Friday, January 22, 2010

Beach House and Good Shoes

I've been kind of busy lately and haven't been very disciplined about posting, but I do have a couple of reviews up at Dusted this week.

Beach House's third, Teen Dream, is one of my favorites so far this year, which surprised me, because I liked but never loved their first two albums. This one is a lot more substantial, more pop and more driven by rhythm, and what can I say? I like that stuff.

Here's a link to the review

and Sub Pop is sharing an MP3 of "Norway"

I also have a slightly less enamored review of the new Good Shoes, No Hope, No Future, which is just not as good as the first one. It's at Dusted, too, check it out here.

And, okay, here's a thing. Pazz & Jop came out this week and for the first time ever, I don't have a single album that no one else voted for. (I've got two where there was only one other voter, and one three, so it's not like it's getting crowded.)

Surprised me how high Neko placed...good album, great singer, but I had no idea that she was as hype-y as Animal Collective/Dirty Projectors/Grizzly Bear, etc.

Albums

Singles

My ballot

3 comments:

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

Jen, your Beach House review was really good. The details about the singing, instruments, and sequencing were quite helpful. I'm looking into buying it now. Good job. I looked at your P&J ballot and I'm surprised that "Get Guilty" didn't get more votes. Maybe his solo records don't place as well the New Pornos LPs?

jenniferpkelly said...

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

It sounds really different than the first two to me. I'd be interested in hearing what you think once you've had a chance.

Re AC: That album came out in January, so that a lot of people had probably forgotten about it. Also he's sort of mid-career, which is a tricky place to be. No one's getting any points for discovering how great he is at this point.

And also, apparently everyone voted for Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and Phoenix in slightly different order.

Unknown said...

Enjoying Norway, somehow fits right behind the Zoviet France I was listening just before.