There seems to be a folk renaissance happening these days. With bands like My Morning Jacket and She & Him strumming their way into our hearts and minds this year, they’ve opened the door for more harmonious and hymn heavy groups like Fleet Foxes to waft into our ears like a warm Southern breeze.

Despite having songs that are reminiscent of the Sacred Harp singing tradition that once flourished in churches of the southern states, you many be surprised to read that Fleet Foxes hail from the dreary northwest. When asked about why a bunch of Seattle city boys decided to take a less likely musical route, vocalist/songwriter Robin Pecknold said this:

“We were all living in fairly bad environments during the recording of these things and that may have found its way into the songs, a feeling of wanting to be somewhere else.”

I think this also applies to the listeners, each song on this LP takes you on your own fantastical journey. For me, I imagine being a pioneer of old, humming church hymns while taking a trip by covered wagon across the southern plains, rivers, and mountains. I eventually die of dysentery after eating all my provisions while hunting bear in the Smokey Mountains..oh wait, that’s The Oregon Trail.

4.5/5 - Bonus half point for using an album cover as good as Worlds Apart.

 

 Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood: Play Now

Here’s my candidate for Video of the Year. I was trying so hard to restrain LOLing at work I broke out in a sweat. The second dude is the best.

Earthquake Rocks Chino Falls - Watch more free videos

During my daily peruse of the ever reliable NME.com (I just read it for Tabloid Hell really), I came across an article claiming that The Avalanches are nearly finished their second LP. Wanting a substantial source I checked out The Av’s myspace page and it looks like NME was right (for once). If you check out their current status it says “putting the finishing touches on album 2 !!!!!!!!!”, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication as to when it will be released. Rest assured the Panic Manual will keep you posted as events warrant…Yeah!

Nothing pleases me more than listening to music that reminds me of a certain era in my life. Much like ‘Fortunate Son’ reminds me of my days hovering over jungles and hunting VC snipers back in ‘67, Stereolab latest, Chemical Chords takes me back to 2001, where I instead hunted for the best Vietnamese restaurants in Toronto. My intention at the time was to purchase ‘Mars Audiac Quintet’ after hearing ‘Ping Pong’ at some DJ night. Being fairly new to the city I wasn’t aware of shops like Rotate This or Soundscapes so my primary source for music was HMV. After seeing the ‘Import’ price I nearly sprayed my Starbucks Chai all over my Scary Movie 2 t-shirt, so I instead opted to pick up their just released ‘Sound-Dust’. with it’s loungey space-pop stylings I was smitten the first track in. This album continued to be my soundtrack for the reminder of the summer.

After the release of Sound-Dust it took a few years to release another album and understandably so, after the untimely death of their amazing vocalist Mary Hansen. 2004 saw the release of Margarine Eclipse to much critical acclaim, but it just didn’t strike a chord with me. For the most part, Stereolab sticks to the same formula - singsong female vocals and pop melodies, this doesn’t always equate to the perfect pop song and I think it was that mediocreness I heard in Margarine Eclipse. But I will say that Lætitia Sadier did more than her fair share compensating on the vocals.

Chemical Chords is definitely a worthy successor to Sound-Dust. With their trademark Moog, xylamaphone and brass horn sound, it’s a perfect example of what Stereolab does best. The great thing about this album is that it’s not as ‘heavy’ as some of their previous LP’s. There’s a easiness about this album that makes it feel like the beginning of every track beckons you to a comfy chair on the patio of a beachside Spanish Villa, where an olive skin temptress proceeds to rub fine oil all over…ahem, sorry got carried away.

Even though it’s tried, tested and true Stereolab, there’s a little more airiness to Chemical Chords which I think will be a welcome change (albiet small one) for the die hard fans and a great intro album for any newcomers.

4/5

 

 Stereolab - Self Portrait with 'electric brain': Play Now

I can’t believe it took him 6 years to write the same album as Sleeping On Roads.

1/5 (for effort)

 

 Neil Halstead - Oh! Mighty Engine: Play Now

One thing that has allowed Primal Scream to last the past 20 odd years is keeping the people interested. Despite major disappointments in the form of Riot City Blues and Evil Heat, I always try and approach their albums with an open mind. That being said, part of me hopes that Bobby Gillespie and Co. latest efforts will take a cue from 2000’s fantastic XTRMNTR. But really it all depends on what drugs (or lack thereof) ingested whilst recording.

Alas, Beautiful Future isn’t XTRMNTR. But I can’t say that I’m disappointed with this effort. Within the first few seconds after pressing play I had to do an auditory double-take. Rather than being all up in my grill, the album has an upbeat feel to it (seriously, the opening track as bells and handclaps). There are also the occasional buzzy electronic tracks like ‘Suicide Bomb’ and Krautpop influenced ‘The Glory of Love’. Most of which are musically ear-pleasing. But if you dig a little beneath the candy coated exterior and actually listen to the lyrics, you’ll hear lines like ‘empty houses, burning cars, naked bodies hanging from the trees’. It seems that despite taking a different approach musically, Gillespie is still keeping his message on the real.

It’s tough to flat out recommend this album as PS has crossed over so many genres over the years and where one person may hate an album, they may absolutely love another. I think enough effort was put into Beautiful Future where if you’re already a Primal Scream fan, give it at least one spin to alleviate your curiosity. And if not, check out their back catalog first, then give it a shot.

P.S. Here’s parts 1 and 2 of a five part doc that XFM has produced showing the process behind Beautiful Future. I’ll update this post when the final 3 parts are released.

3.5/5

UPDATE: Here’s the links for parts 3, 4 and 5

 

 Primal Scream - Beautiful Future: Play Now