Completely departing from his first LP, Dev Hynes, a.k.a. Lightspeed Champion has put out the beautifully composed Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, consisting of light and lovely folk and strong driving indie rock.

I’ll have to admit that I wasn’t crazy about Hynes’ debut 2008’s Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, but here he’s loaded his songs with more instrumentals and deeper harmonies. The album as a whole fits together very well, and there aren’t any songs that stick out. Every song feels like it needs to be there to make the album work as well as it does, interludes and all. You’d never think that Hynes had throat surgery that delayed this release, because it sounds delightfully smooth and lilting; and just as good, if not better, than on Falling Off The Lavender Bridge.

Starting with the melancholy “Dead Head Blues,” and into the hook-heavy “Marlene,” Hynes brings in the dance hall guitar riffs with the classical strings, and they don’t clash at all. In fact, Hynes breaks into a full-on Etude on track 13 with “Goodnight Michalek,” a less-than two minute ditty that sounds like it was meant for a Wes Anderson film soundtrack.

One of my favorites on the album, “The Big Guns of Highsmith,” also employs the classical piano, but a charming question-answer chorus of “it hurts to be the one who’s always feeling sad / oh just stop complaining!” It’s lyrics like that that keeps Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You interesting and makes you want to come back for another listen. Another of my favorites is the 50s swing-inspired pop song “Madame Van Damme,” that proclaims several times throughout the song “kill me baby, won’t you kill me?” A terribly desperate question, but sung in such a matter-of-fact and cheery way demands like I listen to it over and over again. It takes a few to get over the irony of such an upbeat song, but it’s catchy, so that’s just fine with me to listen a dozen or so times.

At the halfway mark, Hynes slows it down with “Romart,” an earnest ballad that’s so big that you almost feel like it belongs in a renaissance fairytale, but a contemporary one. The other ballad on the album, “Smooth Day  (At the Library),” is jazzy and almost gloomy, but still romantic enough not to be depressing.

It was nice to have more than ten songs on this album, as it’s been the number of tracks I’ve seen lately on most new albums. Having fifteen tracks also added to the operatic feel of Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, slightly reminiscent of The Decemberists, with the folk storytelling with instrumental intermissions throughout the album.

The quirky lyrics and vast arrangements make Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You a great release from Lightspeed Chamption – surely the best effort from him yet. And added to his already eccentric stage persona, I’m thinking that it will make for an interesting live show.

Track List:
1. Dead Head Blues
2. Marlene
3. There’s Nothing Underwater
4. Intermission
5. Faculty of Fears
6. The Big Guns of Highsmith
7. Romart
8. I Don’t Want to Wake Up Alone
9. Madame Van Damme
10. Smooth Day (at the Library)
11. Intermission 2
12. Sweetheart
13. Etude Op.3 ‘Goodnight Michalek’
14.            Middle of the Dark
15.            A Bridge and a Goodbye

After debuting their new single “Rules Don’t Stop,” on BBC Radio on February 24, We Are Scientists kept on delivering the goods when the video for “Rules” landed on the band’s YouTube account Monday morning.

This wasn’t the first time that people saw of the first video off their new album Barbara, out June 14, as it was on rotation on MTV UK this weekend. But this was the first that those of us from the United States got to see it.

Strongly 80s-influenced, this new video has absolutely no resemblance to any of We Are Scientists’ previous videos, which included being chased by a man in a bear suit, intense boxing matches, and wrangling up pomeranians in the wild west. But with how short and simple “Rules Don’t Stop” is, it’s equally as entertaining.

The CD and vinyl single for “Rules Don’t Stop” will be released on April 5th.

For more information, go to wearescientists.com or What’s the Word.

Finding myself in Seattle on a night before I have a seven page paper due is not a common thing, but on this particular Tuesday, I ventured to Neumos in Capitol Hill to see Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks, accompanied by local sweetheart band The Lonely Forest and Bear Hands of Brooklyn.
I hadn’t been to Neumos in a good two years, so I forgot how intimate the venue was.  But it was quite obvious that a majority of the 16-year-old girls and boys were there to see The Lonely Forest, and the older crowd came out for We Were Promised Jetpacks, but Bear Hands held their own, truly being the opener.

