radioSpin

IRON & WINE
Ghost On Ghost

Iron & Wine makes its Nonesuch Records debut with Ghost On Ghost, the 5th release from singer-songwriter Sam Beam. The album was produced by his longtime associate Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Califone, Fruit Bats) and follows 2011′s Kiss Each Other Clean. Ghost On Ghost deftly integrates a broad, transparent soundstage and a Swiss watchmaker’s precision with the whispery tenderness at its center. Helping them these songs to life is a studio band composed of topflight session players including the Dylan-certified rhythm section of drummer Brian Blade and bassist Tony Garnier, pedal steel player Paul Niehaus (Calexico), a horn section of downtown New York veterans and five string virtuosos. Ghost On Ghost insinuates itself into the listener’s consciousness like a film, one that demands to be watched over and over.

ARTIST: Iron & Wine
TITLE: Ghost On Ghost
LABEL: Nonesuch
RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2013
TIME: 44:05 min.
WEB: http://www.ironandwine.com/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Caught in the Briars [03:12]
02. The Desert Babbler [03:27]
03. Joy [02:31]
04. Low Light Buddy of Mine [03:30]
05. Grace for Saints and Ramblers [03:36]
06. Grass Windows [02:53]
07. Singers and the Endless Song [03:39]
08. Sundown (back in the briars) [02:18]
09. Winter Prayers [03:12]
10. New Mexico’s No Breeze [04:28]
11. Lovers’ Revolution [05:40]
12. Baby Center Stage [05:39]

PREVIEW: Iron & Wine – Joy

get it here.

RS VIDEO OF THE WEEK – #154
DAUGHTER – Still

ARTIST: Daughter
TITLE: Still
ALBUM: If You Leave
WEB: YouTube

directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard

JUNIP
Junip

Junip‘s self-titled second album is a lovely record about old hopes, new beginnings and redemptive moments of clarity. And once again, the music (supplied by the frontman José González with bandmates Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkorn) finds a spot somewhere between krautrock rhythms and African beats to infuse a dash of inherent Swedish serenity. Junip is a work filled with elegant phrasing and playing which doesn’t make for a very aggressive listen. Nothing here assaults or even grabs for the listener’s attention. It’s all in the details, and as long as you’re committed to them, there’s plenty of wonder and beauty to be uncovered.

ARTIST: Junip
TITLE: Junip
LABEL: Mute
RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2013
TIME: 42:46 min.
WEB: http://www.junip.net/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Line of Fire [05:39]
02. Suddenly [03:27]
03. So Clear [04:45]
04. Your Life Your Call [04:07]
05. Villain [01:59]
06. Walking Lightly [05:44]
07. Head First [02:38]
08. Baton [03:45]
09. Beginnings [05:01]
10. After All Is Said and Done [05:41]

PREVIEW: Junip – Line of Fire

get it here.

DAUGHTER
If You Leave

Someone said, a couple of years ago: the music industry is abuzz with rumours that London based trio Daughter is a band to watch. Now we can confirm they were right: If You Leave is an astonishing debut, an album of such brutal, searing honesty it leaves you pinned to the wall from the very first listen. Sounding a little like a more fleshed out, less skeletal version of fellow Londoners The XX, Daughter create ambient, spacious guitar atmospherics as a backdrop for singer Elena Tonra‘s painful words of heartbreak, loss and regret to create something incredibly powerful. With If You Leave, Daughter have delivered an album that ranks up there with the very best debut albums of recent years: a scarily magnificent tour de force that leaves the listener bloodied and bruised but wanting to do it all again the moment the last notes fade away. Heartbreak has never sounded quite as blissful as this.

ARTIST: Daughter
TITLE: If You Leave
LABEL: Glassnote
RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2013
TIME: 48:01 min.
WEB: http://ohdaughter.bandcamp.com/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Winter [04:43]
02. Smother [04:02]
03. Youth [04:13]
04. Still [03:33]
05. Lifeforms [05:59]
06. Tomorrow [05:04]
07. Human [03:55]
08. Touch [04:49]
09. Amsterdam [04:26]
10. Shallows [07:17]

PREVIEW: Daughter – Winter

get it here.

