You can’t really look anywhere without at least hearing someone mentioning Passion Pit and their debut titled Manners. I’m not exactly on the bandwagon quite yet, as I still think the lead singer’s falsetto makes me want to pull my hair out. But for the most part, the music itself is catchy and that can make the difference in some instances.

From the singer-songwriter side of the spectrum, you’re in luck, as a few well-known names have new albums out this week including John Vanderslice and Iron & Wine with a 2-CD set of unreleased material.

A few other releases I’m excited to listen to this week would have to be Au Revoir Simone’s Still Night, Still Light, Jarvis Cocker’s Further Complications (despite that horrid single), Jason Lytle’s (formerly of Grandaddy) Yours Truly, The Commuter, White Rabbits’ It’s Frightening, and Polly Scattergood’s self-titled debut.

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The lovely ladies of Au Revoir Simone are set to release the follow-up to The Bird of Music next month, and surprisingly I’ve hardly heard or seen anything mentioned about it despite the quickly approaching May 19th release date.  One reason may be due to it being released once again on their own label Our Secret Record Company.  Nonetheless, new material is coming and from what I’ve heard so far it treads the same casio-based pop that we’ve all come to expect from them.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about the group is that amidst the electro-pop synths and borderline twee lingerings, their lies a bit of darkness to their sound which provides a nice little balance, I think.  Check out a track from the forthcoming album Still Night, Still Light below which I happened to yank from the good folks at Motel de Moka.

MP3: Au Revoir Simone :: “Take Me As I Am”
MP3: Friendly Fires :: “Paris (Aeroplane Remix Feat. Au Revoir Simone)”