They played songs off their debut EP Golden, as well as their second EP, What a Drag, released last month. “Can’t Stick Em” from the latter EP was my favorite of their set, with a driving tempo and vocalist Dylan Rau building from the softer harmonies at the beginning to getting stronger and louder to meet the gritty guitar riff. Actually listening back to it now, Rau’s voice reminds me a little of David Portner of Animal Collective, how it teeters on the edge of notes. So if you like fuzzed out guitars and multi-layered harmonies, check Bear Hands out.

After Bear hands finished their set, it was close to 10, so the anticipation for Lonely Forest got to build for 20 minutes. Surrounded by crazy fangirls and one even crazier fanboy, I filtered through my pictures from the last hour. Then at about 10:15, The Lonely Forest got on the tiny stage and immediately thanked the all-ages crowd. Playing a selection from last year’s debut critically acclaimed We Sing the Body Electric, as well as some new songs, The Lonely Forest kept the energy going throughout their set. By the 3^rd song, front man John Van Deusen was already sweating profusely from his temples, switching from keyboard to guitar. It’s just a testament to how passionate this band is about their music and about their fans. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re great musicians too. The Lonely Forest closed out their set with “We Sing In Time,” which made the whole room sing a long, especially the crazy fangirls standing up front with me.

I liked what I heard of the new songs, and they were more upbeat and sunnier than We Sing The Body Electric, but I didn’t grab the set list, so I have no idea what the titles were. Just keep your eyes peeled for their new songs, and possibly a new album in 2010.

By 11:20, my feet were sufficiently aching. Every so often when the security opened the side door the gust of wind provided a sudden bit of relief from hot and sweaty venue. After a very long intro of “A Half-Built House,” with dozens of loops of the same voice repeating numbers, We Were Promised Jetpacks finally came on stage and dove into “Keeping Warm” off These Four Walls. I haven’t been listening to We Were Promised Jetpacks for long, but I loved how casual they were. The four guys just walked up on stage and started playing. No grandiose entrance or anything, and they were awesome. It could be my bias for UK bands, but for some reason, the Scottish accent makes all songs sound so much cooler.

After the first few songs I made my way out of the crowded front to get some water, and I noticed that the crowd had completely changed. The young fans that came to see The Lonely Forest had dissipated and most of the people I weaved through were older, who’d come to see We Were Promised Jetpacks. It was almost midnight, so that could be why, since it was a school night. And still as I stood off to the side, We Were Promised Jetpacks had the same impact in this tiny venue as if I standing right up front.

Bravo, Scotsmen. Bravo.

This could be because I have a ridiculous amount of love for We Are Scientists (WAS), but I was overwhelmed with excitement when they premiered the first single “Rules Don’t Stop” from their upcoming album Barbara on the Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1 Wednesday night. Well, at least it was at night for Zane Lowe. It was 11:30 am where I was.

The first new song since their 2008 disc Brain Thrust Mastery, “Rules Don’t Stop” is great. I wish it was longer than 2:16, but it brings back what I loved about We Are Scientists in the first place. While Brain Thrust Mastery was good, With Love And Squalor was better, and “Rules Don’t Stop” sounds more like early WAS songs. It highlights the great harmonies between front man Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain, while adapting the higher production values of Brain Thrust Mastery.

This new release also differs on who’s on drums. WAS has shuffled through a few drummers the last couple of years after Michael Tapper left the band, but former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, has officially joined the ranks for this album. I’m still not sure if he’ll be joining Murray and Cain on tour, because Burrows is recording his own solo album at the present.

A video for “Rules Don’t Stop” is set to be premiered in the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled. I certainly will.

For more complete information on Barbara and We Are Scientists in general, check out What’s the Word. The site will constantly update about Barbara as soon as new developments come.

And take a listen to “Rules Don’t Stop” at the link below. The single will be officially released on CD and vinyl on April 5.
We Are Scientists – Rules Don’t Stop by PIAS/Integral

Big Echo is fantastic. I’m just going to come right out and say it like it is. I’ve been a Morning Benders fan for about two years now, and I’ve never seen this much growth in a band in this short amount of time. It’s kind of baffling, because none of the members of this Berkeley band are over the age of 24.

