New Release Tuesday: Robert Wyatt, Band of Horses & Silver Seas
Robert Wyatt Comicopera (Domino)
Best known for his work with Britain's art-rock pioneers Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt has done little aside from create brilliant, truly different pop music since the '60s. Though his career is long, prolific and full of intriguing stories and tragedy, we've most recently been enamored with 2003's Cuckooland, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. This year's Comicopera is a sort of hysterical (in the laughing and the sad way) glimpse into the mind of a mad genius: moments of domestic strife, unflinching love, and spiritual frustration are delivered with disarming honesty, and all parts lope across a loose structure, uninhibited by pop music's sometimes rigid demands. A jazz-inflected tone carries most of the album, multi-genre stints keep things fresh, and Wyatt's typical sense of adventure pervades. It is an experimental work, but it's not at all exclusive: any listener with an affection for the sort of eager and self-referential pop music that folks like Stephin Merritt and Kurt Wagner indulge in should find themselves right at home. Comicopera also features Paul Weller (The Jam, the Style Council), Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music, Quiet Sun) and Brian Eno (Brian Fucking Eno) and, as Hot Chip's Alex Taylor says, "There is so much to find, and to return to, in the generous company of this record."
Robert Wyatt MySpace
Robert Wyatt Official
Robert Wyatt "Solar Flares Burn For You" (YouTube)
Silver Seas High Society (Cheap Lullaby)
Formerly known as The Bees (U.S.), the Silver Seas are releasing their debut, High Society again, and hopefully it won't be lost in the fray a second time. Given their overseas name competitors The Bees' latest record, we're assuming the band decided to give up the ghost on the buzzing imagery and go for it again with a semi-clean slate. We're glad, because we loved High Society when it belonged to The Bees (not that Bees), and we still love it, and find it remarkable that the band hasn't totally exploded. The songs on High Society feature lilting piano, three and four part harmony and graceful layered acoustics reminiscent of '70s magic hour walks and "Sister Golden Hair". Highly recommended.
Silver Seas Official
Silver Seas MySpace
Silver Seas "Country Life" (YouTube)
Band of Horses Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)
In the year that has passed since Ben Bridwell & Co. released their truly remarkable debut, Everything All the Time, a lot has happened. The band has toured relentlessly, played many a festival, scored a handful of television and commercial spots for their songs (well, song), and ran into some PR issues upon flipping off a camera-wielding fan. Success can make the waters murky. Or, bloggers don't go to shows for the right reasons. Either way, the group hasn't been too far off the radar. The show at the Parish last year indicated their intentions for this record, at the time rumored to be an EP titled A Little Bit Real Quick. The new songs still walk that fine line between My Morning Jacket Lite and Wilco, but something has changed. "Is There a Ghost" chugs familiarly, Bridwell's signature reverb coated vocals soaring overhead, but the very (very) produced cleanness is what stands out.
On their previous effort, the sometimes sappy lyrics and predictable progressions didn't matter so much ... the band's sort of genuine yearning stood out over boutique sentimentality and teen drama distillation. Perhaps part of the defensiveness we've witnessed from Bridwell in recent months stems from his personal experience with the new media machine that he's been thrust into as a blogger-friendly songwriter, but it's also possible that the pressure to live up to "Funeral" -- more than a song, a definitive branding effort in many ways -- has taken its toll on the singer and the song. The album is good, maybe too good, but we'd really like to have seen a record that moved past that emotional and now anticipated form and into a sort of "fuck you" musically as well as verbally.
Band of Horses MySpace
Band of Horses Official
More This Week
Band Of Horses: Cease to Begin
Beirut: The Flying Club Cup
Cass McCombs: Dropping the Writ
Celebration: Modern Tribe
Dead Kennedys: Milking the Sacred Cow
Deadstring Brothers: Silver Mountain
Doveman: With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead
Ed Askew: Little Eyes (reissue)
Electric Six: I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master
Enon: Believo! (reissue)
Enon: Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds
Eric Clapton: Complete Clapton
The Exits: The Legendary Lost Exits Album (remastered)
The Fall: Live at the ATP Festival (import)
Fiery Furnaces: Widow City
George Lopez: America's Mexican
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Bwyd Time (reissue)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Patio (reissue)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Tatay (reissue)
Graves: Seldom Slumber
HAM1: The Captain's Table
His Name Is Alive: Firefly Dragonfly
Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala
Johnossi: Johnossi
Josie Cotton: Invasion of the B-Girls
Kid Rock: Rock and Roll Jesus
The Kin: Rise & Fall
Loch Lomond: Paper the Walls
Marc Cohn: Join the Parade
Mariee Sioux: Faces in the Rocks
Megadeth: Warchest Box Set (box set)
Motorhead: Better Motorhead Than Dead: Live At Hammersmith
Moving Units: Hexes for Exes
MV & EE with the Golden Road: Gettin Gone
The Octopus Project: Hello Avalanche
Pet Shop Boys: Disco 4 (import)
Pete Seeger: American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5
Polysics: Polysics or Die: Vista
Prints: Prints
Robert Hazard: Troubador
Robert Pollard: Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love
Robert Pollard: Standard Gargoyle Decisions
Robert Wyatt: Comicopera
Samara Lubelski: Parallel Suns
Scout Niblett: This Fool Can Die Now
She Wants Revenge: This Is Forever
The Silver Seas: High Society
Sleeping People: Growing
Spank Rock: Spank Rock and Benny Blanco Are...Bangers and Cash EP
Smithereens: Christmas with the Smithereens
Sun City Girls: Juggernaut (reissue)
Sun City Girls: Piasa (reissue)
Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover
Tulsa: I Was Submerged
Vanesssa Carlton: Heroes & Thieves
Various Artists: Every Child Deserves a Lifetime: Songs from the for Our Children Series
Various Artists: Fatboy Slim: Late Night Tales
Various Artists: Baby Love Lullabye: Lullabye Versions of 50 Cent
Various Artists: Baby Love Lullabye: Lullabye Versions of Johnny Cash
Various Artists: Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions Christmas
Various Artists: Sing Like Cash!
Viva Voce: Lovers, Lead the Way/The Heat Can Melt Your Brain (reissue with bonus tracks)
White Shoes & The Couples Company: White Shoes & The Couples Company
Will Hoge: Draw the Curtains
