Album Reviews – Page 15 – Spinning Platters

Album Review: Jeremy Warmsley – How We Became

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How We Became is the album everyone forgot to notice when it came out last fall. Then again, the only people that could have noticed it live in England. America, I present to you the Jeremy Warmsley.

I stumbled upon Jeremy Warmsley on my quest to go through as many Blogotheque take-away shows as possible. There Jeremy Warmsley was hidden, gangly and unassuming in front of a church, armed only with his acoustic guitar and his warbley voice. I was smitten. And so I found my way to How We Became. Continue reading “Album Review: Jeremy Warmsley — How We Became”

Album Review: Bad Lieutenant – Never Cry Another Tear

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If you’re my age and grew up in the UK then you are a New Order fan. You may no longer like them or remember them that well, but as soon as you hear their songs it takes you back. If you want to be cool you claim to be a Joy Division fan; or knowledgeable. you’ll play the Electronic, or better still, Monaco card. Over the years New Order matured and came back towards a pretty traditional but always entertaining pop music sound but sadly appear to have closed up shop for the last time due to disputes between Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. I am huge fan of Bernard Sumner, especially his singing voice. I recently saw him on the UK based Songbook show discussing his songs and revealing that he would soon be releasing an album with his new band, Bad Lieutenant, and after a long wait it’s here. Continue reading “Album Review: Bad Lieutenant — Never Cry Another Tear”

Album Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains

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I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how to approach this review. It’s not that Why There Are Mountains from Cymbals Eat Guitars is a particularly bad album; there are some real good things about it. But listening to it is like being in a bad relationship, let me explain. Continue reading “Album Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars — Why There Are Mountains”

Album Review: Music Go Music – Expressions

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Expressions by Music Go Music releases on Secretly Canadian on October 6, 2009

Music Go Music are a recent discovery of mine. When I saw them open for Little Boots at The Independent a couple of weeks ago, I made remarks about how they’re well on their way to being my favorite band. Since then, I’d been waiting to get my hands on their debut album, Expressions. I finally did yesterday, and I’ve been spending all day long listening to it and finding out interesting facts about the band. If I told you that I ordered the vinyl from Insound twenty minutes ago, would you think I might like the album? Continue reading “Album Review: Music Go Music — Expressions”

New Release Round Up, 9/29/09 – 34 Instant Album Reviews

Pouria said "use the Ghostface Killah cover because it's the best." I think it represents his journey through Lala. — Edtior's note: Pouria said "use the Ghostface Killah cover because it's the best." I think it represents his journey through Lala for this week.

This week had some particularly bad, boring albums. Eventually when I got to some good music I stopped wondering why I do this column. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 9/29/09 — 34 Instant Album Reviews”

Album Review: Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

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I’m not sure what I was expecting from this “supergroup” of modern indie/folk but it is not what I got. The album opens with a drum machine, some sort of harp imitation, and Jim James’ ethereal falsetto. My carpool-mate responded to this by saying, “What is this? The slow jam from a Backstreet Boys album!?!” Not what is expected from a group called Monsters of Folk. I don’t know about the folk part, but the members of the band: Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) are monsters of the indie scene. The question remains: when they come together, do you get something better than the sum of its parts? Continue reading “Album Review: Monsters of Folk — Monsters of Folk”

Album Review: Lou Barlow – Goodnight Unknown

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Lou Barlow was a founding member of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. Dinosaur Jr. is another of those seminal US bands that I missed out on by growing up over the pond and my only real exposure to them has been through the songs they have on Rock Band games. Sebadoh is unknown to me, but I have some experience as a casual listener to Barlow’s previous lo- and lower-fi releases. Goodnight Unknown is approximately, depending on what you count, Barlow’s eleventh release. A pioneer of the lo-fi sound is back with fourteen new songs on Goodnight Unknown. Continue reading “Album Review: Lou Barlow — Goodnight Unknown”

New Release Round Up 9/22/09 – 29 Instant Album Reviews

This band is not made up of girls. Didn't they learn their lesson from Barenaked Ladies?

When Pouria started writing this weekly column, he said there might be weeks where he was too busy to listen to 30-or-so albums. I said, “no problem, we can get a guest columnist on those weeks.” So when he told me this week that he was too busy doing stuff like seeing Bon Iver to write this week’s column, I said “wait, you were serious about that?” Since I hadn’t arranged a guest, I’m doing it myself. Let’s just say that doing this is a lot harder than Pouria makes it look. Now, on to the mini-reviews. Continue reading “New Release Round Up 9/22/09 — 29 Instant Album Reviews”

Album Review: the breakUps – Illness at Ease

One of the advantages of being a famous album reviewer for the world renowned Spinning Platters is that I get people sending me music for review. I knew eventually all my laziness work would pay off. Today it’s Illness at Ease from the dubiously grammared, unsigned band the breakUps. Most review requests seem generic but this one had a directness and honesty that caused me to give the samples a listen and led me to this full album review. Continue reading “Album Review: the breakUps — Illness at Ease”

New Release Round-Up, 9/15/09 – 27 Instant Album Reviews

This week was a little worrisome; the merging of hipsters and “rappers” is picking up steam as indicated by Skinny Jeanz. Get those bomb shelters stocked up it’s only a matter of time until the hipster apocalypse. Soon the coolest rappers will pretend there is no one like them and that they hate all those other rappers…oh wait. Continue reading “New Release Round-Up, 9/15/09 — 27 Instant Album Reviews”