A far cry from their youthful and surf-pop debut, 2008’s Talking Through Tin Cans, Big Echo was co-produced by frontman Chris Chu and friend Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Even without knowing that, it’s almost impossible to not recognize Grizzly Bear’s influence on Big Echo, as the Morning Benders utilized a plethora of different percussion instruments and even more prominent layered vocals than their last album. Overall, it all came together in what Chu called a “wall of sound.” There’s no empty space in these songs, filling your ears with heavy bass, majestic strings, trickling piano chords, jazzy vocals and so much percussion it sounds like they recorded drummer Julian Harmon playing at least three different instruments several times. But it’s not overdone. The quartet still managed to keep the refreshing lo-fi sound that they did so well on Talking Through Tin Cans.

No track on the album better exemplifies that fact than the opening song, “Excuses,” which the band recently recorded with a bunch of fellow Bay Area musicians, releasing a video along with it. “Excuses” is nothing short of lovely, even starting off with the less-than-suggestive lyrics of, “you try to taste me, and I taped my tongue to the southern tip of your band.” Chu’s harmonies make for a song that sways beautifully like that awkward first dance. It’s darling, it’s natural, and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside (pardon the cliché).

Other standouts include “Promises,” “Cold War (Nice Clean Fight),” “Hand Me Downs,” and “Stitches.” The band released “Promises” several months ago via their website, so this was my first taste of Big Echo, and it was a good foreshadowing. The “wall of sound” mixed with familiar garage rock swagger made for a perfectly balanced (hopefully) first single. “Cold War” is by far the quickest and most upbeat of all the tracks on the album, staying at a keen 1:44 and featuring a toy piano and a driving set of hand claps, and it’s just light enough to catch your breath, metaphorically speaking, in the midst of the heavier songs. With “Hand Me Downs,” you get a great vocal hook – “when we fall, when we fall, when we fall far away,” as well as a strong guitar riff sporadically throughout the 3:46 track, reminding me of Grizzly Bear’s “While You Wait for the Others,” building the sound until the end when it drifts off into pure vocal harmonies.

Vocal harmony is one thing that holds Big Echo together like Mighty Putty, like an underlying pattern in a designer’s spring collection, like a photographer’s watermark. And the Morning Benders had it even before Taylor came on to help produce it, but with his help they’ve polished it into an excellent second album.

When I saw the Morning Benders open for Grizzly Bear back in October, there was one song that I remembered, “Stitches.” I remembered it being soft and slow, with a building intensity matched with Chu’s subtle and easy vocals. Listening to it on the record was exactly how I remembered – as just one of those songs you have to listen to without any distractions so you get all the goosebumps possible.

Honestly, on my first listen of Big Echo, I was very surprised as to how toned-down it was from Talking Through Tin Cans, but it was all part of the Morning Benders natural growth, honing their writing and recording skills. And bringing Taylor on as co-producer wasn’t a bad idea either, seeing that Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest was one of the highest-rated albums of 2009. Just as well, being one of the highly anticipated albums of early 2010, Big Echo surely delivered on all marks. Remaining youthful without being pretentious, the Morning Benders will hopefully keep going with the two stellar albums in their repertoire.

Have you ever been to show that drastically changed the way you listen to a band? Well, last Friday I went and saw Editors (no ‘the’) and it’s almost like they’re a completely new band to me. Seriously.

Starting the tour supporting their third studio album In This Light and On This Evening, Editors brought along openers Black Nite Crash and Princeton for their Seattle and Vancouver shows. The former was a local Seattle band, one of which I’d put in the “fuzz rock” genre. Some call it “shoegaze,” which to me has a negative connotation of apathetic non-stage presence, so I prefer “fuzz rock.” They weren’t bad, but as a stark contrast to anything Editors did, it was an odd fit. If I had to compare their sound, it was like early Pixies but with a dose of cool Seattle confidence.

Between acts, the front area of the Showbox floor got strangely scarce, or at least until you looked down. Obnoxious teenagers decided to plant their behinds on the floor, tricking those further back that they might get a spot closer. To make the situation even more inconvenient, I almost tripped numerous times on these squatters.

