Dave is listening to …

M83, Saturdays = Youth.

Not too sure so far … there’s some mid-90s Slowdive in there, which is welcome, but there’s also some really bad 80s synth-pop going on.  Hit-or-miss so far.

I had this shuffling with about 15 other new albums the other day, and the tracks that popped up were mostly good, but I didn’t take note of what the track titles were.  Trying it out from the beginning this morning, I wasn’t impressed.  We’ll see how I feel on the ride home today.

You know rapper’s from Boston when …

He uses a Saab as the album cover’s “I make $” car.

igwam welcomes Chuck to the fold

Ladies and Gentlemen, three posts in, and we have a second contributor.

Sorry, ladies, he’s taken.

Track Review: Phoenix, “Liztomania”

Good for:  Summer, running, mood elevation

Chance of heavy rotation: 90%

Chance I’ll get the whole album now: 100%

Quick Notes:

• For so much instrumentation, there’s a lot of space in this song.
• This is what I wanted the Strokes to sound like.
• It’s amazing that these guys can sound both straight out of the 80s,  yet totally modern.
• Thank you, relatively new band, for not sounding like another sped-up disco act.
• They sounded really good live on SNL, but either the drummer needs to calm down, or the recording engineer needs to figure out how to capture the hurt he’s putting on the kit.  The recording of the drums sounds kind of weak, considering how hard he was hitting live.

Quick Take: Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

Good for: Fall, wallpaper, feeling sorry for myself

Percent of the album I’ll probably listen to more than a few more times: 75%

Quick Notes:

• Cool instrumentation and loops
• The singing from the throat/nose thing is getting old
• This might not be this year’s Fleet Foxes, but then, it might be.

Quick Take: Andrew Bird, Noble Beast

Good for:  Fall, background music, critical listening

Percent of the album I’ll probably listen to more than a few more times: 60%

Quick notes:

• I think Andrew Bird might secretly be Colin Meloy‘s older, more melancholy brother.
• Oh, look, he’s whistling.
• This is far better on initial listen than Armchair Apocrypha