This resolute new batch of songs remains intensely personal and intimate, like the whispered longings and frustrations of two siblings talking candidly to each other long after the lights have been shut off and everyone else has gone to bed.
Author Erik Thompson
Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend
These spiralling songs succeed because they are both intensely personal but also quite epic and grandiose, rising majestically out of the various bedrooms and basements in which they were created for the whole world to hear.
Ryan Adams – State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN 13/12/11
Adams has ditched the trusty Cardinals and his irascible demeanour for his current acoustic solo tour, which drew to a close in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. Erik Thompson reviews the mammoth 24-song, two-and-a-half hour performance.
Piney Gir – Geronimo!
A mellifluous road-map of exactly where Angela Penhaligon has come from to get to this point, and what direction she may take her sound in the future. An endearing and ultimately successful fifth full length from Piney Gir.
Loney Dear – Hall Music
Loney Dear has always appeared to get both lost in and healed by his own music, and these stunning new songs can surely keep the distressing demands of the world at bay as long as we keep on listening.
The Duke Spirit – Bruiser
An album that simply pulses with the self-assurance of a band that knew exactly what sound they were after on this record, and got as close as they could to capturing it.
S.C.U.M – Again Into Eyes
Thomas Cohen’s baleful baritone enriches all of these ethereal numbers with a subtle sense of menace, carrying them either heavenwards or somewhere much further south, depending on what type mood you are in while listening.
Other Lives – Tamer Animals
An unhurried study in sincere self-expression, ‘Tamer Animals’ captures a momentary, fleeting feeling that is effortlessly and continually conjured up by the evocative nature of the tracks themselves.
Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
This is the sound of a self-assured, defiant young band reshaping the rules of modern music to suit their untamed impulses, and getting away with it.
Beirut – The Rip Tide
Like any enjoyable journey, it is over far too soon, leaving the listener with a feeling of nostalgia for a grand time that has passed before they knew it, as well as an intense desire to repeat the process all over again.
Columboid – We Were One
This debut from the Brooklyn trio is a tense, mercurial record that effortlessly blends desolate, gothic elements with an adventurous, melodic spirit that soars amongst the darkness.
Howler – This One’s Different
These simple but striking songs all bristle with the insistence and energy of youth, but also have a classic, timeless quality to them that confidently belies the fledgling nature of the band.
Bon Iver – Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee 22-23/07/11
Bon Iver return to the live stage after a two year absence with a double bill at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theatre. Erik Thompson reports from both nights and witnesses a show that “ranks among the best [I've] seen in years”.
The Ladybug Transistor – Clutching Stems
Whether or not he’s finding a new love or piecing his life back together again, it’s good to have Gary Olson and the Ladybug Transistor back, making enduring pop songs about trying to make sense of the complex affairs of the heart.
Vandaveer – Dig Down Deep
A delicate collection of artfully crafted Americana that pulses with an honesty and elegance that ultimately makes these songs memorable while also sounding distinctly timeworn and familiar.
Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler
This new batch of tunes seems to be the clearest, most sincere musical statement yet from an artist that continually delves deeply into the struggles of love, life, and loss in an original and arresting way.
