I just did a show of new material on my regular radio show, and when looking at the actual date, realized that it’s the middle of the year, making a recap of sorts appropriate. These are just some albums that I’ve been into over the past six months. They might offer something new to listen to if your regular mix is getting stale. To begin, I’m not going to talk about some stuff that I’ve already reviewed like Radical Dads or Country Mice or Idiot Glee. This post is going to be about stuff that I haven’t already written about. Also, this post is going to be long, so you should click through and read it all.

Tennis – Cape Dory

I know that I started my inaugural blog post with a picture of this band, but that was also months ago; I don’t expect anyone to remember it. The sweethearts-at-sea have made an amazing debut with this solid, tidy pop record. All of the songs are catchy and mine a 50s AM pop sound while still acknowledging that they have listened to college radio at some point in their lives. While this came out at the beginning of the year, I imagine that this will be this year’s Teen Dream for me: an album that came out early and survive the summer slaughter to make it to the end of the year list. I really enjoy listening to this album a lot.

If you haven’t listened, here’s a link to a video of them playing “South Carolina” in a studio:

Peaking Lights – 936

As long as I’m free, I see Peaking Lights play here in Iowa City. I will reschedule other affairs to see them; that’s how serious I am about that free thing. This a rule that I only hold for bands that make excellent music and put on good shows. The Wisconsin-based couple (they are married) makes dubbed out psych music, bathed in low fidelity. Hypnotic yet amazingly sincere and sweet, 936 is a master stroke for the band. I know that they can make this album again, but for now, I think this is the best album that they have done and maybe one of the best albums to come out of the currently simmering neo-psychedelic movement. It takes you into their world and puts you on a perpetual groove. If you’ve been wanting to explore this scene, this album would be an excellent entry point as it’s experimental yet highly accessible.

I’ve posted a video for the track “All The Sun That Shines.”

Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine

Once combined into chillwave, Toro Y Moi has stepped away from that and created an album so dripped in nostalgia that Dam-Funk would have to sit up and take notice. It’s disco, Esquivel, and chilling all combined into one potent mix that works well on headphones or house speakers. Will it make the end of the year? I can’t say. We’ll have to see how many times I listen to it by then.

Here is a video (which is strangely enough produced by Urban Outfitters. I haven’t set foot in one of those stores since some time in the mid-90s, so I have no idea of what they do there. I’m not saying this for cool points. I’m saying this because I was/am way too poor to shop at Urban Outfitters) for “New Beat”:

Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

I haven’t always been the biggest fan of GGD, but my perspective on them changed during a trip to San Francisco when my home girl Phoebe played some while we drove out to the East Bay. I realized that whatever I thought about what them was wrong. This ended up not being just a specific statement to this situation, but a continual reality with GGD. They are just spastic like The Fiery Furnaces. Blending world music (read: dancehall, indian music, etc.), experimental ideas, and Kate Bush redux vocals, Eye Contact might be the left field jam that your life needs. It won’t sound like anything else you’ve heard, but then nothing that Gang Gang Dance does sound like something Gang Gang Dance has done.

This is a video of “Adult Goth” from a live session they did for their label 4AD:

Seapony – Go With Me

While other people have gotten really bored with the pop revivalism, I’m totally not one of them. I think that this has been a great thing in recent music, so when bands come out and do it really well, I always take note. Seapony is one such band. Their debut album Go With Me is a striking piece of pop music, made at a time where it seems like it is becoming gauche to do such a thing. It’s fast, catchy, and reminiscent of old 90s pop stars like Talulah Gosh and The Field Mice but certainly not as sad as the latter. If they play their cards right, they can be around for a long while.

This is a video for “Dreaming,” the first track on Go With Me

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

PJ Harvey is the Kylie Minogue of the indie rock world. Petite in stature, Harvey has garnered international respect for just turning out good album after good album. Furthermore, just like Kylie, she’s always shifting. She’s gone from punk rock queen to High Street diva and everywhere in between. More recently, she’s been playing with a high register and the history of her home country of England. On Let England Shake, Harvey may have come up with one of the more highbrow concepts that I think has appeared on an album: songs about English involvement in war. In this action, she has created her best album of this millennium. It’s challenging, dynamic, creative, and still accessible. It’s haunting in its sound in a lot of ways, but I think that’s what makes Harvey’s music so charming as it allows for everyone to feel it in a very different way.

This is a video for “The Words That Maketh Murder,” a beautiful song from the album:

These following albums are standout albums from this year. They just don’t get write-ups because I don’t want to write about that many albums. Let me list them for you.

The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (Old Raveonettes watch a John Hughes Movie, integrate synths into sound)
Kids On A Crime Spree – We Love You So Bad (Indie pop that just kills it so much)
Bachelorette – Bachelorette (The fact that it shares a name with a Bjork song should be a hint to what’s going on. It’s not as outre, more folky instead. The Bachelorette can sing)
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On (Dramatic indie folk band from Canada. Very creepy.)
Callers – Life of Love (What a southern gothic novel would sound like if it were an album rather than a book)
Little Scream – The Golden Record (Iowa native making creative indie folk. Not boring by any stretch of the imagination)
Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion (A Brooklyn band you knew before, but with clean sounds and audible vocals! Fantastico!)
Times New Viking – Dancer Equired (The Columbus rockers get in a studio with an engineer. Nothing’s changed except for them actually being comprehensible all of the time. If you don’t think the band hasn’t changed, youtube Fuck Her Tears and get back to me)