If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook When we last heard from Caroline Kingsbury back in 2014, she was known as The Red-Headed Indian and had released an EP we both loved, Honey . It was one of the surpisehits of that year, with a surprisingly great mix of soul and folk. Shortly after that, she decided to drop the moniker of The Red-Headed Indian (a decision I approved of, since I always felt a wee bit awkward saying it), and was going by Kingsbury instead. Looks like besides just the name change, she decided to become more of a band and start collaborating with Will Hess. Gone is the folky sound of The Red-Headed Indian, and in its place is a decided more poppy, electronic sound. It's not a sound you normally associate with a Nashville band, but it's a great one. It's close to dream pop, with this lovely and lilting synth riff (if that's a real thing) throughout.  You can listen to Kingbury's debut single, "Easy," below. For more information on Kingsbury, check out th...

We kick off our Best of 2014 coverage today with a look at my favorite EP releases of the year. I'll count down a few highlights and leave a few others: The Red-Headed Indian - Honey : I was really, really excited about this EP when it was first released, and I'm still really into it today. Every time I listen to it, whether in full or to the individual songs, I find something new to love and a new favorite song on the release (today it's "January"). Overall, this is my favorite non-album release this year by a wide, wide margin and I'm really excited to see what Caroline Kingsbury has coming up next. Robyn & Royksopp - Do It Again : "Do It Again" might be one of my favorite songs of the year regardless of anything else, but this whole EP is a great mix of electronica and pop music that hopefully sets up more great collaborations like this. A great little dance EP that is just long enough to boot. Lewis and Leigh - Night Drives : Every...

Here at If It's Too Loud..., we love free music, especially when it's something we've recently raved about. Which is why we were thrilled to discover 2 of our recent favorites for free (or at least partially for free) on Noisetrade. Just last week , Jeff was gushing about Honey , the debut EP from The Red-Headed Indian. Turns out, you can download the entire EP for free right now over at Noisetrade ! Another album Jeff recently loved was Prospect Hill, the solo debut from Dom Flemons. He referred to it as "...  one of the better folk records [he's] heard in a while." Right now you can download 6 of the album's tracks on Noisetrade . Of course, if you're downloading their music for free, you should at least check out their websites for more info, including tour dates. You can find The Red-Headed Indian here  and Dom Flemons here . These might be the best free music you get all year.

A pretty busy new release week, all things considered. Lots of interesting stuff, so let's dive in. Future Sound of London - Environment Five : A common theme with the reviews this week will be the expectations that a lot of the artists provide. For example, with FSOL, I've come to expect some pretty good electronic stuff, often understated but uniquely FSOL (and especially with their Environment series). This album slots right in with what I was hoping to hear, and works for me on a whole. Significant fans might quibble with some of it or still wish it was closer to a lot of what they were doing two decades ago, but I really enjoyed this and those who like electronic music and need a break from the new Aphex Twin would be wise to check this out. Mr Twin Sister - Mr Twin Sister : Formerly simply Twin Sister, I expected something a lot different than the dreamy indie pop we got from this. It's an interesting listen, but I'm still on the fence as to whether it...