Now Downloading: New Releases 02.09.10

February can be the cruelest of months, even with its brevity. One week you'd swear it was Spring, the next week, you're spitting icicles. The release schedule kind of feels like that as well. To wit, we're (mostly) blessed this week with new releases from Hot Chip, Yeasayer and the influential Gil Scott-Heron's first in 28 years. There's also notable new joints from The Watson Twins, Panthu Du Prince, Kath Bloom, Massive Attack and also staging a comeback, Sade.

Playlist: New Releases 02.09.10

---

Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

With their fourth release, Hot Chip seem to have matured and realized they're romantics at heart. One Life Stand is an awfully serious album in comparison to prior releases, its fuller, richer and their most consistent affair. If it doesn't attract as much attention, it's only because they don't have a killer track like "Over and Over," or "Ready For the Floor." Instead, it's a collection of great songs that are closely related to each other, a thematic collection. The title track is the closest thing to a hit here, while the rest are content to just be good-to-great, a contentment that washes over the album lyrically as well. If Hot Chip are indeed content, at least they're resting their laurels at a nice peak.

Free AOL album stream

---

Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

When Brooklyn's Yeasayer came out of nowhere in 2007 with their Eastern-tinged debut All Hour Cymbals, they didn't seem so much polarizing as just part of the scene with fellow artists Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors. After hearing their follow-up Odd Blood, that debut almost seems like an elaborate set up now. Even the opening track here, "Children," sets us off in all kinds of wrong directions, with its industrial edge and weird vocal treatment, as the rest of the album really aims to please far more than freak us out. Between the pugilistic fantasy of "Ambling Alp," the bouncy "Rome" and an oddly romantic "O.N.E.," Yeasayer manage to please as well as remain as just strange enough in it's embrace of world rhythms to avoid a saccharin existence. As I mentioned in the previous post, Security-era Peter Gabriel is a good comparison here, mixing romanticism, pop and African polyrhythms. While it's bound to confound early fans, I feel like Odd Blood, with time, will win them all back in the before they're through.

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Ambling Alp" [mp3]

---

More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
The Watson Twins - Talking to You, Talking to Me / Free AOL album stream
Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here / Free AOL album stream
Kath Bloom - Thin Thin Line
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise / Free AOL album stream / "The Splendour" [mp3]
Allison Moorer - Crows
Galactic - Ya-Ka-May
Massive Attack - Heligoland
Blue Brain - Soft Power / Free AOL album stream / "Ten By Ten" [mp3]
Sade - Soldier of Love / Free AOL album stream
HIM - Screamworks: Love In Theory and Practice
Reckless Kelly - Somewhere in Time
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Xxxx

REISSUES
Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen

tags: music, album review, yeasayer, hot chip, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Ear on TV: Week of 02.08.10: Yeasayer

Brooklyn's Yeasayer is ready for their close-up. After releasing one of the more adventurous albums of 2007 with their world music-influenced debut, All Hour Cymbals, the Brooklyn band returns with a romantic album full of 80s synth sounds and the kind of hummable pop melodies that so often amount to backlash from early fans. They had previously positioned themselves between Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors in their sensibilities, but with Odd Blood, they sound closer to Depeche Mode -- if Martin Gore had been influenced by African polyrhythms.

Perhaps a better comparison would be to Security era Peter Gabriel, and that's no accident. The band recorded the album at the home of drummer Jerry Marotta, who played with Gabriel during that time. Since everyone is about to do Peter Gabriel covers, I'm thinking Yeasayer is perfect for Gabriel's "I Have the Touch".
The band will be putting the synth-heavy sound on display Wednesday night, playing lead single and pugilist yarn "Ambling Alp" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Meanwhile, the folks in charge of the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics up in Vancouver have kept a pretty tight lip, up to now, on what we can expect to see. In the past couple days, however, promos have revealed some of the music artists, and when the headliners are Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan (who wrote the theme song for the games), perhaps it's no wonder no one was beating that drum very loudly. It's Canada's night, but ratings-starved NBC was probably hoping for some demographic help ala Justin Bieber or Avril Lavigne (keep Nickelback away from the torch, please). Not performing live, but still making a debut is the second coming of "We Are the World," featuring contributions from over 50 artists, including Lil Wayne, Eminem, AR Rahman, Kanye West and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson (that was the sound of my head exploding).

Finally, The Soft Pack makes their network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman on Friday night, likely playing their infectious lead single "Answer to Yourself." Oddly enough, their straight-forward indie rock sound comes across as fresh to these ears, as seems like we've been devoid of good releases from The Strokes and their ilk for a couple years.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, February 8
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Bravery (REPEAT)
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Patty Griffin
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Jemina Pearl
Tuesday, February 9
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Ryan Bingham
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Sade
NBC: The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: Matisyahu (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Regina Spektor
Wednesday, February 10
ABC: The View: Sade
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Editors
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Switchfoot
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Yeasayer
SUNDANCE: Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...: Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Ron Sexsmith, Jesse Winchester, Sheryl Crow (REPEAT)
Thursday, February 11
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Neon Indian
Friday, February 12
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Dashboard Confessional
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Soft Pack
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Duane Peters & The Great Unwashed
NBC: 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies: Nelly Furtado
Saturday, February 13
PBS: Austin City Limits: Them Crooked Vultures