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Reviews (10)

lemonadeby: G. Love
this is a great cd. yes, a couple of the songs are mediocre at best, but the rest make up for it.Missing my baby is a true groovy ballad. Holla, a bit queer sounding at first, is a really fun and tight song.beautiful is an awsome song as well. Get the cd!

fresh, new,a little funk and soul
this is my first cd by G-Love, I like it and I think it has some
Smooth like GLASS
Solid offering from G. Love.Start to finish, nice record for anyone who like G. Love or Jack Johnson. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Rap    3. Blues-Rock    4. Indie Rock    5. Pop    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. United States of America   

Editorial Review

On his first eponymous effort, Ben Kweller sounds wise beyond his years--and younger than ever. Some songs come on mature and understated, like "Nothing Happening," others surge with youthful enthusiasm, like "I Gotta Move." Then again, Kweller is at that midway point between 20 and 30. His lyrics trod the same fine line between young and not-so-young. Rhyming "losing control" with "rock and roll" ("I Don't Know Why") seems pretty facile, but then he busts out with the infinitely more original, "I'm-a just a penny on the train track / Waitin' for my judgment day / Come on baby girl let me see those legs / 'For I get flattened away" ("Penny on the Train Tracks"). It takes dexterity to combine humor and longing without letting both sides down. Repetitive, if heartfelt ballad "Thirteen" messes with the momentum, but Read more

Reviews (11)

not a kid
I think ben kweller is a great artist, He is very consistent with his work. very lively and uplifting. This album has many great songs on it. Like penny on a train track and sundress. Most of these songs are very realistic and you can tell they straight fomr ben kwellers heart. i think that this would be great album to listen to if your feeling down. It's such a happy sound.

Should go down as a classic
Ben Kweller's latest effort is outstanding, and should perhaps be listened to multiple times before judged. On the first listen I liked it about as much as On My Way, which gets only a moderate amount of play time on my playlist. Now I like it as much as Sha Sha, if not more.
Kweller is Growing Up...
First off i liked "On My Way" alot. I thought there where alot of stand up tracks, but also some crap. Whereas this album doesnt have the songs that blow your hair back the first time you hear them (except maybe "Run") it has songs that reward you listen after listen. I find it to be alot better than "On My Way", because it cuts the fat and is filled with alot of gems, i dont know why Ben would release "Sundress" as his single there are alot of contenders. Some of my fave tracks are "run" "i gotta move" "thirteen" "penny on the train tracks" "i dont know why" "until i die" "magic" and "this is war".So basically this album is the sound of Ben Kweller growing up, i am excited to hear what comes from him in the future, this is a really great album!!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Indie Pop    2. Indie Rock    3. Pop    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter    7. United States of America   

Editorial Review

David Gray's glorious fourth record explodes in a wellspring of spacious, electronica-tinged folk-pop. He uses his bright growl of a voice to memorable effect, chewing on vowel sounds while spinning odes to lost love, the resiliency of young hearts, and the pain of experience. Gray's work finds the universality at the heart of folk music and tweaks it just enough to make it relevant for alternative audiences. Read more

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Reviews (384)

A nearly perfect alt-pop album
If you can get only one David Gray album, this is undoubtedly the one to get.Although he has been around a long time and recorded a lot of good music, he has unfortunately not been as good at putting together albums filled only with his best work.FLESH, still his second best album, indicated great promise, but subsequent albums had superb material placed along some quite weak songs.They all show that he had talent; you just had to wonder why he either didn't substitute better songs for the weaker material or wait longer to write a stronger group of songs.WHITE LADDER is the glorious exception.There isn't a weak cut on the disc and there are several that are as good as anything he has ever written.I believe that at some point it will be one of the two must-own David Gray albums.The second will be some future anthology of all his best work.Though of course we all hope that he also records more albums as strong as this one.
Hooked
..and captivated. Not only to the music itself but by the lyrics this artists has delivered. I'd heard the song 'This Year's Love' from the movie Crazy/Beautiful and thought of it fittingly cool to listen to. Outstanding and superb is all i can say with this great recording by David Gray.

