Lots of notable albums out this week, which include a couple of highly anticipated releases from Silversun Pickups and Metric. I’ve listened to the Metric record a few times, and I’m still not sure what to think about it. It still sounds a lot like Live It Out, which I didn’t care for at all.  I look at what Yeah Yeah Yeahs did with It’s Blitz! and that’s more in line with what I would’ve liked Fantasies to be more in tune with.

Other releases include the latest from The Boy Least Likely To, Pomegranates, Papercuts, and Ida Maria.  Also available this week is the self-titled EP from Brooklyn’s Suckers, who’ve been getting a lot of press lately from the likes of Stereogum, FADER, Pitchfork,  etc.

If there’s anything we’ve missed, do let us know.  And don’t forget about Record Store Day this Saturday!

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Good afternoon all! My name is Ken and I am new here too. I ran a blog years ago and I am glad to be writing again. I too have a bad problem with music, so thanks for the opportunity as well PJ!! If you want me to check out your band or just want to follow my daily thoughts on music and life you can follow me on my other addiction Twitter @hitswitchken…..so on with the first review.

When I first started blogging, albeit for another blog, one of the first bands I wrote about back in 2005 was The Boy Least Likely To. Over 4 years later, some legal troubles with their former label and loads of placements in movie soundtracks including Juno and recently on one of the newest J.C. Penney commercials for the band — and a few moves, a few job changes, finishing grad school, and marriage for me — we are finally seeing the second release from the band’s follow up to their excellent debut The Best Party Ever.

The band’s newest offering The Law of the Playground is not so much a leap forward as it is simply just another batch of wonderful pop songs from a band that knows what they are good at. Call it country disco pop, twee, or whatever you like but the simple fact is that the songs are great. Themes of paranoia, melancholy, and a general fear of growing up still permeate the lyrics of the record, but just as with the first record these themes are laced with hints of hop and hidden under the sounds of bouncy happy melodies,  banjos, handclaps, and glockenspiels.

MP3: The Boy Least Likely To :: “Saddle Up”

Lots of great stuff this week, as the new album Middle Cyclone from Neko Case certainly comes out on top with having both excellent songs and equally good cover art.  Honestly, she could release an album of her just reading from a phone book and I would probably buy it.  I’m sure we can all agree on this one.

A couple of other albums that I would personally recommend have been released digitally on iTunes: The Boy Least Likely To’s The Law Of The Playground and Fanfarlo’s Reservoir. Other releasese worth checking out include Marissa Nadler’s (god she has a gorgeous voice) Little Hells, Say Hi’s Oohs & Aahs, Wild Light’s Adult Nights, and The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’ Communion (if only because I haven’t heard from these guys since their debut so many years ago).

As always, feel free to recommend anything that may have slipped past our radar.

Bell X1
Blue Lights on the Runway
MP3: “Defector Single”

The Bitter Tears
Jam Tarts in the Jakehouse
MP3: “Starlight”

The Boy Least Likely To
The Law Of The Playground (iTunes only)
MP3: “I Box Up All The Butterflies”

Bosque Brown
Baby
MP3: “Went Walking”

Boston Spaceships
Planets Are Blasted
MP3: “Big O Gets an Earful”

De Rosa
Prevention
MP3: “Nocturne For An Absentee”

Emma-Lee
Never Just A Dream
MP3: “Never Just A Dream”

Extra Golden
Thank You Very Quickly
MP3: “Anyango”

Fanfarlo
Reservoir (iTunes only)
MP3: “I’m a Pilot”

Justin Townes Earle
Midnight at the Movies
MP3: “What I Mean To You”

Marissa Nadler
Little Hells
MP3: “River of Dirt”

Neko Case
Middle Cyclone
MP3: “Middle Cyclone”
MP3: “People Got a Lotta Nerve”

Say Hi
Oohs & Aahs
MP3: “November Was White, December Was Grey”

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
Communion
MP3: “Flipside”

U2
No Line on the Horizon
full album stream

Wild Light
Adult Nights
MP3: “California on My Mind”