New Wax".. Just calm the fuck down!" screams Gareth Campesinos! in unison with his bandmates on "This Is A Flag. There Is No Wind." It's an ironic sentiment coming from the hyperactive Cardiff, Wales band Los Campesinos!, whose newest album Romance Is Boring was recently released via Toronto label Arts and Crafts. While the band still exhibits a wealth of energy on the new release, they seem more keen on letting the songs breathe rather than packing instruments into the arrangements. Don't worry, the band still flexes it's punk-rock infused pop on the breakneck "Plan A," but elsewhere they seem more measured and concise. Romance veers away from the brightness of their debut Hold On Now Youngster and focuses more on the hard-edged sound of 2008's We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Gareth's pen is as scathing as ever and he shifts from serious subject matter to sarcastic witticisms at the drop of a dime. On the particularly venom-tongued "Straight In At 101," Gareth half sings/half yells: "I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock/ Feels like the build up takes forever but you never get me off." When Gareth's not poking fun at music genres, he's musing on a close friend's eating disorder. This unpredictability makes him an interesting lyricist. With Romance Is Boring, Los Campesinos! turns in their most mature effort, but this growth doesn't mark a letdown in brute energy. After all, a band so in tune with the ennui of folks in their early 20's should sound a little bit pissed off. -- Capt. ObviousListen:MP3: Los Campesinos! - Romance Is BoringMP3: Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The FutureTags: Los Campesinos, Romance Is Boring
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Who: Basia BulatTitle: Heart of My OwnLabel: Rough TradeRIYL: Amy Milan, Julie Doiron, Lavender Diamond, indie rock girlsShort Review: Let us assign adjectives to best describe Basia Bulat and her new album. We start with stunning, move quickly to dynamic, and wind our way through startling. There's comparisons to some of her contemporaries over there, and lo and behold we have the folk star of 2010.2nd Opinion: via Spinning Platters..."Bulat’s sound has been described as “spiritual folk,” and there is certainly something warming and uplifting about her music. But what separates Bulat from the pack is her ability to communicate these feelings with both subtle grace and unrestrained delight. There is nothing overt or clunky about her lyrics; rather, it is the unexpected chord progressions, the arrangements, and Bulat’s fearlessly joyful delivery that reach you through their collaborative magic. The resulting sound is like a playful female Sufjan Stevens, or a more accessible Bodies of Water. But, awkward comparisons aside, Bulat’s voice is truly and entirely her own. And she creates beautiful music, plain and simple."Listen: Basia Bulat - "Once More, For The Dollhouse" Who: Four TetTitle: There Is Love In YouLabel: Domino RecordsRIYL: Burial, Manitoba, Boards of Canada, blips, bloopsShort Review: Was anointed by Pitchfork's "Best New Music" tag on Monday so you probably don't need to sell this one to you. I can tell you that "Love Cry" was one of our favorite songs of last year and the rest of the album does little to sour the sweet feelings we have for that song and Four Tet in general.2nd Opinion: via The Decibel Tolls..."The new full-length There Is Love In You, returns to the glory of that twitchy dub jam, but with all of the perennial elements of Hebdan’s work from 1999’s Dialogue to present. The pulse beat of a heart, a motif of his since early albums, is recreated by the hum of organic sounds carefully cut and expanded, orbiting around an invisible core like a mobile of samples. Voices curl and multiply, even the most obviously synthesized sounds are kneaded into an uncannily human vibe that only Four Tet can diffuse from the circuit board."Listen: Four Tet - "She Just Likes To Fight" Who: Los Campesinos!Title: Romance Is BoringLabel: Arts & CraftsRIYL: Dananananaykroyd, Sky Larkin, tweeShort Review: This is not their best offering, but after spending the last two years cranking out an EP and two other albums, along with their hectic touring schedule we will give them an A for effort. It's still cutesy, twee pop, and still incredibly catchy but the lyrics don't seem to have quite the same punch as the last two records. Still solid and worthy of multiple listens though.2nd Opinion: via State Magazine..."With their shortest title of any release to date, Los Campesinos! are making their grandest statement, Romance is Boring. The third studio album from Cardiff’s indie-popsters is set for release a couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day and finds this seven-piece at odds with love, or at least the physical act of it, and the world in general. Confrontational from the off-set ‘In Medias Res’ orders “Let’s look at you for a minute”, in a manner that only be taken as accusatory, over tinkering bells and violins, and it’s immediately obvious that there has been something of a mood change in the Los Campesinos!, em, camp."Listen: Los Campesinos! - "Romance Is Boring" Who: The Magnetic FieldsTitle: RealismLabel: Merge RecordsRIYL: Jens Lekman, Belle & Sebastian, all Stephen Merritt projectsShort Review: Realism is the Yin to Distortion's Yang. After going for a more electric sound on their last record Merritt and company follow-up with what is meant as a companion piece only this time everything is more natural sounding thanks to the move away from reverb and onto acoustic strumming. It's still The Magnetic Fields though so we are blessed with the fantastic song writing of Stephen Merritt and more than enough amazing sounds to win us over once again.2nd Opinion: via Spork..."The Magnetic Fields continue their playful love-hate relationship with pop music with Realism, a new album full of love songs, un-love songs, plus the sort of absurd humor that the band's always enjoyed putting across - the new title "The Dada Polka" might serve as an overall header for these types of songs. And Realism spends its time equally bouncing between songs that, if not actually sincere reports from songwriter Stephen Merritt's own heart, could at least be applied to real-life situations and the sort of humorous and/or precious little ditties that they relish."Listen: The Magnetic Fields - "Walk