What a great CD
As a musicman supreme, it's hard for me to accept I'd never even heard of David Gray until the immortal "Babylon", which I played for about an hour straight after I purchased this Cd. It's years later, it's still a tuff groove, and I'm listening to it right now as a matter of fact. However, once you slip past that track, more gems await. This is a great piece of work that will stand the test of time without a doubt. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Indie Rock    3. Pop    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter    7. Wales   

Editorial Review

After two expansive yet winsome epic albums like Read more

Reviews (103)

Listen Again...
I think the Lips suffer a similar fate as all the great acts that constantly reinvent themselves (Dylan, U2, Beatles...).That is that some folk love a certain album so much they want it again and if they don't get it then the band has failed.I have so much love for Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi.No two albums from the last 20 years are so close to me and my own dilemnas.Certainly the song "Race for the Prize"is enough to endear them to any scientist.Which brings us to At War.When I first listened I had certain expectations, immediately met by The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.Then the rest was so different from my expectations I set it aside.Then in making a mix tape for the Lab recently, I listened again and found myself adding so many of these songs to it!"Yeah,Yeah,Yeah" of course, but also "Mr. Ambulance Driver", "Vein of Stars", and "The W.A.N.D."This album stands proudly for me with each of classics they made since Clouds...But just remember, it wasn't always so.Suddenly Everything Has Changed...

Cliche? The Lips?
I'll give this 4 stars for a Lips album, as some of the songs sound like they were tossed off rather than crafted (Free Radicals, for instance). Compared with anything else currently being made, it'd have to be a 5. But what I really want to say is that anyone who dismisses anything the Lips have done as cliche doesn't understand the band. Go back through their entire oeuvre for long, repeated listenings, and you should discover that the Lips have never done anything based on industry or fan expectations, or genre pigeonholes. They do what they want, and it's almost always a combination of undeniable tunefulness, outright goofiness, and masterful musicianship (well, at least in the last decade), with some element of okie (guitar) noodling usually lurking underneath. They can sound like a drugged-out heavy-metal band, Prince, or Floyd, but they're always just themselves.
Such a Let Down
I write from the perspective of a life-long fan. This was one of the first modern bands that I loved and I followed their every release from my preteen years onward. They seemed to never miss the mark creatively or sonically, and the increasingly strong imagination and coherence behind each record was only matched by the increasingly complex production. But on this release, they seem to have run out of ideas and melodies and passion. That hurts to say, but it is painfully true. I'll accept this as their auto-pilot record. The reason I give it two stars is because it makes me appreciate Yoshimi, an album I initially viewed as a disappointment in the shadow of the Soft Bulletin, as a proper album (albiet a lateral move). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Dream Pop    3. Experimental Rock    4. Neo-Psychedelia    5. Noise Pop    6. Pop    7. Rock    8. Rock/Pop    9. United States of America   

Editorial Review

The Rapture wasn't the first band to revisit the clanky dance-punk sounds of bands like P.I.L. and Gang of Four. But with its DFA-produced debut, 2003's Read more

Reviews (6)

Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh Huh
Not easy to compete with 'echoes',one of my favourite albums of the past 5 years but i think a good follow-up. less edgy, more rythm.
excellent record
i was driving home from work, listening to my local college radio station, and i heard "get myself into it" ... i was awkened from deep thought and was wondering what i was listening to... the "sound" reminded me of NYC 1981 ... but i wasn't sure ... i heard the dj announce the name of the band, i bought the cd the following day, and i can't wait to see this band perform live ... you might not like every track on this cd, but to this listener's ears, the majority of tracks are well worth the purchase price ... can't wait to get ahold of their first record...

synthy dance rock at its best
this is what future rock is supposed to be. i love the contrast and creativity between the tracks. each one has its own soul and feeling. this band doesn't try to be anything other than what it is, a party monster. this much energy can't be contained with just ten tracks. you scream for more after each song, and yell for defness as you analize each sonic creation. i listen to electronic dance music, and have a hard time following anything in the "rock" segment. this totally keeps my interest.... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Dance    2. Indie Electronic    3. Indie Rock    4. Pop    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop   