No matter, because as soon as the next band, Los Angeles’ Princeton got on stage, people stood up to enjoy their low-key SoCal indie rock. I was standing right next to their personal band photographer before Princeton’s set started, and she tried to illustrate their sound to me, “kind of like Beach House?” Again, they were an interesting fit on Editors’ bill, but I quite liked them. At one point lead vocalist Jesse Kivel said after they kept switching around instruments, “I never realized how many bass players we have.” Three out of four the band members played bass during Princeton’s half-hour set. They played a concise set list from their debut studio album Cocoon of Love, out last September, all of which was scribbled on a sheet of paper under their feet. There were a few that I remembered having clever titles like “Calypso Love” and “I Left My Love In Nagasaki.” I liked those ones.

I feel like it would both suck and rock to be an opening band for a band as big as Editors. You get the pleasure of touring with and getting exposed to fans of that huge band, but during shows you don’t get as much love because people are there most of the time for the headliners. Jesse Kivel said it best – “thanks guys for coming out early.” When I see a “doors open at” time, that’s when I get there. If I pay for tickets, I want to see as much music as possible. I didn’t come early. I came on time. Everyone else came late.

At that, I was very glad because the Showbox didn’t get really crowded until right before Tom Smith, Chris Urbanowicz, Ed Lay and Russell Leech came out on stage and broke into the strong synthesizer and the lyrics, “I swear to god, I heard the earth inhale, moments before it spat its rain down on me” from the title track of their newest album. That’s when people went nuts.

Back to what I was saying earlier about hearing a band completely differently – when you first hear Editors, you’d never expect the lead singer to be winding around the stage, teetering on his stylish shoes and randomly jumping on the piano. But now that I’ve seen Editors live, I think of Tom’s antics when I hear “Papillon,” “Lights” or “Smokers Outside the Hospital Door” – all of which they played, by the way.  Tom Smith’s almost creepy charisma is perfect for the generally dark nature of their music; he was phenomenal at building momentum through a song without being cheesy, switching between three microphones, a keyboard and a piano. There was just a way that he grabbed at the microphone in almost a longing way, while stomping at the pedals below him.

Chris, sporting his familiar black and white Rickenbacker guitar, got to show his synthesizer skills last night, too. However, because his synth set was right up against Tom’s piano, Chris was completely isolated on the left side of the stage. But even with the separation on stage, everyone sounded so together and harmonious.

Honestly, when I first heard the last album I was kind of underwhelmed after how amazing An End Has A Start was, but after seeing it live, the songs off of In This Light and On This Evening make for a more dynamic live experience with all the elements included. Editors have surely utilized electronic sounds on this record, and it makes so much more sense to me now. I even forgive them for recording a song for the New Moon Soundtrack.

Throughout the 90-minute set, Editors played all but one track off of In This Light and On This Evening (that title is a lengthy one to type out, I must say), half of An End Has A Start, and even a few from 2005’s The Back Room, including “Camera” and “Bullets.”

After they finished up “Brick and Mortar” and left the stage. These girls standing behind me were saying, “There’s gotta be an encore. They haven’t played ‘Munich’ yet.”

“There’s a three-song encore coming up, I caught a glimpse of the set list on the stage,” I turned around and told them.

“Fingers crossed for ‘Munich!’” They squealed.

The girls soon got their wish when Tom, Chris, Russell and Ed got back up on stage and broke into the opening riffs of “Munich.”

I don’t know if they were especially great and energetic because this was the first show of the tour, but this will surely not be the last time I see Editors. Heck, I would have driven down to Portland to see them if they’d stopped there. It was that awesome.

Set List:
1. In This Light And On This Evening
2. Lights
3. An End Has A Start
4. You Don’t Know Love
5. Bones
6. The Boxer
7. The Big Exit
8. Blood
9. Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool
10. The Racing Rats
11. Like Treasure
12. Camera
13. Bullets
14. Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
15. Bricks And Mortar
Encore:
16. Munich
17. Papillon
18. Fingers In The Factories

Making the familiar trek to my favorite venue in Seattle, the Showbox at the Market, there was one thing in my mind that I couldn’t help but giggle gleefully.

I’m seeing Johnny Marr tonight.

Well, The Cribs, but the recent addition of ex-Smiths guitarist Marr to the formerly all-brother lineup surely upped the cool factor of The Cribs. And on this night, the crowd the Yorkshire band brought out was quite the assortment. Standing in line outside the Showbox, I struck up a conversation with a few high school students who – serendipitously – lived in the same town as I, an hour south of Seattle.  They’d come out, seemingly just to see a band, as they asked me what The Cribs sounded like. I tried to think of something that they might know. Unaware at that point that they were a few years younger than I expected, I mentioned the Libertines. They stared blankly.

