A busy Tuesday at the record store this week is capped by strong releases from two of Canada's preeminent indie-rock collectives, Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers.
Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record is the bigger revelation of the two, a lovely, surprisingly clean record from the sprawling ensemble. The new disc is almost a complete 180 from their last official outing, 2005's self-titled record. That album was explosively messy, but Forgiveness Rock Record is much more controlled–the band's pieces fit neatly together this time around, which is no small feat, considering how many of those pieces there are. In the five years since their last album, Broken Social Scene's members have flooded the market with mostly mediocre side projects and solo albums, but Forgiveness Rock Record more than atones for them.
The New Pornographers' Together offers the band's usual flush of sugar and antioxidants. Though advanced press has made a big deal of guest spots from St. Vincent and members of Beirut, Okkervil River and the Dap-Kings, the end product sounds pretty much like another New Pornographers album. At least it's a good one, less braying and chirpy than 2007's Challengers, with a few welcome sonic twists (namely some bold string arrangements). Dan Bejar's three songs are typically fantastic.
I've leave it to bigger Hold Steady fans than I to critique the group's new Heaven is Whenever, which adds a few layers of alternative-rock gloss to the band's corn-fed rock 'n' roll. I'm not sure if that's a welcome change: "Hurricane J," in particular, may throw some fans with its Fountains of Wayne chord progressions, and ballads like "The Weekenders" tread awfully close to Kings of Leon territory.
Other big releases this week include a new Minus the Bear album with a good bit of advanced buzz (Omni), a better-than-usual Fall album (Your Future Our Clutter), a pleasant, promising debut from singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff (In Memory Of Loss) and a new record from Trina, Amazin', which I haven't heard yet, but contains one of the rapper's most glorious singles in ages, "Million Dollar Girl."
|
|