Reviews (68)

Zzzzzz
I don't usually buy a CD by someone I never heard of w/o listening to the clips, but I'm from Mich. and I just wanted to hear what this one was like no matter what. Besides, it has those weird titles peppered with all those exclamation points!!I thought it was probably going to be a lively rockin' little tongue-in-cheek CD with some songs that were even borderline novelty tunes! Oops! No question these people are great musicians, and I like indie/folkie stuff, I really do. But (and you knew there was a but coming) these songs don't say Michigan to me. I think you could almost insert state/cities of your choice in each one and no one would notice. And maybe it's because I'm a first-wave boomer teetering on the brink of old foggie-dom, but I expected/wanted more from this CD. These songs are just a little to bloodless for me. But hey, I grew up on Seger and Smokey, so cut me some slack, 'kay?

Brilliant
Hey, "Music I Am," Sufjan Stevens and Cat Stevens are not the same person.Cat Stevens (who changed his name to Yusuf Islam) is nearly 60 years old, and Sufjan himself is in his 30s.
Thank heaven for CDs!
...else if Michigan was on vinyl I would have worn it out by now.
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Subjects:  1. Ambient Pop    2. Indie Pop    3. Indie Rock    4. Pop    5. Post-Rock/Experimental    6. Progressive Folk    7. Rock    8. Rock/Pop    9. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

Florida’s brilliant singer-songwriter Sam Beam expands Iron & Wine from solo project to a gaggle of friends and family on slide guitar, percussion, and backing vocals on his second album. Fans need not worry--the hushed immediacy and rich melodies remain the focus--but new flavors abound. For instance, the strange "Cinder And Smoke" sounds like a collaboration (with banjos of course) between America, Robert Wyatt and Low. Meanwhile, "On Your Wings," "Free Until They Cut Me Down," and "Teeth in the Grass" showcase a brooding, earthy, Southern-rock-on-laudanum side that the band had previously only demonstrated in concert. It's rare when an artist who's become known for bedroom recordings makes the transition to the studio to produce work that's better--Daniel Johnston, Lou Barlow, and Liz Phair all made their defining moments crouched above a cassette recorder at home. But Beam is the exception to the rule, as he has easily bested himself on the second Iron & Wine album. Read more

Reviews (117)

ZZZZZzzzzzzz...
Oh my, what can I say about this whispery little train wreck.It's third-rate coffee house music that struggles to be heard over conversations (as it should be).In the quiet sanctuary of my den, it's revealed for all it isn't.It isn't clever, musically or lyrically, and just drones along seemingly forever.My audiophile friends would like it because the sparse notes and little extraneous noises would make their overly analytical and fatiguing systems sound magical.
There are things that drift away
Our Endless Numbered Days is a quite marvellous album. Sam Beam's gentle, poignant songs about love, life and the changing of the seasons are simplicity itself. Played out mainly on picked acoustic guitar or banjo, but with added piano and percussion when the occasion calls, the strength of Our Endless Numbered Days is undoubtedly Beam's gorgeous, hushed voice. It infuses the album with a wistful sense of loss and longing, and is beautifully underlined by the interplay with the (female) backing vocals. Lyrically there is an elemental, almost biblical, resonance to the songs which I haven't come across before. The album's timelessness can certainly be attributed to the fact that it could have been written at any point over the last hundred years: there are no references to late 20th or 21st century life that I can think of.
Just drift away
this album ( and his other albums) make me feel the way Norah Jones did a few years back. this is the type of sound that you want to listen to while you drift away with aglass of wine. absolutely amazing ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Indie Rock    2. Lo-Fi    3. Pop    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop    6. Singer/Songwriter   

Reviews (364)