A Lonely Road" Who: Various ArtistsTitle: Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010Label: Matador RecordsRIYL: regional music, Matador Records, SXSW, cerveza, breakfast tacosShort Review: Matador Records has decided to put out a compilation featuring only one of their actual artists. Why they've opted to go this route we have no idea, but we're thankful to them for pointing us in the direction of all this fantastic, chugging punk rock coming straight out of Austin these days. Hopefully more than a few of these guys will be playing this year's SXSW!2nd Opinion: via Pampelmoose..."In the world of this collection, the Austin scene is riddled with guitar bands that were born over their shared love of albums like Raw Power and No Pocky For Kitty. Almost all the outfits featured here match the primal chug of punk-infused garage rock with the melodic pull of vintage indie pop. Others lean more in one direction over the other (the raw punk of The Teeners‘ “Nazis On Film” and Love Collector’s “First 48″ going for the former; the latter represented by Harlem – one of the few bands here signed to a contract with Matador – and their track “Beautiful & Very Smart” and The Distant Seconds‘ “Akron Bureau”) but the overall tone rides that center path with anger, heartache, and humor to spare. "Listen: Love Collector - "First 48" <script type="text/javascript">
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Who: Los Campesinos!Title: Romance Is BoringRelease Date: January 26thLabel: Arts & CraftsThoughts: It seems all we talk about these days are how a band changes from one album to the next, tweaking their sound, trying to remain fresh and relevant, and not always succeeding in tweaking what they have already done well. Los Campesinos! are not one of those bands, where their songwriting may change emotionally from top to topic their sound never seems to vary far from the twee pop sounds we've come to know and adore from them. On Romance Is Boring the band aren't tweaking much, adding a few synth sounds here and there, but generally sticking to the upbeat, peppy sound that has launched them in popularity over the course of the last few years. It's actually refreshing to hear a band sticking to their guns, and still obviously having fun and enjoying it. The songs do vary between all the normal ranger of emotions people tend to go through, anger, love, happiness, whatever it may be, but the sounds themselves continue on very much the way they remember them being. It lends to the immediacy with which Romance Is Boring captures your attention and its ability to hold you there throughout. The songs are once again catchy and seductive and we really don't need to know much more about the record. We've only had two listens to the record so we can't say much definitively except that we are sure to keep listening to this for quite some time to come.Listen: Los Campesinos! - "There Listed Buildings"Los Campesinos! - "Romance Is Boring" Who: Lil' WayneTitle: RebirthRelease Date: February 1stLabel: Cash Money/Universal/Young MoneyThoughts: Since April we have been waiting for Lil' Wayne's foray into rock music to drop, now it's finally coming in February and thanks to the Amazon mishap last week we pretty much have all been given a chance to sample the wares. From the very beginning of the record you can tell that Lil' Wayne is genuinely going to try to make the rock thing happen on this record, it is mixed with his normal hip-hop but there are guitars and live-ish instruments everywhere on every track. For 47-minutes Lil' Wayne indulges himself in this experiment, one he should have known would fail from the horrible rap/rock mash-ups from the turn of the century, but now he continues on beating the point that the genres would be best staying separate into the ground. Now don't think this is an attack on Lil' Wayne himself, we have been a fan of his for years now counting many of his albums among our favorites from hip-hop, even the recent No Ceiling mixtape is a hundred times better than this. There are moments where you almost think Wayne can emerge from this with some positives, namely the slowed down, Carribean vibe on "Paradice", but those moments are like trying to contain an avalanche with a grocery bag - it's just not going to happen. It may have taken more than 10-months to finally put this record out, but someone should have told Lil' Wayne or the record company to shelve it permanently. Let us delete this from our hard drives and never, ever mention it again!Listen: Lil' Wayne (feat. Shanell) - "Prom Queen"Lil' Wayne (feat. Eminem) - "Drop the World" Who: MidlakeTitle: The Courage of OthersRelease Date: February 1stLabel: Bella UnionThoughts: This weekend many of us here on the east coast spent our time indoors, sipping hot cocoa and perhaps listen to the newly leaked strains of Midlake's third album The Courage of Others. Let me tell you that is you are looking for a song to follow in the footsteps of their breakout single "Roscoe" you should probably start mining elsewhere because Midlake have matured beyond the spacey, psychedelic sounds that were so prominently featured on their first two records. This time out they take a decidedly more folk oriented approach, following closely behind bands that broke out in 2008 thanks to their rootsy sounds - think Fleet Foxes and the like. It's not all that surprising considering all the Neil Young love that could be found on The Trials of Van Occupanther, this time around they are far more pronounced than ever before. It's almost a shame to think that a band with this must talent and potential would just follow suit to one of our least favorite trends, but such is the way they have opted to proceed. The record tends to get a tad boring pretty soon after starting, leaving us with songs that seem to overlap and sounds that seem to repeat themselves, both are not good things. This record does little to distinguish Midlake from other bands, the songwriting is solid, though far darker than what's come before. Maybe it's not so much maturing as getting older and not being willing to push the envelope anymore. Whatever the case we're sure there will be more than a few people lining up to sing the praises of this record, we just won't be one of them.Listen: Midlake - "Acts of Man"Midlake - "Fortune" <script type="text/javascript">
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