LISA GERMANO
No Elephants

Lisa Germano‘s communication with herself, the earth, and its beings is getting weirder every day. Her music, which has always been a beautiful pool to drown in, leagues deep with epistolary lament and existential fear, as well as a beacon of ragged hope. With No Elephants, at first you’ll be attracted by the gauzy mellifluity of her dreamy atmospherics, but you’ll soon find your wretched brain synapses firing, comprehension dawning, your complicity in Germano’s dystopias perceived, and, you know, what a ruckus that would provoke.

ARTIST: Lisa Germano
TITLE: No Elephant
LABEL: Badman / E1
RELEASE DATE: February 12, 2013
TIME: 35:13 min.
WEB: http://www.lisagermano.com/
PURCHASE: price – 13.02$

01. Ruminants [03:20]
02. No Elephants [04:25]
03. Apathy and the Devil [02:38]
04. Back to Earth [01:39]
05. Haunted [02:51]
06. A Feast [03:24]
07. Up in the Air [02:44]
08. Dance of the Bees [02:05]
09. Diamonds [03:38]
10. … and So On [02:30]
11. Last Straws for Sale [03:21]
12. Strange Bird [02:38]

Lisa Germano – No Elephant

get it here.

LOW
The Invisible Way

Low will celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band with their new album The Invisible Way. Produced by Jeff Tweedy and recorded in Wilco‘s Chicago studio, The Loft, the album, out via Sub Pop, is one of the best act of the incredible career of Alan Sparhawk‘s band. Low visited Wilco‘s studio while they were in Chicago on tour and decided to record with Tweedy after hearing his work on Mavis Staples‘ album You Are Not Alone. The tracks on The Invisible Way are about intimacy, drug, archaeology and love. As a last note, the fact that, of the album’s 11 tracks, drummer/vocalist Mimi Parker sings lead on five.

ARTIST: Low
TITLE: The Invisible Way
LABEL: Sub Pop
RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2012
TIME: 38:57 min.
WEB: http://chairkickers.com/
PURCHASE: pre-order

01. Plastic Cup [03:02]
02. Amethyst [05:21]
03. So Blue [04:23]
04. Holy Ghost [03:07]
05. Waiting [02:38]
06. Clarence White [03:47]
07. Four Score [02:56]
08. Just Make It Stop [04:09]
09. Mother [02:52]
10. On My Own [05:44]
11. To Our Knees [03:08]

Low – Amethyst

get it here.

AA.VV.
RS Top50 2012

So here we are again: just like every late December, it’s summing-up-time! It has been a really really hard work (but someone’s gotta do it, you know) to select the best albums of 2012. As usual, no claim to be exahustive round here: it’s a matter of musical taste, and surely we’ve missed some fantastic release (we pre-apologize for that), but we’ve tried, and here are the RS-TOP20 album between the ones featured on radioSpin.
Let us know what you think about it.

01. BAND OF SKULLS – Sweet Sour
02. ALT-J – An Awesome Wave
03. PINBACK – Information Retrieved
04. ARCHIVE – With Us Until You’re Dead
05. HUMAN DON’T BE ANGRY – Human don’t Be Angry
06. CHROMATICS – Kill For Love
07. DIVINE FITS – A Thing Called Divine Fits
08. REDRUM ALONE – De Redrum Natura
09. GRIZZLY BEARS – Shields
10. GIARDINI DI MIRÒ – Good Luck
11. Fairmont – Automaton
12. ORBITAL – Wonky
13. JASON LYTLE – Dept. of Disappearance
14. TWIN SHADOW – Confess
15. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS – Ghostory
16. TINDERSTICKS – The Something Rain
17. SOULSAVERS – The Light the Dead See
18. BRETON – Other’s People Problems
19. CALEXICO – Algiers
20. SOUNDGARDEN – King Animal

Here below (and, of course, inside the concerning section) a slighlty mixed exclusive podcast (downloadable at the end of the post) with the previous tracks.
And then, in the end, like last year, the rest of the chart, from position 21 to 50.

