races. Yeah.
I agree with you whole-heartedy. Pitchfork missed the boat on Challengers. I actually prefer Challengers to Twin Cinema. While Challengers doesn’t have a killer tune on it like ‘The Bleeding Heart Show,’ I feel it is a more cohesive album. Rather than jumping out and grabbing you (like Twin Cinema), these songs invite you in for repeated listens. As a result, Twin Cinema tends to penetrate, while Challengers slowly envelopes the listener.
I agree. Great music week in terms of releases. The best one is Andorra from Caribou, excellent electro album full of great percussions and samples. Kala from M.I.A. comes in a close second, with possibly the best hip-hop album of the year, The New Pornographers and Rilo Kiley are the biggest disappointments. I expected more from them. Josh Ritter latest work is insanely good too, haven’t had the chance to listen to the whole thing yet though. September 11 will be the next insane week of releases, double the amount of this week.
The pitchfork reviews for the N.P., IMP Teen, and Rilo Kelly were all very predictable. You knew Rilo Kelly didn’t stand a chance going into that one. Imperial Teen have the best release of the week and one of the best of the year and they lacerated them for writing 12 song that are crisp and fresh and their best work ever. Odd instrumentation and orchestral songwriting are all the rock snobs care about right now.
This was a pretty good week for indie releases.
6.0??? Garbage. I love Challengers. And PS – thanks for the inclusion of Travis Morrison in this week’s graboid. It’s not going to make anyone’s top ten list this year (mine included) but good to see that my incessant talk about the Dismemberment Plan has resonated with you.