Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
17/01/10 18:36 Filed in: Indie Music | Alternative
Released June 3, 2008, Sub Pop.
Reviewed By Stephanie Attebery
Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes. While I anxiously await their March 16th visit to Seattle’s Triple Door I pull out the album for another listen. This is figurative of course, since it has never actually gone out of my sightline. As I listen I’m brought back to the late Saturday afternoons in my youth, when my parents’ folky music selections reigned in our house. I’m also reminded of when still small, I gazed up with deference at my grandfather and his fellow church flock lifting their voices in gospel song, my awakening to the power of harmony. Those moments are recalled and perfected in Foxes’ music. Songs that begin slow and build to a mesmerizing harmonic finale like Your Protector, and Blue Ridge Mountains. There are quieter songs too, with a graceful slowness. Like Oliver James, which I plan to sing, with imperfection and no hope of comparison, to a little one of my own someday as a lullaby. You must own this album.
Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spektor
16/01/10 18:47
Released September 21, 2004, Sire.
Reviewed By Stephanie Attebery
Consider buying Soviet Kitsch today. Regina Spektor’s early full-length album is for you, if you loved the early works of Tori Amos; Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink. The songs on Kitsch are carried in flavors of love, sickness, family, and the anxiety that accompanies all of those things. My favorites in no particular order:
Us, recently showcased on the very popular soundtrack to ‘(500) Days of Summer,' is a lively tribute to the sad subject of love.
Ghost of Corporate Future offers practical personal advice in an original style. Spektor seems to say, "Hey relax and laugh when you’re on the way to your job that you’re just not sure about." (my most-played weekday morning song coincidentally.)
Chemo Limo is just sad and weird and beautiful, and she “beat boxes” in the middle of the song!
Somedays is framed in the café music style of popular female pop nowadays, (think Ingrid Michaelson) but stands out because of its lyrical complexity and strong vocals. Spektor has not slowed down her production since her 2004 debut and in the months to come, I will continue down the musical road she has paved!