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DIVINE FITS
A Thing Called Divine Fits

Divine Fits, if you don’t know, is a supergroup / side-project featuring Britt Daniel of Spoon, Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, and drummer Sam Brown of New Bomb Turks. Daniel and Boeckner are a pair of tightly wound songwriters, and they’ve totally avoided the pitfalls of ego-clash and indulgent showiness that can befall typical supergroups. You might expect a group comprised of three members of other groups might sound divergent and pull in different directions, but actually Divine Fits sounds like a band: a really cool band at that, the kind of band that hangs out in a big garage together, playing rock music, drinking beer, and kicking back. Even the album’s name, A Thing Called Divine Fits, feels like a working title, like something they scribbled on the booking form at the rehearsal rooms or recording studio and kept because it seemed cool. The fact is that these three guys sound like they’re having fun, like being in a band is an authentically fun thing to do. In these trying times for the music industry, that’s something to hold on to.

ARTIST: Divine Fits
TITLE: A Thing Called Divine Fits
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2012
TIME: 42:49 min.
WEB: http://divinefits.com/
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01. My Love Is Real [02:48]
02. Flaggin a Ride [03:48]
03. What Gets You Alone [03:02]
04. Would That Not Be Nice [04:00]
05. The Salton Sea [04:19]
06. Baby Get Worse [04:15]
07. Civilian Stripes [02:26]
08. For Your Heart [05:36]
09. Shivers [04:56]
10. Like Ice Cream [03:39]
11. Neopolitans [04:00]

Divine Fits – Would That Not Be Nice (RJD2 remix)

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THE MAGNETIC FIELDS
Love at the Bottom of the Sea

The Magnetic Fields return to the signature mix of synth and acoustic sounds they established in the 90s with Merge releases such as The Charm of the Highway Strip and Get Lost. Stephin Merritt has come back to synths with a fresh approach. The songs none over three minutes long were recorded in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York with Merritt’s usual cast of collaborators: Claudia Gonson, Sam Davol, John Woo, Shirley Simms, Johny Blood and Daniel Handler.

ARTIST: The Magnetic Fields
TITLE: Love at the Bottom of the Sea
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2012
TIME: 34:22 min.
WEB: http://www.houseoftomorrow.com/

01. Your Girlfriend’s Face [02:21]
02. Andrew in Drag [02:12]
03. God Wants Us to Wait [02:06]
04. Born For Love [02:39]
05. I’d Go Anywhere with Hugh [02:08]
06. Infatuation (with your gyration) [02:13]
07. The Only Boy in Town [02:35]
08. The Machine in Your Hand [02:24]
09. Goin’ Back to the Country [02:01]
10. I’ve Run Away to Join the Fairies [02:17]
11. The Horrible Party [02:07]
12. My Husband’s Pied-à-Terre [02:05]
13. I Don’t Like Your Tone [02:08]
14. Quick! [02:28]
15. All She Cares About Is Mariachi [02:38]

The Magnetic Fields – Andrew in Drag

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DESTROYER
Kaputt

Dan Bejar started Destroyer as a solo home-recording project in the early to mid-nineties. Destroyer‘s two recent limited edition 12-inches, Bay of Pigs and Archer on the Beach, were lauded by critics and sold out in the first month of release and that’s because Bejer is a songwriter of the highest order. Kaputt is his ninth album.

ARTIST: Destroyer
TITLE: Kaputt
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: January 25, 2011
TIME: 50:09 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/destroyer

01. Chinatown [03:49]
02. Blue Eyes [04:07]
03. Savage Night at the Opera [04:24]
04. Suicide Demo for Kara Walker [08:26]
05. Poor in Love [03:26]
06. Kaputt [06:18]
07. Downtown [03:52]
08. Song for America [04:29]
09. Bay of Pigs [11:18]

Destroyer – Chinatown

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TIMES NEW VIKING
Dancer Enquire

Dancer Equired, Times New Viking‘s first album for Merge, is a return to the hive, even if the record’s creation was out of their usual boundaries. It should be known that for the first time, the trio escaped to a studio, namely Columbus Discount Recording and the famed Musicol, during the summer of violence. With the help of Adam Smith and Dustin White, Times New Viking recorded and produced an album sounds like a mellow night out.

