Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring

Artist - Noah and the Whale
Album -The First Days of Spring
Released - August 31, 2009 (Cherrytree Records)

Since my job has recently been slow with pumping out the stories and upon realizing that the more sleep I get, the more tired I am in the morning (yeah, it’s true.. I’m that guy), I’m throwing a couple CD reviews up here and maybe a feature. We’ll see how inspired I am after this first one.

Still maintaining that the British Isles pump out exceedingly good music like an automotive assembly line, Noah and the Whale might just be considered the Audi of modern indie music.

The English-bred indie folk pedigrees, Noah and the Whale, might not be as intrinsically original as pioneers of the genre. Yet, after weaving a sheer sense of poetic irony and blatantly personal lyrics into The First Days of Spring, they can sleep knowing they’re not privy to becoming, well, sic transit gloria.

The First Days of Spring, in essence, accounts the beginning and ending of a break-up, followed by the posthumous rebound of said relationship, albeit cheesy in concept, the album is an accessible tapestry of the new “sensitive-guy” image and wildly reverent of Belle and Sebastian.

From the melancholic wavering of the title track, Charlie Fink’s vocals are a soporific exercise of subtle tone and remarkably crafted lyrics. Never borrowing rhythm from anything other than the mere existence of Fink and his band, The First Days of Spring is a heart-on-the-sleeve album with a subtle rhythmic peripatetic of emotion, compassion and rehabilitation.

NATW’s album paints a tattered image of ups and downs and tracks like Stranger, make use of a justifiable event in life that anyone can appreciate.

“Last night I slept with a stranger/for the first time since you’ve gone/ regretfully lying naked/I reflect on what I’ve done/her legs stay forced in between mine/sticking to my skin/stroking my chest and my head/head resting on my chin”

Vast orchestration and multi-instrumental hooks force an overload of creativity and freedom into the circuits of the composition into a comprehendible tone of misery and acceptance with a little bit of music thrown in.

www.myspace.com/noahandthewhale

P.S. - Didn't make it to the other two tonight.

Tracks to pay attention to:
Stranger
Slow Glass

Yim Yames - Tribute To

Artist - Yim Yames
Album - Tribute To
Released - August 4, 2009 (ATO)

All too rarely does an album come along that truly captures a moment. Yes, it can capture emotion and feeling, but the moment is something that can only be arrested once in a lifetime.

Donning the not-so-subtle moniker of Yim Yames, My Morning Jacket front man, Jim James, delicately crafts an autumnal tribute to the late George Harrison with an introspective passion.

Never Jackson Polloking a contrived eulogy, Jim James found himself alone in his studio, reflecting on the death of the late Beatle in 2001. With nothing but his acoustic and his inherent talent, James somberly recorded his six track EP with an intense reverence and respect.

Of the six covers, Love You Too is kneaded from the same fertile clay of creativity as the source work. Never treading on its toes, James’ cover discovers a distinct era in his own musical career. Meshing the layered vocals and psychedelic tendencies of My Morning Jacket with Harrison’s 1968 release, Love You Too is a singular entity with a wide-spread inspiration.

All Things Must Pass closes the album as a simple and somber track with an inflection strictly his own. It’s James’ spontaneous tribute to a musical legend and the untailored nature of his simplistic and skeletal songs are haunting, yet graceful.

www.myspace.com/yimyames

No One's First, and You're Next

Artist - Modest Mouse
Album - No One's First, and You're Next
Released - August 5, 2009 (Epic)

If it’s okay to borrow some movie terminology, Modest Mouse has always been a bit of a red herring in the music world.

Modest Mouse takes its time to dig, settle and grow with a listener. They’ve never been the crazed, auto-tuned, pop frenzy most artists grow accustomed to embodying and their critical success owes its livelihood to something like a fine mix between luck and hallucinogens.

The omnipotent cacophony of multi-instrumentalists enlightening the world may be the staple of the MM sound, but vocalist Issac Brock knows the sonic shift in creativity lies in the visceral and poignant songwriting woven into the music.

Copy and pasting from the recording sessions of Good News for People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the makeshift collage of music reveals a maturation, yet it exposes a steadfast dedication to the sound.

No One’s First, and You’re Next takes its first breath with Satellite Skin, easily the most radio-friendly track and also the most accessible and fades out with a fuzzy metaphysical experience, Hickory Sticks to Your Feet.

The dissonance on tracks like King Rat repeals any notion that MM lacks the kind of immediacy and creativity that inspired The Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon and Antarctica. Spanning the years of MM history, the band has overcome the rise to world-wide prominence without tainting their creativity and ardor. Defying fans and naysayers, the darkened corner of pretentious independent music is only enlightened by the Mouse.

So says the Gospel of Modest Mouse.

www.myspace.com/modestmouse

Recent Lapse in Postings

I know I've been absent the past month and half on here, but I haven't given up. Just a friendly update on what I plan on posting sometime in the next few days to a week:

Reviews: Modest Mouse, Wild Light, Yim Yames and a few others.
The usual random postings.
Some band overviews and concert reviews.

So yeah, I'll be around.