A Pleasant Change
In the atmosphere of so much music labled as particular genres like "rock" or "pop", here comes a very different sort of band that doesn't seem to care about such distinctions. The band was luckily able to gain recognition, due to some promotion on MTV's "Advance Warning" program and radio play on alternative stations. Though "The Funeral" was released in 2004, it could've very well been released in any other era. It carries with it a sort of timeless quality that's not modern, but not entirely antique either. This effect is achieved through the variety of musical instruments, use of lyrics of a poetic quality, and the sincere earnestness found in the vocals.
It works for me
Some bands you have to dig for, or Amazon suggests to you and you buy...Either way its a joy to find these gems.This album is a great listen from beginning to end.Love the melodies, love the lyrics, love the passion.If you find great pleasure, as I do, from music that moves your soul you must get this album today.

need to be nice
I just trashed a bunch of other bands, so I figured I ought to say something nice. This is a great album. It has an intensity that seems impossible, given the amount of chaos going on in within it. The singing is a bit weak, but the band's enthusiasm makes up for it.
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Subjects:  1. Indie Rock    2. Pop    3. Post-Rock/Experimental    4. Rock    5. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

If the idea of basement tapes made by Billy Corgan and Doug Martsch appeals to you, say hello to your new favorite band. Silversun Pickups are fairly early adopters of the 1990s revival, but they're not grunge dorks or anything, and they're from L.A. so they dress nice. Their music updates the anthemic but gauzy heavy rock sound that Veruca Salt and the Smashing Pumpkins had down pat. Thankfully, they strip it down and add plenty of finely distorted guitar leads to the whole thing. It's nice. With a spacey, laid-back sound due in no small part to knob-twiddlers Tony Hoffer and Dave Cooley, repeated listens are mandatory. Just don't pass out on the couch. Read more

Reviews (21)

Don't understand the hype.
..I've given this a listen to about 5-6 times now and can't understand the fuss. While there are some great tracks on the album like Melatonin and Lazy Eye I find most of the album just sounds so contrived and has a lack of originality. Similarities to Smashing Pumpkins are obvious but in this day and age of musical regurgitation that doesn't bothers me. What did bother me was the contrived and cringe-worthy lyrics..it just sounded like an "I'm too cool 15 year old" singing in front of the mirror...

You'll be picking it up over and over and over and over and over and...
Silversun Pickups get a lot of Corganishishness thrown their way for the sake of vocal inflection, but on their new record "Carnavas," they've pinned down that elusive "love in neutral" tone that only bands like My Bloody Valentine have managed in the past, and spitshined it with a melodic Guided by Voices sheen, yielding white noise-pop that sparkles from the glint of all the fuzzy edges.
Best CD of 2006
I can't quite put my finger on what they sound like. Yeah, some emo/shoegazer in there. Maybe a splash of Pumpkins but I don't see the overwhelming Corgan references. It's really a unique CD. As soon as I heard a 30 second clip I felt I was home. Simply the best CD I've bought in a long time. Probably since Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. That's it. It's like Radiohead if they were a rock band and with more coherent vocals. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dream Pop    2. Indie Pop    3. Indie Rock    4. Pop    5. Post-Grunge    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop   

Reviews (3)

I want to live in a yellow house...
Have you ever been to a model home in a midwestern suburban housing development in the midst of being completed? These houses, constructed inside and out to look as though the most pleasant families in the world have been happily inhabiting them for years, create the kind of warmth and familiarity that one could be convinced can never exist elsewhere. Nowhere else except perhaps in the cascading strains of "Yellow House". Much comparison has been made between The Grizzlies and The Beach Boys and Animal Collective...but I hear bits of Eno at his most jilted, Vashti Bunyan at her most tender and even, yes, Aphex Twin at his most melodic. This is not experimental music for pop fans, nor is it pop for fans of experimental music. This is intriguing music at its most populist...tuneful, expansive, exposed and redemptive.

best album in a decade
I both envy and feel sad for anyone who has not heard this album.I envy you because when you first listen to this album it will awaken beauty in your life and I feel sad that you have yet to expierence it yet.I haven't fallen for an album like this since flaming lips, yoshimi. you can sure find influences in thier music, I hear beatles and beach boys but there is also a very distinct quality, untapped in modern music, I can't place it,but it is haunting and this album stays with you for a long time. I work nights in badgad, its the soundtrack of my deployment and brings beauty to a horrid situation. thank you grizzly bear. its exilirating to say the least. Easily the best album of the year and in my top 5 of the decade so far.

