On her sophomore record Wounded Rhymes, sullen Swedish romantic Lykke Li and returning producer Bjorn Yttling scrap the future-pop of her debut for a decidedly retro pastiche of girl-group harmonies, doo-wop melodies, surf guitars and psychedelic organs. It's a drastic shift in sound, but what strikes the most about the album is its tautness. At 14 tracks long, Li's inspired yet overstuffed debut, Youth Novels, begged for a trim, but Wound Rhymes flourishes at just 10 tracks, most of them lean and to-the-point. Credit that tightness, perhaps, to Li's mounting reverence for classic soul. Where the contemporary electro-pop artists she once modeled herself after draw out their songs in service of the dancefloor, the soul singers that now inspire her used their limited track time to go straight for the kill---an approach that flatters Li, who with her anguished, expressive voice proves herself a virulent marksmen.
Nils Edenloff's off-key voice still imagines a manic Jeff Magnum on Rural Alberta Advantage's second album, Departing, and this time the guitars and keyboards that accompany his tantrums are even nervier---jittery and paranoid, yet desperate for attention. In an era of sky's-the-limit indie-rock production, Rural Alberta Advantage are a bit of an oddity: a band with big ideas and small execution. There are songs on Departing that suggest Arcade Fire's burning anthems, but instead of adorning them with horns, strings and choirs, the Toronto trio plays them fast and easy, without bells and whistles (unless some of those bells are keyboard presets).
You might not hear a record all year more proudly derivative than Mr. Dream's Trash Hit, a spot-the-reference homage to The Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, The Pixies and at least a dozen records that Steve Albini produced between Big Black and Shellac. Original? Nope. Awesome? Yup.
Similarly awesome and only slightly more original: The Two Koreas' Science Island, a lumbering, riff-heavy garage-rock record with undertones of Mission of Burma and Killing Joke.
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Also out this week:
* Dum Dum Girls' four-track He Gets Me High EP, which ever-so-slightly modernizes the girl-group garage-pop of last year's I Will Be
* Papercuts' Fading Parade, an ornate, impressive dream-pop record
* The self-titled debut from the first supergroup of the contemporary roots movement, Middle Brother, which unites the frontmen of Dawes, Deer Tick and The Delta Spirit
* The Dropkick Murphy's Going Out in Style, which I believe is the first record to feature guest spots from both Bruce Springsteen and NOFX's Fat Mike
* A particularly sober Lucinda Williams album, Blessed
* And new discs from DeVotchKa, Aaron Lewis, Ron Sexsmith and Eisley.
