Kicking off this week’s new album releases on Groundhog’s Day, we have Toro Y Moi’s Causers of This, which is a very worthy debut amongst the ever-growing amount of bands coming down the pipe of similar ilk.

Also garnering a lot of buzz is Midlake’s The Courage of Others, the follow-up to to 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther. I’ve yet to hear this one myself, but I did enjoy their previous album to some extent, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out soon.

The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) and The Album Leaf round out the rest of the recommended releases, with the surprise of the week coming in the form of The Brunettes and their latest titled Paper Dolls.  I only say this because I had no idea they were even working on a new record, let alone having it come out this week.  If you enjoy listening to some very sweet, sweet pop songs, than I’m sure you’ll find some enjoyment out of it.

Looking at these releases, you pretty much have a nice sampling of a wide arrange of different genres of music.  From post-rock to indiepop, it’s all here to be discovered.

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I became a Soft Pack fan (FKA – ‘The Muslims’) when I heard their single “Parasites”. The song reminds me of some underground alternative rock I used to listen to when I was a kid.

Their normal sound has a great indie punk rock vibe, however there were a couple acoustic versions of their songs I caught up with a few months back that showed me a different side of their music. These versions of “Red Headed Girl” and “Call it a Day” (off of their EP they titled ‘The Muslims’) are down-right scrumptious. Also checkout their MySpace page (The Soft Pack) for “Parasites” and some of their other songs.

MP3: The Soft Pack :: “Call It A Day”
MP3: The Soft Pack :: “Red Headed Girl”