Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

I'm laid up and listening to a lot of music. Since it is Tuesday, I checked the new releases queue on my Rdio account. The new Gaslight Anthem was there, let's see what they're up to.

I enjoyed the '59 Sound a lot. It was punk music with a heavy New Jersey/Springsteen influence. American Slang was more of the same. This was going to be the album where I listened and gave up on them as being too narrow with nowhere to go.

They have shocked me with their turn around. This is an album of surprising depth and range. They are still from New Jersey, but their influences now range from Dion through the standard east coast R&B to Bad Religion. You can sense Thin Lizzy in there and it ends with a Tom Petty cover.

Way to go guys, I can hardly wait to buy this.


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I'm a Little Behind

I started my music blog to jot down notes of things that I listen to. I thought it would be a fairly simple process.

Listen to an album.
Write something while listening to the next album.
Post what I wrote.
Repeat.

There was only one problem with this, I quickly discovered that I couldn't write about new music, while listening to something else. It was too confusing. This meant I had to listen to all the music twice. With my schedule, where I would have to be sitting while listening, it became a bit much and I fell behind.

The following albums are queued up and I will try to offer up opinions on them over the next week or so:

Allo Darlin - Europe
Florence and the Machine - Unplugged
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
Caetono Veloso and David Byrne - Live At Carnegie Hall
School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror

And if I have time, I'll try to mention the Lucero show that I saw in March.

Frankie Rose - Interstellar

A couple of years ago, there were a number of girl groups making combination 60's girl group/80's new wave albums. Camera Obscura and The Like we're a couple of the bands.

I had read a couple of reviews for Frankie Rose's album and I was going to walk by, when I saw that she used to be in the Vivian Girls, who had an EP that I enjoyed.

I am enjoying this album. It has a retro 80's synth, new wave feel to it, but it goes for me of an ambient vibe than a drum machine dance record. It has solid songs with at least one single that I am sure will make my end of year list.

It's not a huge album, but it is a solid effort from an indie veteran.


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