review time #5

more album reviews on their way to the studio tonight...

artist - album - label

The War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues - Secretly Canadian

The War On Drugs have achieved what few do – they’ve made a thoroughly modern and relevant album. Yeah, you can hear bits of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Arcade Fire, Tom Petty, and George Harrison but don’t let that prejudice your opinion. This is NOT a folk rock, stadium, or hippie band. Whatever you don’t like about the above listed artists, The War On Drugs have eschewed. Whatever you like about those artists, this Philadelphia band have married with their own voice to make a completely new sound on this debut album. This is summer music at its best. Although it’s an album best heard in its entirety, track 1, track 2, and track 6 are the best examples of what they have achieved here.

Earlimart - Hymn And Her - Majordomo

Hymn And Her is a nice album. Unfortunately, after 5 previous albums (this is the second in one year) I expected more. Apart from tracks 1 and 8, the songs are good but not great. Most are indie tunes a la Elliott Smith and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. Also, the high quality production makes the simplest songs sound interesting with lots of hidden bits and pieces. Although you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything patently unpleasant, in the end Hymn And Her suffers from the fact that it really is similar to a lot of other music out there.