“Like the Arctic Monkeys?”

“Kinda, like earlier Arctic Monkeys?” I replied, in an effort to give them some description. They made me feel old.

Once the show got started, I still felt kind of old. Former Be Your Own Pet frontwoman Jemina Pearl opened the show, donning a walking brace on her right foot, but still managing to thrash around the stage like she didn’t have a bum foot. Accompanied by her pubescent-looking band, Miss Pearl evoked a punk much older than she looked and sounded. Now to my knowledge, she’s had some legendary recognition of her own – featuring Iggy Pop on her obnoxiously titled “I Hate People” on her debut, Break It Up. She played through most of the songs off Break It Up in this 45-minute slot, holding the equally youthful room with suc

h tunes like “Looking For Trouble,” “D Is For Danger” and “Band on the Run.” I quite enjoyed her sound; it was like the not-quite-as-angry Be Your Own Pet, but much tougher and dirtier than a certain band fronted by a young flame-trussed female getting loads of airplay right now.

At this point, the floor was still relatively vacant, but the bar had filled up a lot since I’d last looked. This is when I started to realize the ratio of actual Cribs fans to Johnny Marr fans, about 2 to 1. There were those crazy teenagers flogging around right in front of the stage and those over 35 that bobbed their heads in the back, reminiscing about when they saw The Smiths for the first time.

Right on time, at 10:15, brothers Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman, along with Johnny Marr took the stage to loads of applause and opened with the highly-sing-alongable “We Were Aborted.” The rest of the set included some cuts from 2009’s Ignore the Ignorant, like “Cheat on Me,” “We Share the Same Skies” and “City of Bugs”; as well as some older hits like “Hey Scenesters,” “Men’s Needs,” and a unexpected version of “Be Safe” with a giant pull-down screen of Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth fame reciting the backing monologue for the track. I especially liked that one and “Hari Kari,” highlighting how complex yet easy the songs are.

At this point, I noticed the 40-something-year-old guy standing next to me, mouthing along to all the words, dancing all twitchy-like.

In terms of cohesiveness, The Cribs show truly how a band consisting of brothers works. They all live in different places – Manchester and Yorkshire, UK, and Portland, OR.  And honestly the only thing that would cue that twins Ryan and Gary live in different cities, different countries really, is the complete contrasting personal style. Gary sported a sweater and a sideswept ‘do and Ryan was rocking a black leather jacket and harsh fringe bangs. And they all meshed together to create a sound worth listening to for hours, and a truly English one at that. I heard in an interview that what brought the Jarmans together with Marr as a band in the first place was that they all “got on as friends.” That’s it – the original Cribs’ superb songwriting mixed with Marr’s seasoned and sexy guitar riffs – it’s what makes them great. The Cribs use such a simple formula, but with high-quality ingredients.

Ignore The Ignorant was on my list of the top 20 albums of last year, and rightfully so. I mean, The Cribs were already a great band, but back in 2008 when Marr joined the band full-time, they became even greater – in their sound and their fan base.

As I left, I forgot to find the teens I spoke with while waiting in line to ask them how they liked the show and to tell them to look up our site in the next couple days, but that was alright. They had to like the show. How could they not?

After seeing a half-hour Phoenix set last month, it left me wanting so much more. Thankfully, that “more” came just five weeks later – this last Saturday the 23rd at the Showbox SoDo, literally right down the street from where I saw them last month.

The Soft Pack served as the opening course for the night, and with how ridiculously packed this venue was, they held their own pretty well. I was virtually unfamiliar with the Soft Pack, but now I can say that I was pleased I saw them. With the quick and punky “C’Mon” and “Pull Out,” they got the crowd dancing like it was the year 2000. Seriously, they felt like a nice throwback to the garage rock of the beginning of the decade – like early Strokes with less swagger and more gusto. They played through their strong set list that included other standouts, “Extinction,” “Brightside” and “Parasites,” all scribbled down on a ripped napkin that lay on the floor. The understated frontman-ness of Matt Lamkin met with the raw energy of lead guitarist Matty McLoughlin made for a great synergy on stage. They felt very current, yet seasoned. I totally dug it. Be sure to keep your ears peeled for these guys in 2010.