21. CLARK – Iradelphic
22. THE SHINS – Port of Morrow
23. dEUS – Following Sea
24. YEASAYER – Fragrant World
25. TWILIGHT SAD – No One Can Ever Know
26. DRINK TO ME – S
27. DINOSAUR JR. – Silent Running
28. CAT POWER – Sun
29. SOFA SURFERS – Superluminal
30. SWANS – The Seer
31. METZ – Metz
32. LOTUS PLAZA – Spooky Action at a Distance
33. TY SEGALL – Twins
34. PAUL KALKBRENNER – Guten Tag
35. MARK LANEGAN – Blues Funeral
36. THE EYES IN THE HEAT – Program Me
37. PURITY RING – Shrines
38. SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – UnPatterns
39. MIAOUX MIAOUX – Light of the North
40. ERRORS – New Relics
41. THE XX – Coexist
42. BETH ORTON – Sugaring Season
43. BAT FOR LASHES – The Haunted Man
44. LANA DEL REY – Born to Die
45. BLOC PARTY – Four
46. APOLLO 440 – The Future’s What It Used to Be
47. DEFTONES – Koi No Yokan
48. CRYSTAL CASTLES – III
49. SCUBA – Personality
50. SQUAREPUSHER – Ufabulum

AA.VV. selected by radioSpin – RS TOP20 2012

get it here.

MOSES LUSTER
Stands Alone

Moses Luster has returned, bringing with him a heavy-duty new album. Stands Alone opens with some vintage analog synths, pigpen drums and wayward banjo set the agenda clear: the stranger is back, and he has more tales of the weary to tell. Moses cut his teeth playing the casinos of Vegas and Reno. After years of mixing with the gamblers and lowlifes for whom the glitz of the strip was a distant memory, he finally came to Hollywood and started writing songs about his past. Like Charles Bukowski or Tom Waits, he paints vivid pictures of the underbelly of society, but the sound is more actual: an electronic noir from a modern day crooner, a cursed poet standing alone between Nick Cave and Johnny Cash.

ARTIST: Moses Luster & the Hollywood Lights
TITLE: Stands Alone
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: November 19, 2012
TIME: 40:22 min.
WEB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moses-Luster-and-the-Hollywood-Lights/
PURCHASE: special offer – NAME YOUR PRICE!

01. Hollywood’s Black Heart [04:01]
02. God Is Watching [02:45]
03. The Past Is No Place For A Man [03:11]
04. Free At Last [04:17]
05. Mary Winkler [04:10]
06. Stands Alone [03:40]
07. Rumors [04:05]
08. Capsize [04:27]
09. The God Machine [04:13]
10. There’s A Cross for Everyone [03:58]
11. Theme from Stands Alone [01:35]

Moses Luster – Rumors

get it here.

BETH ORTON
Sugaring Season

Beth Orton‘s ANTI debut captures the classic hypnotic sound that won her prominence, at the same time as it shows a singer at the full maturity of her instrument, with a new soulfulness that can recall Roberta Flack or Nina Simone one moment, June Christy at the next. Sugaring Season is in many ways a culmination of Orton’s art of contradictions, a full circle from that first John Martyn cover she recorded with William Orbit back in the day soulful and ambient, lush and bittersweet, starkly still and fiercely rhythmic.

ARTIST: Beth Orton
TITLE: Sugarin Season
LABEL: ANTI
RELEASE DATE: October 2, 2012
TIME: 37:24 min.
WEB: http://beth-orton.net/
PURCHASE: http://www.amazon.com/

01. Magpie [04:32]
02. Dawn Chorus [03:24]
03. Candles [03:45]
04. something More Beautiful [03:28]
05. Call Me the Breeze [03:52]
06. Poison Tree [04:06]
07. See Through Blue [01:54]
08. Last Leaves of Autumn [04:01]
09. State of Grace [04:15]
10. Mystery [04:08]

Beth Orton – Magpie

get it here.

BOSQUE ELEFANTE
Aurora

Bosque Elefante, Santa Fe based south-american combo, presents their debut album Aurora. Aurora is a full sensorial experience that travels through post-rock, with drop of shoegaze, crossing the borders of acoustic pop and indie-rock. The album began drawing its silhouette in 2009, from compositional improvisations in studio, which took shape with successive contributions towards the final release that is the result of an open search lasted two and half years. There is no gender that can be involved, not because music can’t be classified, but because Aurora is both a place of departure, transit and arrival and it’s here to evoke images and sounds often imagined, but enlightened with the light of Bosque Elefante.