yes get it and see them live
a song excerpt may help you get the genre, but to really get IT you should hear the whole album, go for the whole ride, and listen to how the delicately balanced songs progress with geometric precision, then are broken with magnificent grizzly guitar tantrums and textural spasms that manage to be both futuristic and timeless.dont write them off as a freakfolk experiment. grizzly bear is a really great band. you must see them live too. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Experimental Rock    2. Indie Rock    3. Pop    4. Post-Rock/Experimental    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

How do you condense 15 years of music down to 76 minutes? In the case of this survey of the second phase of R.E.M.'s career, the answer is: Exceptionally well. The dangling carrot for diehards is two new songs; the rapid fire "Bad Day" hurtles along like the kissing cousin of "It's the End of the World as We Know It," while "Animal" is anchored by a majestic drone reminiscent of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." In a surprising, but gratifying move, the rest of the program shortchanges the band's breakthrough, Read more

Reviews (164)

good but what if.
With the remarkable IRS compilation just released, the question has to be presented...could this cd have been as good as that one is?
Too much missing
No "Radio Song", "Turn You Inside Out", "Crush with Eyeliner", or, most shockingly, "Shiny Happy People"? Guess I'll wait a few more years for Warners to put out a better best of, like IRS just did of REM's early years.

Recurring Best
There are endless ways to assemble an R.E.M. anthology, let alone one from any other group, but this selection is marvelous. It is not only put together for their best work; it is arranged like an album. Many fans have lamented the absence of some big songs, like "Shiny, Happy, People," but this collection works well together.
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Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. American Underground    3. College Rock    4. Jangle Pop    5. Pop    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. United States of America   

Editorial Review

The fifth proper album by the Chicago-based roots-loving group is their slowest, weirdest, and best. Some of these hazy songs are pretty little pop jams, while others are more experimental things stitched together haphazardly, all the wires showing. If you want to hear a group that "pushes the envelope" while never forgoing the pleasure principle, Califone is exactly that. It's so nice to hear people who could so easily form a (really good) jam band forego such lucrative tendencies for more foreign, complex, and subtle pleasures. "Black Metal Valentine" and "A Chinese Actor" are stitched-together Read more

Reviews (2)

fresh and old califone
this a very good collection of songs that have elements from every type of califone album.While I dont think it is their best ever..its a lot better then HKB.This album is an excellent sampler to califone. I like all their styles so I am happy with it, hasn't left my car cd player since i got it. The 3rd listen is when the beauty really emerges. go get it! viva la 'fone!

Another amazing album from an amazing band...
If you have enjoyed previous Califone albums you will enjoy this one as well.No need to review this, it is a perfect album.Go buy it now! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Pop    2. Rock    3. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

It's all about the power chord and the sing-along chorus. With the exception of the stark title track, Christopher Carrabba's once-prominent acoustic strumming is now in short supply. Along with Scott Schoenbeck, John Lefler, and Mike Marsh, the Dashboard Confessional mastermind cranks it all up on his fourth full-length: the guitars, vocals, drums, the works. Consequently, some listeners have been tossing around the letter "U" and the numeral "2." It's a bit of a stretch, although the album Read more

Reviews (52)

Lifelong Fans will be a little dissapointed
Let me start this review by saying that i have been a hardcore dashboard fan for over 6 years back when it was just Chris and his guitar. I have always loved dashboard, and even when A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar came out i was still very impressed. This album however fell short of the normal Dashboard glory.
<3
I waited all summer for this cd and it was worth it. This, alongside the soon to be released Sam's Town, will probably be my favourite albums this year. The only song I initially disliked was Slow Decay, but I looked at the lyrics and now I love it. It just sort of scared me at first, because it is so different than any other DC song.
Great CD - Great lyrics - Great music
No outrageous rock and roll here. All the tracks have a nice tune to all of them.
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Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Emo    3. Indie Rock    4. Pop    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop    7. Singer/Songwriter    8. United States of America   

Editorial Review

It's a heck of a start to a career. Before he had released any material in the States, Alexi Murdoch was championed by KCRW's influential tastemaker Nic Harcourt. (Murdoch moved to LA in the late 1990s.) This led to the release of the Read more

Reviews (17)

hearkening back in time
What a beautiful record.The sound is so like Nick Drake and Tim and Jeff Buckley.In this age of candy coated rock and Jessica Simpson, it is such a relief to hear someone playing real, soulful music.Heart searching lyrics and beautiful melodies pared with Murdoch's subtle voice make for a haunting and beautiful album.

