music round-up

[rone]

After cashing in some PROTRADE bucks for a $10 Amazon gift certificate, i purchased The Polyphonic Spree's The Fragile Army and Battles's Mirrored.  Both are solid and better than i expected; the Spree's previous efforts would get bogged down occasionally with repetitiveness and that "songs start to sound the same after a while" thing, and Battles's album is polished and has just a modicum of math rock wank.

Papa Ellis linked to a Pitchfork page with a video of St. Vincent's "Paris is Burning" (available here if you want to spare yourself Pitchfork's self-important, albeit somewhat informative, indie blather).  After viewing her other video on imeem, i've thrown her album into my wishlist.

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

St. Vincent is very cool. She opened for John Vanderslice on his last tour, and she does an enthralling solo live show... Her album is good too.

[peglegpete.livejournal.com]

Hrm... 'Paris is Burning' didn't really do anything for me, but 'Your Lips Are Red' was pretty damn kick ass.

[foaf.livejournal.com]

Does the "facist smurf" vocal sound feature a lot on the Battles one? It's cool on the one track I've heard but I dunno if I'd be keen on a whole album worth.

I really like the first Spree album, the second one not so much. I've only seen them "live" on YouTube but they look like a great live show.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'd say that no more than half the album has fascist Smurf vocals.

nyar saw the Spree recently (http://nyar.livejournal.com/69799.html). I wish i'd gone.

[nyar.livejournal.com]

Beginning Stages was better than Together We're Heavy, but the second album did have some good songs. However, I agree with Rone, the Fragile Army is really strong. Almost all of the songs are catchy, without falling away from the Spree sound. They are a band that really aught to be seen live. I've seen them 4 or 5 times, and each one has been a joy.