ARTIST: Bosque Elefante
TITLE: Aurora
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: February 16, 2012
TIME: 30:39 min.
WEB: http://bosqueelefante.bandcamp.com/

01. Las Cumbres [03:03]
02. De Luz [02:33]
03. Hast Luego [03:51]
04. Mirador [04:13]
05. Cáscara [02:51]
06. Cálcifer [04:01]
07. Primero de Verano [03:00]
08. Regazo [04:07]
09. Soil [03:00]

Bosque Elefante – Las Cumbres

get it here.

ANDREW BIRD
Hands of Glory

Coming on the heels of Andrew Bird‘s critically acclaimed full-length Break It Yourself, Hands of Glory features a brand new original track, a pair of re-worked tracks from the above-mentioned latest album and covers of songs by The Carter Family, The Handsome Family, Alpha Consumer and others. Hands of Glory was inspired by the great fan reaction to Bird’s “old-time” sets on tour in which his full band plays to a single microphone with an entirely acoustic setup.

ARTIST: Andrew Bird
TITLE: Hands of Glory
LABEL: Mom & Pop
RELEASE DATE: October 30, 2012
TIME: 35:09 min.
WEB: http://www.andrewbird.net/
PURCHASE: http://www.amazon.com/

01. Three White Horses [03:14]
02. When That Helicopter Comes [02:54]
03. Spirograph [04:07]
04. Railroad Bill [03:27]
05. Something Biblical [04:34]
06. If I Needed You [03:09]
07. Orpheo [04:29]
08. Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses [09:15]

Andrew Bird – Three White Horses

get it here.

CAT POWER
Sun

Sun, Cat Power’s first new piece of music since 2008’s Jukebox, could be seen as a rebirth for Chan Marshall, shedding much of the darkness that once defined her sound. As soon as we hear the first uncharacteristically jovial piano notes it’s clear that this is a different sort of Cat Power than we’re used to. Even without the emotional weight, it turns out that Cat Power is still a remarkably compelling pop artist. For long-time fans, it’s a relief to hear her familiar voice untethered, and, for the relative newcomer, it may be a surprise to hear that Cat Power had anything to be sad about in the first place.

ARTIST: Cat Power
TITLE: Sun
LABEL: Matador
RELEASE DATE: September 4, 2012
TIME: 49:02 min.
WEB: http://www.catpowermusic.com/

01. Cherokee [04:47]
02. Sun [03:19]
03. Ruin [04:33]
04. 3,6,9 [04:01]
05. Always On My Own [02:24]
06. Real Life [02:37]
07. Human Being [03:29]
08. Manhattan [05:16]
09. Silent Machine [04:01]
10. Nothin’ but Time [10:55]
11. Peace and Love [03:40]

Cat Power – Ruin

get it here.

MAXÏMO PARK
The National Health

The National Health finds Maxïmo Park playing to their strengths. Produced by Pixies and Foo Fighters regular, Gil Norton, the band’s fourth studio album reveals a more guitar-focused sound and, whilst they are hardly breaking new ground, either on their own sonic turf, or anyone else’s, they appear to have expertly distilled the essence of Maxïmo Park and managed to filter it neatly into 13 fairly solid tracks, to make up their latest long player. Special edition for RS readers, featuring a bonus acoustic EP.

ARTIST: Maxïmo Park
TITLE: The National Health (deluxe edition)
LABEL: V2
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2012
TIME: 53:57 min.
WEB: http://maximopark.com/

01. When I Was Wild [01:02]
02. The National Health [03:00]
03. Hips and Lips [03:32]
04. The Undercurrents [04:01]
05. Write This Down [03:14]
06. Reluctant Love [03:17]
07. Until the Earth Would Open [03:17]
08. Banlieu [02:51]
09. This Is What Becomes of the Brokenhearted [03:54]
10. Wolf Among Men [02:55]
11. Take Me Home [02:54]
12. Unfamiliar Places [03:49]
13. Waves of Fear [02:41]

01. The Undercurrents (acoustic) [03:35]
15. Hips and Lips (acoustic) [03:17]
16. Reluctant Love (acoustic) [03:15]
17. Until the Earth Would Open (acoustic) [03:23]

Maxïmo Park – Write This Down
Maxïmo Park – Hips and Lips (acoustic)

get it here.