This guy is great.....
I would like to caveat this review by saying I have never done a review but I was thought this album deserved it. I was first introduced to Alexi when he was on the O.C. soundtrack and really like "Orange Sky".I didn't hear anything else that he did until I was listening on to the internet radio and I heard "Wait".I was stunned by the song so I decided to buy the album and this is the type of album that you could put in the CD player and let it play for days without pressing the ever present next button.I am going to go out on a limb and not compare him to Nick Drake but Red House Painters, if you have checked these guys out do yourself a favor and buy the album "Songs for Blue Guitars".

A slight Miss
Alexi Murdoch is the kind of artist we all love to see arrive on the scene.A great talent with a somewhat unique spin on a folk-rock genre that has historically produced timeless albums.His first release (the 4 Song EP) created a huge amount of buzz and was a staple in my musical diet for over a year - a great release.I've listened to his new album now about 15 times... and there's something missing.I can't exactly put my finger on it.There are definitely a few songs that are fantastic.They grab you and suck you in to a whirl of acoustic guitars and droaning vocals.But most of the other songs don't hold it together quite as well after several plays.I find myself getting annoyed at the rather simplistic and repetitive chords/notes of most of the songs - in fact the "rather simplistic and repetitive" lyrics don't help.
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Subjects:  1. England    2. Indie Rock    3. Lo-Fi    4. Pop    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop   

Reviews (6)

It's even better than the Reset EP!!
Check this out if you have any liking for the following: rock, mellow vocals, rock, electronica, complex layers that require multiple listens.
awesome album, awesome show...
this band is unequivocally one that i would recommend across the spectrum of listeners and people who appreciate real music, original sound, and raw talent.seemingly by the grace of God, these guys were able to come up with a sound that refelcts the mood of thier message which is universal and rooted in a deepness that only the human heart can know.it's certainly an album for everybody, i purchased it for my 12 year old nephew, and it has become a hands-down favorite in our own house.the music does satisfy and the show (if you are fortunate enough to have them in your town) is full of energy and entertainment.this band has managed to keep the spotlight without the pretention that some bands exude, and refreshingly enough, have the openness to interact with thier audience without the crassness of your dime-a-dozen "hot" new band characters trying to be this or that.don't count on burn-out, these guys will be around for eternity.listen and love it.mute math won't let you down.

Excellent!
This album and the band Mute Math ROCK!And they're mellow a bit, too ... but they still ROCK!!!;-) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Pop    2. Rock    3. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

Channeling the evocative storytelling of Laura Nyro and the soulful sexiness of Dusty Springfield, singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis skips all contemporary studio gimmickry to proffer a near-perfect solo debut. The front-woman for indie darlings Rilo Kiley breaks away from the songwriting democracy she shares with that band's co-leader Blake Sennett (also of the Elected), drawing inspiration from the crackling vinyl albums of her youth. And from the opening notes of "Run Devil Run," an acapella gospel hymn sung with the Watson Twins, through the note-for-note cover of the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle With Care" (with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard), Lewis verifies this is her record. Her goose-bump voice can be as mournful as it is optimistic, but remains perpetually mesmerizing on Read more

Reviews (59)

Takes Me To Another Place
This record reminds me so much of the old records that my grandparents and parents used to play for me, and it reminded me of the folk pop albums i listen to today.It has so much soul.Just hearing Rise With Fists for the first time inspired me to buy not only this album but all of the Rilo Kiley albums.Jenny Lewis is truly inspired.This CD is simple and pure. And in its purity it takes you away, just like that music i have grown up to love and you don't see anymore in the days of my humps and sexyback.