After their 40-minute set, the Soft Pack exited the stage to make way for Phoenix’s gear, front and center. Thankfully I found myself in front of the guy with an obscene amount of frizzy hair, who was originally standing in front of me. But he did provide one especially random moment of the night – as Phoenix was just about to step on stage he shouted, “Come on guys, allons-y!” “Allons-y,” meaning “let’s go” in French isn’t just a culturally relevant phrase to shout to a band that hails from France, but for me it was a hilarious reference to the BBC sci-fi show “Doctor Who.” But that could be just me.

Opening with “Lisztomania,” the French foursome started out their just-under-90-minute set just as strong as I remembered from last month. But on this night, we had three times as many songs from them, which made the show exponentially better. Paired with trippy strobe lights half the night, I can say that this was the craziest dance party I’ve been to… possibly ever. The one negative I could bring up was how full the Showbox SoDo decided to book for this show. Even when I tried to duck out of the crowd directly in front of the stage during the encore, I could barely find a clear spot against the wall. Definitely a claustrophobic’s nightmare.

But Phoenix surely did not disappoint – playing almost all the songs off last year’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” as well as some old tunes. Including – “Consolation Prizes,” “Rally,” “Long Distance Call” and “Napoleon Says” off It’s Never Been Like That, an extra slow and groovy version of “Everything is Everything” from Alphabetical, and even the epically heavy “Funky Squaredance” and the light and dancey “If I Ever Feel Better” and “Too Young” off their 2000 debut United. Those were especially nice surprises after someone shouted from the audience, “Lost in Translation soundtrack, yeah!” Some people say the darndest things.

Even Thomas Mars does. At one point, I can’t remember when, he declared that he wanted to thank the people of Federal Way – a small suburb of Seattle, about 20 minutes out of town. I never figured out why, but it could have been the first town they saw when they got off the plane. Who knows?

Throughout the night, Phoenix moved through the best of their catalogue, transitioning dynamically from an energetic dance number like “Lasso” to an extended haunting electronic track like “Love Like A Sunset.” It all led up to the extremely lengthy encore, which is was all right by me. Mars took a nice little trip out into the audience, crowd-surfing as far as the microphone cord would let him, while Deck D’Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai stayed up on stage and jammed for a good solid five minutes with the same trippy strobes lighting up the room. After introducing their “farewell song,” they played three more – which included the huge hit, “1901,” and a giant dance party where everyone within leaping distance jumped up on stage to close the set. At that point, I wasn’t in leaping distance, but I did get a picture of those who were.

Even with how unpleasant SoDo was, I left very pleased with my second Phoenix show, and in fact, my first show of the new decade. Thank you, Phoenix, for starting out this decade wonderfully. Seattle will be glad to have you back many more times.

Set List:
Lisztomania
Long Distance Call
Lasso
Rally
Fences
Girlfriend
Armistice
Love Like A Sunset
Napoleon Says
Too Young
Consolation Prizes
Rome
Funky Squaredance
ENCORE:
Everything is Everything
If I Ever Feel Better
1901

There are several reasons why 2010 is looking like it will be better than 2009. I won’t go into too much detail, only to say that Spoon’s new album Transference is one of them. And I can assure you, for as long as we’ve waited for this one, it’s worth it.

Oh, it’s so worth it.

I saw Britt Daniel play a solo show in Portland back in October, and there I got but a taste of what was to come on Transference, and it peaked my excitement even more than when I originally heard about the 2010 return of Spoon.

If you’re reading this, you probably already heard “Got Nuffin,” “Written in Reverse” and “Mystery Zone,” the last of which leaked somehow in late 2009, but Transference has so much more to offer solid Spoon fans as well as new ones. The album opens on “Before Destruction,” with gritty acoustics and eerie harmonies, carried by lead singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s effortless crooning. It proves to be a theme throughout the record – a mixture of the dirty, under-produced with the in-studio mixing that create the sound that we all know and love from this band.

