albumreview: Bon Iver's Bon Iver (2011)

Justin Vernon has learned a thing or two since hanging out with Kanye West and other hip hop superstars. This is 2011, and one cannot just fingerpick woefully alone in the forest anymore. Bon Iver is groovy record. Not to say you couldn't see this coming.

"Holocene," "Michicant," "Calgary," hell, nearly the entire record sounds like For Emma, but with a bigger budget and silkier production. "Towers" uses a swelling undercurrent of horns to represent the bubbling and complicated love of the song's protagonist. "Minnesota, WI" has Vernon getting his sexy Chris Martin swagger on with banjos and slide guitar aplenty. "Holocene," flows with a sensitive lilt before bouncing to life with a stomp and handclaps. Perfect motivation to make it to the top of the mountain.

I have a feeling some folks won't like this follow-up much. It's difficult to pin down, the hooks never simple. Epic 80s closer, "Beth/Rest," features those yamaha electric keyboards stolen straight from a Peter Cetera record or Jackson Browne's Running On Empty. Vernon particularly enjoyed wanking on the cheesy guitar solo that begs us to dig out our lighters and raise 'em high. It's most definitely a power ballad, but feels oddly appropriate at the end of a deeply exploratory journey.

Like Helplessness Blues, Bon Iver is not a picturesque folk record with bohemian nostalgia or dusty longings for the "good old days." Despite the cleansing feeling I get when listening to it, I'm still not sure what to make of it. Vernon and company threw down another gauntlet for us musicians, bloggers and listeners. Are we prepared to step up to the challenge?

Listen:
Bon Iver-"Calgary"

Look:
Bon Iver's official site

albumreview: Candle's The River You Drink From Will Drown You (2011)

Candle is a rough 'n' ready folk band from the Central California coast where the sea meets the open road. It's an easy place to wander, but the ocean is always a constant gauge of your progress (or lack thereof). After three years of lineup changes, going to school, dropping out of school, traveling to Alaska and Chile, leader Kevin Coons wrangled up the gang in a studio in San Luis Obispo and recorded his latest collection of bright-eyed musings, evocatively titled The River You Drink From Will Drown You.

Ever since Candle's first official release Birds Were Meant to Fly, they have streamlined their post-rock-meets-country stylings to a form that is more assured and (dare I say) accessible. However, it's immediately obvious that the hooks from 2008's Miles and Miles and Miles are missing. What remains is a more measured and raw set of songs that often reward with due attention.

Songs like "Snowfall on an Anchorage Graveyard" and "We Won't Ever Die" benefit from a new stripped down sound. What could have come off as a crawling dirge, "Graveyard" feels alive with the arpeggiated acoustic picking and Coons' developing raspy singing. Lovely vocalist Chloe Smith adds an airy twist onto "Die," a tune so relaxed with its "we will never die" chorus you'd swear we were sitting in a jazz lounge in heaven.

Ironically, just as Miles' brightest moments were due to its pop hooks, many of the poppier numbers on River ("Like Ghosts" or "El Rio") feel obligatory and stiff. The main exception is "My Old Ways," which expresses Candle's ideal attitude. Young people feel pain, but we are still young enough to not lose faith. And with a bit of wandering, we'll find our way home someday.

Listen:
Candle-"My Old Ways"

Look:
Candle on bandcamp

Support:
Purchase from Real Love Records

albumreview: The Head and The Heart's The Head and The Heart (2011)

I want to get a pet peeve of mine out of the way before talking about Sub Pop's The Head and The Heart because I like them. I hate it when my generation romanticizes the time before internet, before television, before retail jobs and suburbs, etc. etc. etc. We seem to believe the begone days were more real and beautiful before all these modern trappings seem to have gotten in-between human interaction. It's a complete lie. Would I really want to work on the railroads all day with little to no rest or little food?

The nostalgia surrounding some golden era was out of date by Dylan's time, so in the age where everyone has a twitter, what's the use in pretending we still use payphones? But I digress, I definitely understand the appeal and so although The Head and The Hear carries plenty of these naive trappings, I get where it comes from, I have them too. So even if "Down in The Valley" has the phony opening line, "I wish I was a slave to an age old trade/like ridin' around on railcars and workin' long days," the excellent piano romper "Ghosts" has singers Josiah and Jonathan declaring, "Is it any wonder why we all leave home?/people say, 'I knew you when you were six years old!'" We've all felt that way before.

I was invited to see the band play in London earlier this year at the tiny pub venue The Lexington without any prior knowledge of their music. Let me tell you, it was an inspiring show. The six-piece in full harmony, belting theses folksy songs at the top of their lungs. And you know what, singing about iphones and suburbia and facebook relationships would seem terribly dreary by comparison. The Head and The Heart are off to a terrific start really. They have the technique and the passion. With a bit of time they'll grow more comfortable in their own skin. Their starry-eyed optimism will be their saving grace.

Listen:
The Head and The Heart-"Ghosts"

Look:
The Head and The Heart official site

you meddling kids: Maria Taylor's "In A Bad Way"

Just as I was wondering what ever happened to Saddle Creek an e-mail arrives in my inbox delivering a new single from one of my early indie crushes, Maria Taylor. One half of dream-pop duo Azure Ray, Maria has been making great little solo records for years, Overlook is her fourth album (third on Saddle Creek) dropping August 16th.

"In A Bad Way" is the first single off Maria's new album and journey's more into the southern-fried rock arena that her contemporaries like Bright Eyes or Rilo Kiley have tried out in the past. However, Maria isn't one to ape genre's so willingly, the rough guitars subdued ever so subtly over the course of the tune.

Listen:
Maria Taylor-"In A Bad Way"

Look:
Maria Taylor over at Saddle Creek