January 16, 2008

Via Audio saysomethingsaysomethingsaysomething [3.5/5] After a hard-drive disaster ate the first version of their debut full-length, Via Audio regrouped by crafting saysomethingsaysomethingsaysomething, a patient and assured album with as many ways to impress as, yes, things to say. Like Stars, Via Audio intoxicate their pop with swirling atmospheres, engaging boy/girl harmonies and layered...

Sunset Rubdown Random Spirit Lover [2.5/5] At this point, Wolf Parade are such widely renowned critical darlings that keyboardist/vocalist Spencer Krug basically can do anything and people will be interested. However, with Sunset Rubdown’s third full-length, Random Spirit Lover, Krug tests the patience of even the most tolerant listener via a convoluted and...

Stars In Our Bedroom After The War [3.5/5] Perhaps the best way to describe the fourth full-length from Canadian collective Stars is that it’s more war than bedroom. The band have finally created songs as big as their love-and-death themes-tunes perfectly tailored to the Morrissey-esque keening of Torquil Campbell. Co-vocalist Amy Millan still...

New Idea Society The World Is Bright And Lonely [2.5/5] Having Cave In frontman Stephen Brodsky playing guitar will garner a fair amount of attention for New Idea Society, but don’t expect to hear a Cave In side project. The driving force behind NIS is frontman Mike Law, formerly of Eulcid. This group...

Matt Pond PA Last Light [2.5/5] David Lee Roth once commented that the worst sex is to be had with a model because they’re so self-conscious of how they look. Matt Pond PA’s Last Light suffers a similar malady. The chamber-pop quintet’s seventh full-length luxuriates in aching beauty from cocktail-addled swells (“Taught To...

Les Savy Fav Let’s Stay Friends [4.5/5] For a dozen years, ex-art school rockers Les Savy Fav have been calibrating their blend of jagged art-punk and pop smarts. On their first full-length since 2001’s Go Forth, the Brooklyn quartet demonstrate new mastery of the style, creating their most appealing and accessible music to...

Georgie James Places [4/5] You might imagine Georgie James as a stylish blonde in a shag cut and bell-bottoms for all the debt the D.C.-area duo owe the ’70s. Their bright pop style is more New Pornographers than Rilo Kiley; though, like both groups, they rely on sunny harmonies and soaring piano/organ-fueled melodies....

The Fiery Furnaces Widow City [4/5] Opening track “The Philadelphia Grand Jury” kicks off the Fiery Furnaces’ new album with a chicken-picked guitar riff that could pass for something from the Clash’s Sandinista!. But the duo haven’t hit the 30-second mark before they’re onto something new. By the time the song is over...

The Donnas Bitchin’ [4/5] From the gleaming retro-’80s Donnas logo to the leather-clad ass that’s front and center, the cover art for Bitchin’ practically screams heavy metal parking lot. But as Johnny Rotten once wisely noted, you can’t always judge a book by its cover. Bitchin’ is being touted as the album where...