Slipped Discs February 2012
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Lyle Lovett - Release Me
Initial Thoughts
While Valentine’s Day celebrates attachments, Slipped Disc’s February focuses on freedom. Literary and literal liberation from LYLE LOVETT’s final record for the label he penned his original recording contract in 1985, “Release Me,” dazzles with hot licks and hip covers, jump-blues bliss and tender country trysts. Add pop-rock roustabout BEN KWELLER’s close-cropped sock-hops, “Go Fly a Kite” and indie-rock innovators SHEARWATER’s boldly incisive delights, “Animal Joy” and escape is inevitable
Disc Reviews
Anna Vogelzang - Canary in a Coalmine
Anna Vogelzang
Album title: Canary in a Coalmine
Record Label: Paper Anchor
Banjo, guitar and zither swim in languid string quartets, spritely thumb pianos and fretful squeezeboxes, transporting, “Canary,” through cajoling art-folk mojo, heel-kicking kinderpop and fan dance chicanery. Lit by lithe reason and cushioned in optimistic speech, classically trained and personally inspired renegade East Coaster and Madison foundling Vogelzang seduces in footloose truces, baking moon-pie manifestos outlining fun, wonder and comfort.
(2195) Page Views
Anna Vogelzang online:
• Website
• Download Canary in a Coalmine from Amazon
Barry Adamson - I Will Set You Free
Barry Adamson
Album title: I Will Set You Free
Record Label: Central Control
A mindful and musical Mephistopheles, Adamson’s underhanded cinematic palette hones each song into a polished collage of seamless espionage, anger-fueled grooves turned baritone cool and post-modern pop both embraceable and dangerous. Houndstooth counsel nattily targeting black market charlatans, “Free,” squeezes square-jawed sojourns into swift and sanctified rampages, moody soul-rock voodoo drawn from swinging zoot-suit jive and rumbling urban curtain calls.
(2221) Page Views
Barry Adamson online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download I Will Set You Free from Amazon
• Purchase I Will Set You Free on Amazon
Jonquil - Point of Go
Jonquil
Album title: Point of Go
Record Label: Dovecote
Brandishing brittle African guitars bouncing between creamy seaside synths and dawn-breaking brass, “Go,” rings in upwardly mobile dance-pop, tumbling contrapuntal bubblings flowing in sun-splashed overtones. Breezy British boppers accurately executing hobnobbing romance novels where angelic skeptics rock suave philosopher’s sons, Jonquil’s lush and lively solid-state beats swoon in slick Gatsby charm; sparkling in warm vibrations, idyllic riches and stroboscopic delight.
(2111) Page Views
Jonquil online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Point of Go from Amazon
Howlin Rain - The Russian WIlds
Howlin Rain
Album title: The Russian WIlds
Record Label: American Recordings
Shuffling thoughtful whiskey-soaked hopes through caterwauling crashes and leathery crescendos, HR’s haunted blues-rock gospel slithers in limber electric boogie and clustered power-chord hustle,. Steeped in urban cowboy solos, hurtling Wurlizters and jazzy-agile interludes, “Wilds,” piles spirited delirium onto galloping gallantry; driving rawhide harmonies around cantina tangents while lovelorn introspection storm buckboard ballads for raunchy revivalist fevers and sinisterly sated salvation.
(2197) Page Views
Howlin Rain online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download The Russian WIlds from Amazon
• Purchase The Russian WIlds on Amazon
Sharon van Etten - Tramp
Sharon van Etten
Album title: Tramp
Record Label: Jagjaguwar
Willowed silhouettes shade half-submerged sentiments and misty-colored evidence, the breath-taking, memory-making “Tramp,” decamps rudderless mutterings, aching mazes buoyed by fitful dream-folk revelations. Parlor piano, rustling drums and clanging hangman guitar float and lumber while SvE sways in wavering maybes, sleepy banshee volleys rolled in rootless truth; breaching gulfs in a tide of twilight bordello blues, post-bop ennui and zombie rock.
(2260) Page Views
Sharon van Etten online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Tramp from Amazon
• Purchase Tramp on Amazon
Lindstrom - Six Cups of Rebel
Lindstrom
Album title: Six Cups of Rebel
Record Label: Smalltown supersound
Cyber-slick misfits click in clock-boxing fits of spiraling slingshots, bottomless vertigo and chattering static, Lindstrom’s measured textures settle restlessly, zapping synapses while evaporating pneumatic Acid House, toasted Detroit cronk and pole-dancing funk. Mechanized mayhem outfitted in cosmic electronics, “Rebel,” mounts dry-ice avalanches smothered in jigsaw awesomeness and rollercoaster sensuality, tubular grooves built from viscous ricochets, space-age mirror-balls refracting jet-propelled raves.
(2114) Page Views
Lindstrom online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Six Cups of Rebel from Amazon
• Purchase Six Cups of Rebel on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Freedom has its price and attachment its rewards. Two years after their smashing debut THE BIG PINK deliver, “Future This,” while Aussie jazz-rock instrumentalists DIRTY THREE took seven years till wiry instincts sliced murky imaginations inside, “Toward the Low Sun.” Dedicated to the late Vic Chestnut, serene, twenty-year young Nashville collective LAMBCHOP return between side projects traversing touching terrain and artful marvels via, “Mr. M..” Finally, fan-supported collaboration between Drivin N Cryin’s KEVIN KINNEY and Golden Palomino’s ANTON FIER yields the wooly and wild-eyed, “A Good Country Mile.” Stay connected.