One of my favorites on the album is perhaps the sexiest song I’ve heard Spoon put out – “Who Makes Your Money.” It features echoing vocals and an ever-present bass line, as well as Daniel’s perfect repetition of “oh oh… ooh.”  That part really got me. And another of my standouts, “Trouble Come Running,” was one I heard at that solo show in Portland. Driven by the infectious hook, “here it come running again, trouble come running,” it’s hard to keep this one off repeat. And the boys are so tight on this track and have so much live synergy, you’d half-expect to turn around to see Britt Daniel singing right there.

Transference also includes something unexpected from Spoon – a ballad, the short and easy piano-laden track “Goodnight Laura.” I quite liked it, because it was a quick, but pleasant departure from the otherwise…Spooniness of the album? I don’t know what adjective to use to be honest, because there are so many that I could use to describe Transference. But they all would amalgamate into “Spooniness.” So yes, I invented a new word, just for this review.

Looking into Spoon’s back catalogue, Transference is closer to earlier records like Kill The Moonlight and A Series of Sneaks and less polished than Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. But Spoon is so talented that they don’t need to spend forever in the studio trying to get it perfect. It’s nice that Spoon has stayed independent with Merge Records for all these years, because none of their records ever strayed away from who they are, but developed beautifully.

There are so many buzz bands out there that I admit getting a little ga ga over in recent years, but if there’s one band that never disappoints – it’s Spoon. Sure, there are bands that have phenomenal, life-changing debuts, but fail miserably on the second. And again fail to redeem themselves on the third. Spoon doesn’t have just one great record to bank on; they have all their albums.  When picking which albums to include on my personal best of the decade list, I had a hard time not including more than two Spoon records. That wouldn’t have been very fair for the other artists, but surely deserved.

And based on Transference, 15 years into their career, it looks like Spoon isn’t going anywhere soon.

Track Listing:

1. Before Destruction
2. Is Love Forever?
3. The Mystery Zone
4. Who Makes Your Money
5. Written in Reverse
6. I Saw the Light
7. Trouble Comes Running
8. Goodnight Laura
9. Out Go the Lights
10. Got Nuffin

11 Nobody Gets Me But You

It’s almost baffling that the Album Leaf has been around for 10 years and they’ve never hit it big. On their latest release, the appropriately titled Chorus of Storytellers, producer Jimmy LaValle brought the live touring band together to record a much fuller sound than he’s ever achieved on the four albums preceding this one.

The definition of chorus is: “a group of persons singing in unison.” Now, there aren’t necessarily a choir of voices on this album, but with multiple people recording multiple instruments, the album has the choral quality hinted at with the title. One of the better mellow and ambient releases I’ve heard in awhile, Chorus of Storytellers mixes the strong instrumentals ever-present on the previous albums Into the Blue Again and In A Safe Place with the newly synergic band vibe created in the studio.

The album opens with two tracks void of vocals, “Perro” and “Black Pages,” with an especially fitting title for the latter song. Because of the more saturated recording, those two songs are quite reminiscent of Sigur Ros, without sounding copycat-ish. In this case, starting the album with the lack of vocals added to the eerie feel of Chorus of Storytellers. The next few songs, “There is a Wind,” “Within Dreams,” and “Falling From the Sun,” give a slight Postal Service-esque feel to the album, with the synthetic sounds LaValle uses so effectively. And even more fitting, when I first listened to “Stand Still,” it almost sounded like an underrated b-side from an early Death Cab for Cutie album. The final songs are also beautiful, cerebral ambient tracks, similar again to those of Sigur Ros. And yet, these all fit perfectly together, flowing from one song to the next.

While all these reminders of other artists could detract from the artist we’re actually listening to – The Album Leaf – somehow they don’t. As a fifth album, Chorus of Storytellers is exactly where The Album Leaf should be – familiar, yet fresh. From strings to piano, synthesizer to straight vocals, LaValle put forth his best effort yet, matching both the organic fairytale quality of In A Safe Place and internal complexity of Into the Blue Again. Without the presence of too much vocals, you just get to listen to the music, which is what ambient music should be about. The ambiance, not necessarily the content.

I mean, who needs all the lyrics when you can just feel the music?

Track Listing:

1. Perro
2. Blank Pages
3. There Is a Wind
4. Within Dreams
5. Falling from the Sun
6. Stand Still
7. Summer Fog
8. Until the Last
9. We Are
10. Almost There
11. Tied Knots