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Lucky you, two weeks at once. Just remember to chew before swallowing: Iron & Wine – “Around the Well” A collection of songs spanning I&W’s three LPs, folk ranging from soft acoustic to slightly electric. Some of the early stuff ranges from listenable to not fully there (“Friends they are Jewels” falls here, still a bit sonically vacant), and much of the best material are the acoustic inbetweens, which tend to have better developed 2nd choruses; “Swans and the Swimming” sounds like it should finish “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” and much of the second album, including the gorgeous “Sinning Hands,” makes this worth theRead More →

Big Business, “Mind the Drift”: Heavy stuff. Strangely, though, it feels more loud than substantial (see track 4, “I Got it Online”). But “The Drift” is pretty hard-rocking good; the whole album, which consists of more distortion and yelling than songwriting, is something of a disappointment. Doesn’t add much, if anything, to the genre. Magnolia, “The Wooden Birds”: Light guitar with soft vocal harmonies not unlike Yo La Tengo’s. “Quit You Once” feels uncomfortably incomplete, and this album, too, is just lacking a bit of a punch; probably changing their musical voice a bit, as well as layering a bit more would help to fleshRead More →

Wow, so it’s my first actual post here and I’m already late by a day. Not good… but here they are: Connor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, “Outer South” – Hmmm… if you’re a fan of Oberst’s Bright Eyes, then this album… Well, I was disappointed by it, actually. Really a mixed bag; Bright Eyes tends to musically mesh with Oberst’s indie-weird vocals, and the musicians here play brightly, kind of demanding someone with more power (not “Steve Perry” power, but a step in that direction). Leaves the opener a bit – off – especially the first couple times around, though Taylor Hollingsworth doesn’tRead More →