No witty headline...

Sorry, I've got a bit of a headache because of (I think) allergies, so I can't muster the willpower to create a witty headline (and I used the word "witty" loosely). Luckily, over the last 24 hours or so, I seem to be tripping over good new music every which way. Heres a run down of what I've found...


Mew - "And The Glass Handed Kites"

This recently popped up on Rhapsody after having heard about it several months ago, so I gave it a listen last night. And, I was also surprised by how much I like it. I read one reviewer say it was a mix of Queensryche and Sigur Ros... and actually, in the best possible way, that doesn't sound too far off. Danes doing lush, operatic, progressive rock music.




Ratatat - "Classics"

Ratatat's newest album holds close to the same formula as their first, but pushes it farther out sonically. For those who didn't hear their first album, it basically sounds like NES soundtrack songs turned into arena rock anthems. That description makes it sound like it could be obnoxious and repetitious... but its surprisingly addictive stuff. And this CD fines them expanding the variety of sounds in their grab bag.




Chad Vangaalen - "Skelliconnection" and "Infiniheart"

Chad's basically a singer/songwriter who manages to side step most of the cliches that singer/songwriters fall into. In addition, his songs are a lot more sonically complex then the general, trite acoustic guitar. Supposedly, he's an artist/recluse, and his music -while still accessible- has that sort of inventive and intuitive vibe. I'm still a little on the fence about it, but I have a feeling I'll warm to it with more listens, like I did with Arcade Fire.

And, I love his album covers.




Outkast - "Idlewild"

I'm listening to this for the first time, as I type up all this, and I like it overall. It's probably not their strongest album, but I was in the camp that felt that their last release suffered because Big Boi and Andre each had their own disk. At least here, while they still seem to be doing seperate songs in a lot of cases, the songs are all mixed together making it better listening to me. It'll be interesting to see how these songs work into the movie.



(All the reviews above are really prelimiary, since I've only had a chance to listen to each CD once or twice, but I'm always excited to find so much good music kicking around.)