ARTIST: Times New Viking
TITLE: Dancer Enquire
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2011
TIME: 31:38 min.
WEB: http://timesnewviking.net/

01. It’s A Culture [02:23]
02. Ever Falling in Love [02:36]
03. No Room to Live [02:20]
04. Try Harder [01:59]
05. California Roll [01:38]
06. Ways to Go [02:29]
07. New Vertical Dwellings [01:09]
08. Downtown Eastern Bloc [03:38]
09. More Rumours [02:00]
10. Don’t Go to Liverpool [01:52]
11. Fuck Her Tears [02:08]
12. Want to Exist [03:01]
13. Somebody’s Slave [02:45]
14. No Good [01:40]

Times New Viking - Ever Falling in Love

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TELEKINESIS
12 Desperate Straight Lines

When Telekinesis mastermind Michael Benjamin Lerner set out to record songs for the follow-up to his debut album Telekinesis!, he found himself with no band, a case of vertigo, and a wrecked van. The long-distance relationship that inspired his debut album’s songs of wanderlust had ended, and Michael was inspired (by the heavy, fuzzy bass in Flin Flon‘s A-OK) to buy a bass guitar and again record with Chris Walla at Portland’s Jackpot! Studios. The result is twelve new songs of heartache, anger, and even a little hopefulness.

ARTIST: Telekinesis
TITLE: 12 Desperate Straight Lines
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: February 15, 2011
TIME: 32:36 min.
WEB: http://telekinesismusic.com/

01. You Turn Clear in the Sun [03:23]
02. Please Ask for Help [02:44]
03. 50 Ways [03:30]
04. I Cannot Love You [02:01]
05. Dirty Things [02:22]
06. Car Crash [02:40]
07. Palm of Your Hand [01:28]
08. I Got You [02:50]
09. Fever Chill [02:52]
10. Country Lane [02:34]
11. Patterns [02:33]
12. Gotta Get It Right Now [03:39]

Telekinesis - Please Ask for Help

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ARCADE FIRE The Suburbs

If 2007’s Neon Bible was supposed to be Arcade Fire’s difficult second album, it didn’t show. Top marks from a cavalcade of critical tomes saw the Montreal septet’s sequel to their breakthrough debut long-player of 2004, Funeral, received with just as much reverence as its predecessor. So what of The Suburbs, arriving after another three-year period which saw its makers record in both their hometown and New York?
Even on a cursory listen, a water-testing foray into its 16 tracks, it’s immediately apparent that this is an album unlike either that came before it: written, arranged, performed, and produced by the Arcade Fire and co-produced by Markus Dravs, The Suburbs will surprise you.

ARTIST: Arcade Fire
TITLE: The Suburbs
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: August 03, 2010
TIME: 64:21 min.
WEB: http://www.arcadefire.com/

01. The Suburbs [05:15]
02. Ready to Start [04:14]
03. Modern Man [04:40]
04. Rococo [04:00]
05. Empty Room [02:52]
06. City With No Children [03:12]
07. Half Light I [04:14]
08. Half Light II (no celebration) [04:27]
09. Month of May [03:51]
10. Wasterd Hours [03:20]
11. Deep Blue [04:25]
12. We Used to Wait [05:04]
13. Sprawl I (flatlands) [03:11]
14. Sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains) [05:17]
15. Suburban War [04:50]
16. The Suburbs (continued) [01:29]

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

CARIBOUSwim

With its absorption of club culture sounds weaved within subtle pop frameworks, Swim is Caribou‘s masterpiece the record he’s wanted to bring to fruition for as long as he’s been making music. A Canadian from small-town Ontario now based in England, Daniel Victor Snaith (previously known as Manitoba) has been a leading figure in electronic music over the past decade. He surprised critics and fans with 2007′s Andorra, a brilliant, electro-tinged pop breakthrough with a timeless grace that made most year-end Best of lists and won Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize.

ARTIST: Caribou
TITLE: Swim
LABEL: Merge
RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2010
TIME: 43:16 min.
WEB: http://www.caribou.fm/

01. Odessa [05:16]
02. Sun [05:45]
03. Kaili [04:42]
04. Found Out [03:19]
05. Bowls [06:21]
06. Leave House [05:12]
07. Hannibal [06:16]
08. Lalibela [02:26]
09. Jamelia [03:59]

Caribou – Odessa