9.1.11

Trying to Listen to More Music

Meg got me a new iPod for Christmas. I haven't really bought any new music in probably 5 years (I think the last new album I purchased was Arctic Monkey's Favorite Worst Nightmare in 2007). So I'm trying to reconnect with music in 2011. My plan is to buy an album a week. I started with an iTunes gift certificate, here's the albums I have purchased so far:

  • Kings of Leon, Only By the Night - A great album. I was expecting something with a bit more edge to it, so it took a few listens. But its haunting sound grew on me.
  • Crash Kings, Crash Kings - A complete one-hit wonder. "Mountain Man" is a great song, but the rest of the album tries to hard to emulate every other alternative band out there.
  • Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More - I loved the single "Little Lion Man." The rest of the album is solid, but they certainly picked the right track to release as the first single. The band is at their best with up-tempo tracks.
  • My Chemical Romance, Danger Days - I am an unapologetic My Chemical Romance fan, I love their harmonic-punk style and experimentation (their last album, Black Parade, has a punk-polka). This album is quite different than the two previous albums. I listened to it about 5 times and am not sure what I think about it--its certainly a good album, but I think I'd prefer carefully arranged and mixed punk rock to carefully arranged and mixed electronica.

I just bought the Black Keys' 2004 album Rubber Factory and a friend provided burns of two Vampire Weekend albums, so I have plenty to listen to this week. Next week, I'm thinking of grabbing The National's High Violet, but I am open to suggestions.

6 comments:

Phillip J. Mellen said...

Greetings! I cant help but suggest music by Mountain Man. The album is called "Made the Harbor" and you can purchase it here: http://mountainman.bandcamp.com/

Also, you can create a profile and then download a few free tracks over at Daytrotter here:
http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/mountain-man-concert/20031369-51543.html

Daytrotter is a great way to get free downloads on other great music too. I have been using it for like 3 years!!

Well, Mountain Man most-likely falls under "folk" music, it is captivating and often sung in a'capella. Give a listen, I hope you enjoy it!

-Phil

Headphones_on said...

Some of my favorite albums from 2010:


Arcade Fire - The Suburbs if you are into Indie Rock. Overall a great album. Every track is solid

The Black Keys - Brothers or any Black Keys album, if you enjoyed . But this is their best album to date

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach not their best overall album, but has some great catchy Pop tracks

Insignificant Wrangler said...

Several sites mentioned Arcade Fire, so they are on my radar. I'm liking the Black Keys album, but I'm not sure if I want to buy another album or just poach a few tracks.

Kyle Stedman said...

I was planning to mention the new Arcade Fire, but then I saw that everyone else already had. I like The National a lot too, but I haven't heard their newest one. Some buddies of mine run http://www.ignatius-record-review.com, which has a lot of good previews of songs if you scroll back to past entries. (They've been slow lately due to babies being born and all.)

Mark said...

Infinity Blade.

Insignificant Wrangler said...

Thanks Kyle and Phil. Mark--I was wondering if you would poke your head in this one.

Isn't Infinity Blade a video game? Or is there some band somewhere that no one but you have heard of?