On the RISE!
If you haven't caught the video for the tune Rise up with Fists found on this cd...SEEK IT OUT!I caught the video on cable a couple times and immediately got into the tongue-in-cheek-this-isn't-country-well-ok-maybe-just-a-little-bit groove that Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins deliver so effortlessly.This cd accompanied me on a 1200 mile road trip and let's just say that I wanted to drive another 1000 miles just to listen to this cd.Heads Up! This cd came out months ago.What are you waiting for? ;)

Lyrics that speak to my grungy 70s folk craving
I was so suprized to hear the cute little red-head from "Troop Beverly Hills" put out this amazing album. The whole thing is a work of art. The lyrics are astoundingly soulful and leave you wanting to sing along. Jenny Lewis is like that girl down the street thats kinda depressed and scary, but totally hot and mysterious. She put a lot of heart into these songs and the lyrics are indicitive of some of her hollywood history, which is always nice of a former child star putting out an album to do, because we are all curious.
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Subjects:  1. Alternative Country-Rock    2. Americana    3. Indie Pop    4. Indie Rock    5. Pop    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. United States of America   

Reviews (12)

Bringing back the good stuff!
Well, I'm always searching for great new music, from early 1900s jazz to modern experimental electronica.I LOVE early 60s music, so this band really stands out to me.This album has a great late 1950s-early 60s pop/bop/folk/motown/rock flavor to it;The vintage sounds as well as the progessions and melodies.There is a really honest feeling to the vocals that I don't hear in much music since the turn of the century.I liked it the instant i heard it.It makes me think of the Smiths with a female singer and a more vintage sound.Nothing wrong with that!

Kind of Fun...up to a point
I do like this new record from Camera Obscura, but not so much that I'd leap to recommend it--one might do better just buying the single "Hey Lloyd" or a track like "Let's Get Out of This Country" from iTunes.
Very sweet
A mix of saccharin, poppy melodies fronted by Tracey Anne Campbells heartbreaking voice and dreamy lyrics. The single is strong, as well as "Come Back Margaret" and the title track, all with lots of orchestra and catchy choruses. I wonder how long this band will last since I'm sure the male members of the group probably hate the fact that the two girls get all the attention. I dont care, as long as my drinking buddies don't know I'm listening to this stuff. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Indie Pop    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Scotland   

Reviews (7)

it's a good one...
It's not as good as the ones from 2ManyDjs but it's real close. The same idea is going on here though and it does have it's moments. The only reason I give the nod to 2manydjs is because their mashes and mixes had purpose behind them. The obvious example is mixing Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 with Destiny's Child's Independant Woman.
Sounds of the Last 3 Decades
I love those late night infomercials for CD packages from Time-Life, you know like "sounds of the seventies" or "AM Gold." I love those infomercials because I don't have to sit through the entire song, I just hear the best parts and it gives me a memory from my childhood.This CD takes that idea a bit further.Not only do I get snippets of songs from the 70s, but there are songs included that were popular last month.All of it is swirled together and it don't stop.I've been facinated with "mash-ups" for quite a while, but this fills all of my want to hear any others.The pace of this disc keeps my attention the whole time.I have been listening to it so much I am a little afraid I'm going to memorize it and it will become predictable.There are some highlights: Notorious B.I.G. mixed with "Tiny Dancer," and my favorite, 2 LIVE Crew "We want some P****" playing over Pavement and Paul McCartney "Silly Love Songs."I love hearing Neutral Milk Hotel counting off at some point.I love hearing Ciara mixed in.M.I.A. sounds great in there at some point too.I don't know who does the song "Kryptonite," but on here it's great.I really hope to hear more from GIRL TALK and I hope it doesn't get popular enough to get pulled, maybe I shouldn't even be writing a review.Maybe I should give it a crappy review, but it rocks!

The best record of the year
The title may seem a hasty assignment, but I have proclaimed (at last count) five different records that were supposed to be the best of the year. However, just when I think that the industry cannot surprise me beyond belief, artists keep doing it.