I haven't had the time to listen carefully to these new indie releases, and while I can usually form my opinions based on the
shallowest of criteria quickest listen when it comes to dance music, most indie/alt recordings deserve more attention. And yet, there are still only 24 hours in a day.
I'm not sure about
Hallelujah Sirens. Their new CD is
Dirty on Purpose, a Mogwai-ish sophomore effort released late last month. They tend to grab me because I'm a sucker for that chiming guitar thing, but the music is maybe a bit drowsy. It's all about the interweaving vocals and the guitar special effects and although it's more focused than their first album, the title of that previous release sums up how I feel about this one:
Sleep Late for a Better Tomorrow. Which isn't a bad thing. Just, you know, drowsy.
I'm not a Belle & Sebastian fan, but I can't resist B&S proteges
Camera Osbscura, whose third CD,
Let's Get Out of this Country, was released in June. Chimey guitars (yeah, I'm fucking predictable, bite me), pretty vocals, and an air of enchanting poppiness infuse the recording. They also dabble in a kind of country-ish thing on a few cuts, most notably the standout track "Dory Previn." I don't really think this is as sweet as it seems at first, but then again, it might be.
I'm sort of morally opposed to concept albums, although in my younger years, I wore through three copies of
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis when they were still Peter Gabriel's bitches. But usually when I hear a band is doing a concept album I want to just hide my eyes and cover my ears. And mabye
The Early November felt the same way, because I've heard they almost broke up several times while writing and recording their massive three-disc concept CD
The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path. This story of a boy's troubled relationship with his father, and his subsequent troubled relationship with his own child is getting great reviews and I guess I'm just cranky and irritable because it's not working for me. They do, though, put the "rock" in "indie ROCK," definitely not a pop moment in sight. Keep my bias in mind and maybe give it a try.