If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Lambrini Girls Album : Who Let the Dogs Out Quick Thoughts : Lambrini Girls feels like the angry political younger sister of Amyl and the Night Sniffers if they listened to a lot of McLusky, which is absolutely a compliment. It's raw, aggressive punk with a point of view and it doesn't hold back in a lot of ways you might expect other bands to do. A mandatory listen not only for the moment we're in right now, but also as a great kickoff to the year. Songs of Note : "Big Dick Energy," "Love," "Cuntology 101" Artist : Early James Album : Medium Raw Quick Thoughts : Early James has done the rootsy blues thing fairly well for a while now, but something about Medium Raw has grabbed me in an unexpected and wonderful way. Perhaps it's the production from Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, that gives the album the sort of "man with a guitar alone in a room" feel that lends itself so well to the songwriting, or perhaps just...

An interesting week overall. Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, girl : Jenny Hval is described in a few places as an experimental singer-songwriter, and that's a fairly good description of this album, which definitely balances the line between access and excess. It's got some cool moments, but unless you have tolerance for being firmly off the beaten path, you might not get this. Listener be aware. Morgan Page - DC to Light : I've been a fan of Morgan Page for a while, and his fourth album feels very natural and right in line with the sort of dance music he's good at. What's interesting, though, is how uninteresting it is at times. It does what it does quite well, but the result isn't anything that really stretches any boundaries, as compared to other music in the genre. In such a competitive genre, artists need to do more than this to stand out, and good-but-not-great singles like "Open Road" won't get you there. Ash - Kablammo! : Oh, Ash! Remem...

After last week's deluge, things have slowed down a little bit with the new releases, but it hasn't stopped a few interesting things from dropping this week. Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action : If you told me at any point in the last 8 years that I would like another Franz Ferdinand song, never mind album, after things went downhill following "Do You Want To," I would have laughed at you. It turns out that the new album is a stunning return to form, and one that does not feel old or derivative at all. The first time through, it doesn't sound like there's a clunker on the album - we're back to the party atmosphere that the first album and a half or so made us love from them to begin with. I don't know at this point whether I'm grading on a curve, but this is a welcome surprise from a band I had basically written off. Belle & Sebastian - Third Eye Center : Belle & Sebastian have always been good about compilin...