RYAN SMITH
Waiting

Columbus-based indie songwriter Ryan Smith releases his latest work. Waiting is a pretty enjoyable mixture of synth-folk: Ryan finds himself comfortable in mashing classical american songwriting with modern sounds, incorporating warm piano patterns with programmed sequences, drum-machines and even the occasional frenzied guitar riff. A nice surprise.

ARTIST: Ryan Smith
TITLE: Waiting
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2012
TIME: 25:00 min.
WEB: http://ryansmithonline.com/

01. Waiting [03:04]
02. Love at First Sight [03:28]
03. Give Me a Sign [03:00]
04. Static [02:10]
05. When It Comes to What I Need [02:58]
06. Stuck in Place [03:45]
07. Four Letter Word [03:18]
08. All I’ll Ever Ask of You [03:17]

Ryan Smith – Static

get it here.

SUN KIL MOON
Among the Leaves

Among the Leaves is the 5th full length album by Mark Kozelek under the Sun Kil Moon moniker. Played almost entirely on nylon string guitar, this 17-song all original album (the title comes from some words which caught Mark’s attention from a John Connolly novel) finds Mark relaxed, singing playfully about his life as a musician while retaining the melancholic spirit of his 20 year catalog. Though Among the Leaves is mostly in the solo, nylon string style of Admiral Fell Promises, a new ensemble of players joined Mark for a portion of the record, recalling the same spirit as April and Tiny Cities, but with a fresh, new sound.

ARTIST: Sun Kil Moon
TITLE: Among the Leaves
LABEL: Caldo Verde
RELEASE DATE: May 29, 2012
TIME: 1:33:11 min.
WEB: http://www.sunkilmoon.com/

01. I Know It’s Pathetic but that Was the Greatest Night of My Life [01:47]
02. Sunshine in Chicago [02:35]
03. The Moderately Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged Man [03:44]
04. That Bird Has a Broken Wing [02:31]
05. Elaine [05:15]
06. The Winery [04:26]
07. Young Love [06:43]
08. Song For Richard Collopy [03:26]
09. Among the Leaves [03:32]
10. Red Poison [01:52]
11. Track Number 8 [05:16]
12. Not Much Rhymes with Everything’s Awesome at All Times [03:15]
13. King Fish [06:39]
14. Lonely Mountain [05:29]
15. UK Blues [06:16]
16. UK Blues 2 [04:58]
17. Black Kite [05:35]

18. Among the Leaves (alt version) [06:43]
19. The Moderately Talented Young Woman (alt version) [03:33]
20. That Bird has a Broken Wing (live) [02:50]
21. UK Blues (live) [05:34]
22. Black Kite (live) [04:22]

Sun Kil Moon – UK Blues
Sun Kil Moon – Among the Leaves (alt version)

get it here.

DAMON ALBARN
Dr. Dee

Dr. Dee, the new studio album by Blur‘s singer/leader Damon Albarn, is 18 tracks of songs and music inspired by the life of John Dee, mathematician, polymath and advisor to Elizabeth I. The album combines Albarn’s voice with early English choral and instrumentation alongside modern, West African and Renaissance sounds. Dr. Dee has become also an opera created by Albarn himself together with the theatre director Rufus Norris: it was inspired by comic book author Alan Moore, and its debut performance was at the Palace Theatre, Manchester in July 2011, as part of the 2011 Manchester International Festival.

ARTIST: Damon Albarn
TITLE: Dr. Dee
LABEL: Parlophone
RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2012
TIME: 48:42 min.
WEB: http://doctorjohndee.tumblr.com/

01. The Golden Dawn [03:56]
02. Apple Carts [02:37]
03. O Spirit, Animate Us [03:48]
04. The Moon Exalted [05:43]
05. A Man of England [03:17]
06. Saturn [02:05]
07. Coronation [01:10]
08. The Marvelous Dream [02:23]
09. A Prayer [01:33]
10. Edward Kelley [03:29]
11. Preparation [03:01]
12. 9 Point Star [01:33]
13. Temptation Comes in the Afternoon [02:05]
14. Watching the Fire that Waltzed Away [02:37]
15. Moon (interlude) [00:29]
16. Cathedrals [03:01]
17. Tree of Beauty [02:00]
18. The Dancing King [03:24]

Damon Albarn – The Dancing King

get it here.