The unlikely collaboration between German glitch-pop romantics The Notwist and the anticon avant-garde rap duo Themselves, 13 & God follow up their 2005 self-titled debut this week with the similarly effective new Own Your Ghost. The new record is less disjointed than the project's debut, which was often divided between The Notwist's cotton-soft prettiness and Themselves' anxious, unsettled digressions. The two groups now work together as more of a unit, with Themselves not only shadowing The Notwist, but ultimately pulling the band from their heavenly perch down into the darkness.
At this point, the long-running husband and wife duo Damon & Naomi seem incapable of (or at least disinterested in) surprising, but their new False Beats and True Hearts is one of the better records from these ex-Galaxie 500 members, lusher and more colorful than some of their recent work even though it unfolds at the same unhurried pace.
Apparently upset that he hasn't been asked to score a Quentin Tarantino film yet, super-producer Danger Mouse teamed with Italian composer Daniele Luppi to pay homage to Ennio Morricone-styled spaghetti western scores on their new album Rome. That they do a decent job doesn't make the record feel like any less of a novelty.
Also out this week:
Austra – Feel It Break
Ben Harper – Give Till It's Gone
Company of Thieves – Running From a Gamble
Face to Face – Laugh Now, Laugh Later
Let's Wrestle – Nursing Home
Mai Doi Todd – Cosmic Ocean Ship
Moby – Destroyed
