Category: Music
-
Telegraph Canyon at the Levitt – 9/17/2010
Fort Worth’s Telegraph Canyon played Arlington for the first time at the outdoor amphitheater, Levitt Pavilion. The band played an energetic, swirling and full set with songs off their 2009 The Tide and the Current. This is a band that sounds better live with performances to match. Rich textures and instrumentation ebb, flow and build […]
-
The Wilderness Downtown
The Arcade Fire released their second video for their latest album The Suburbs with, The Wilderness Downtown. It’s a synthesis of web technology, music and video to create an experience. It uses HTML 5 to drive much of video so for now Google Chrome or Safari 5 are the only browsers that can play it […]
-
The Head and the Heart
A debut album from a Seattle sextet is perfect for those late summer drives at dusk. The sun fades into the horizon while warm shades of yellow, orange and red light up the sky. The Head and the Heart’s self titled clocks in at 9 tracks, spanning 35 minutes. In that time, the harmonies come […]
-
Jakob Dylan – Women and Country
Jakob Dylan’s Women and Country album feels good on the first listen. There’s no trying too hard, no songs with the familiar country, singer songwriter tropes. It’s paced well, with diverse arrangements. Nothing But the Whole Wide World and Holy Rollers for Love stand out.
-
Five for Fighting – Slice
Five for Fighting’s Slice is more of the same piano pop balladry but with different lyrics. Safe, digestible and unoffensive.
-
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
Mumford & Sons Sigh No More paces a contemporary blend of folk, Americana, blue grass and rock across 48 minutes of diverse instrumentation. Starting slowly with the title track, Sigh No More, the song builds into a foot stomping jam. The lead vocals seem raw at time, but powerful and emotive with four part harmonies […]
-
Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart
Christmas In the Heart, by Bob Dylan, is at times reverent (Little Drummer Boy, O’ Come All Ye Faithful, O’ Little Town of Bethlehem), fun (Here Comes Santa Claus) and comical in a lounge act, what the hell kind of way (The Christmas Blues, Must be Santa, Christmas Island). Sure, Christmas in the Heart contains […]
-
The Black Keys – Brothers
Brothers by The Black Keys is a dirty blues rock album. You can hear The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix coming from two guys. With bass and drums leading the way on what seems like every song, it gets a bit repetitive. There’s enough diversity in the arrangements that you can tell the […]
-
Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back continues the trend of cover albums. However, Gabriel covers both his peers and those who may have been inspired by him. The album begins softly with David Bowie’s Heroes that builds into an aching crescendo. All the songs have a lush, symphonic, orchestral arrangements–strings, pianos, horns–and often to a repetitive […]
-
Sleigh Bells – Treats
Sleigh Bells, creators of my summer album pick, consists of rip roaring guitars and bass heavy beats intertwined with cooing vocals. Treats spans for a few minutes over a half hour, and on first listen, can be overwhelming. It’s loud. Bone rattling loud. Indie kids in their Prius can go head to head with the […]