Album Mini Reviews: The Suburbs, The Orchard, and Serotonin

There has been quite a few exciting new album releases lately, mainly exciting because they come from some of my favorite artists, so I decided to do three mini reviews instead of three long, drawn-out, full reviews.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Looking back, Arcade Fire has been one of the prime acts as far as revolutionizing the Indie Rock scene, Funeral was a genre defining hit, and as far as I'm concerned, one of the top albums of the decade. With that said, they've never been able to catch up with it, like many before them, such as De La Soul, or The Strokes, their first effort always trumps the others. Neon Bible proved that Arcade Fire are great at creating good, hard-hitting, allbeit somewhat pretentious albums, even if it couldn't stand up to Funeral. The Suburbs is somewhat the same.

There are 16 tracks on the album, and they are all great, fun to listen to, and different from Funeral. These are straight forward songs, with each one feeling less conceptual and less consistent than Funerals amount of focus and concentration. There are gems in here, that I know I will be listening to for months to come, just like I did with Neon Bible, but I fear that Funeral will still always find its way on to my Vinyl player, or booming through my stereo for DECADES to come, and as unfortunate as that is, The Suburbs is still a great album. Album Rating = 9.0/10
Great Track suggestions:
Rococo
Empty Room
Wasted Hours
We Used to Wait

Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard
Straight-forward indie pop, that's what I used to think of when I thought about Ra Ra Riot, possibly with a slight favoritism on an orchestral backdrop. But Ra Ra Riot has skewed that perception with their new release, The Orchard.

The Orchard is a deeper album, relying heavier on the cello and violin than in their previous work. From the opening of the album, a weightier and more introspective presence is felt, even when the beat picks up into a dancier tone. The indie pop jive is still there, it's still fun and danceable, but there is still the possibility for this album to be more versatile, and even be more of an alone listening experience. Wes's voice on the album is sad, somber, and still shrill, adding shades of grey to the bright and fun visage still felt in some of the songs. A nice album, with lots of potential to propel these guys to bigger heights. Album Rating = 8.7/10
Great Track suggestions:
Too Dramatic
Massachusetts
Shadowcasting


Mystery Jets - Serotonin
The Mystery Jets have had their british-indie-pop hooks in my brain since their release of Twenty One a couple years back, which made me move backward to their older and more mature release, Making Dens. Both are great albums, with Serotonin being a nice blend of the two.

Serotonin seems to basically be a safe release from Mystery Jets, and even if it is, it's still fun, danceable, and hellbent on bringing up thoughts of young love, lost love, and more lovey-dovey bullshit, but you can't help but love the Mystery Jets for it. Serotonin has a light air of forgettability written on most of it, with a couple gems bouncing about the release. The love-cautionary duo on the album "Too Late to Talk" and "The Girl is Gone" couple together nicely, becoming two of my new favorites in my Mystery Jets library. This album isn't something that will become a classic anytime soon, but nonetheless it is a fine addition to the brit-pop-scene. Album Rating = 7.8/10
Great Track Suggestions:
Too Late To Talk
The Girl Is Gone
Lady Grey
Seratonin

All Sorts of New EPage!

EPs are kind of hard for a guy like me to keep up with, they're nice, but I prefer Albums, plus they aren't as hard to find out about as EPs.

This past couple months have given me three reasons to retract that statement. Here they are:

Major Lazer - "Lazers Never Die"
This new and highly anticipated EP from Major Lazer features 2 new tracks and 3 remixes. One track features M.I.A. whose presence feels completely natural to be along side Diplo and Switch. One of the remixes on the EP is done by Thom Yorke, which may seem a bit surprising, but those of you who enjoy remixes and b-sides should know that Mr.Yorke has a nice little history with hip-hop, both performing on tracks and remixing songs by MF DOOM and others. This EP is a must have for a Major Lazer fan.

Los Campesinos - "All's Well That Ends"
These indie pop vets show a more acoustic side in "All's Well..." as it features four acoustic versions of songs from their album released earlier this year, "Romance Is Boring". The neat thing about this EP is, they chose great songs from "Romance Is Boring", such as In Media Res and Romance Is Boring. The songs sound great and are perfect for a quiet night alone, or laying with a loved one.



J Dilla - "Donut Shop"
Even though J Dilla is dead and gone, his impact on hip-hop is still there, and stones throw records have decided to release a new EP, and as I feel sleepy and lazy now, I'll just post the press release:
"The J Dilla tracks consist of three previously unreleased instrumentals selected by J.Rocc from the Dilla archives – “Safety Dance”, “Sycamore”, “Bars & Twists” – and three unreleased instrumental versions of Dilla's production for Mos Def, Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes, each remastered by Elysian Masters who mixed and mastered J Dilla's Donuts, The Shining and Ruff Draft albums."

Welp, if I forgot some, lemme know in the comment box, happy listening! - Matt Galey

This Week In New Releases

This week we have some pretty anticipated releases from some established bands. Let's jump right into them!



First is Emarosa's self-titled, second LP. Their first album, Relativity, was plagued by boring and repetitive vocal lines and a lackluster rhythm section, which is a real shame considering how talented singer Jonny Craig really is (See Dance Gavin Dance's Downtown Battle Mountain). Hopefully this time around they can craft an album that shows off what Jonny Craig is capable of.





We also have the long awaited debut LP from one of my favorite bands, Maps and Atlases. They have abandoned their old spastic math rock style for poppier vocal lines and a much folkier style. The album has already received pretty positive reviews from Pitchfork and Sputnikmusic and will hopefully be liked by their old fans. The album is also streaming on their myspace page




3OH!3 is back with their follow up to 2008's "Want." I don't like this band, but the single "My First Kiss" even seemed low for their standards.







Metalcore act Parkway Drive's new album also comes out this week. I don't expect it to be anything more than a generic metalcore album, but maybe they will surprise me...