Humbug
Transparence EP
Black River Killer EP
Romborama
Ellipse
No More Stories
Memoirs at the End of the World
WWTB?
Tuesday already! How about that? Here are the week’s releases your indie cred relies on you buying.
- Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
- Asobi Seksu - Transparence EP (buy the MP3s)
- Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer EP (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
- The Bloody Beetroots - Romborama (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
- Imogen Heap - Ellipse (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
- Mew - No More Stories… (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
- The Postmarks - Memoirs at the End of the World (buy the CD/buy the MP3s)
Asobi Seksu - “Familiar Light
There are some albums that seem to take forever to see the light of day, and Asobi Seksu’s Hush was one of those albums. The lush, shoegazey perfection of 2006’s Citrus is a hard act to follow, but Hush manages it well. Unfortunately, Asobi Seksu dropped a band member between the two albums, and that shows in the music, but that doesn’t mean the album suffers from the loss. The music may not feel quite as full as it did on Citrus, but it retains that hopeful, dream-pop quality that drew me initially.
With its slightly hazy atmosphere and beautiful Yuki Chikudate vocals, “Familiar Light”, the first single from the new album (released last week on Polyvinyl), should make a good first impression of Hush and a great song for a Monday morning.
You can buy Hush
Asobi Seksu - Thursday
I thought as my first post on Tuneage I would toss up one of my all time favorite jams, from New York City’s Asobi Seksu—direct descendants of shoegazer pop but with a little more edge (think Portishead on caffeine). The band is three people, Yuki Chikudate (vocals), James Hanna (guitar) and Ben Shapiro (drums), and one has to assume Yuki was responsible for the name, which translates into “playful sex,” should you ever need to say that phrase in Japanese.
This song (produced by Chris Zane, who coincidentally made the White Rabbits’ record, which has also been featured on this blog) is EPIC. It builds and builds and doesn’t let you down. I also love songs that are a little withholding, but I’m always searching for the rare gem that really satisfies. And after listening to this, you feel like you have a full belly…musically speaking.
