[mp3]http://www.thehellerfamily.org/video/Muse-Invincible.mp3[/mp3]

Invincible
From Black Holes and Revelations

I’ll be honest, I have no idea why I got this album. I only heard one track on the radio, and I thought it was pretty cool, but not cool enough (at the time) to invest the time and effort into an entire album. But I got it. And I’ve made a remarkable discovery. Muse are what Radiohead could have been had they not gone lame after OK Computer. I can already hear the cries now, “Heretic! Traitor! Radiohead are as good as they’ve ever been!!!” Nope. You’re all either liars or really fooling yourselves. Radiohead took a steep downward spiral not long after discovering modular synths. And it was a steep spiral. I will grant you that both Kid A and Amnesiac had some really cool sounds, but those albums were nothing compared to their earlier genius. I thought that I was forever going to be yearning for the “old days”. And then I heard this song.

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[mp3]http://www.southernlord.com/press/sunnblackone/images/SUNN_It_Took_The%20Night.mp3[/mp3]

It Took The Night To Believe
From Black One

This album isn’t so much dark as it is totally devoid of any light of any kind whatsoever. You can officially mark the end of metal getting harder, louder, and faster. Black One sets the new gold standard in metal. Or should that be black standard? And, come to think of it, I’m not even sure this qualifies as “metal” at all. sunn 0))) (pronounced “sun“) manages instead to make music that simply feels like darkness itself. This is, without question, the most frightening album I have ever heard.

Black One is what dying in space sounds like.

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[mp3]http://www.tapesntapes.com/Cowbell.mp3[/mp3]

Cowbell
From The Loon

Tapes n’ Tapes is remarkable for being thoroughly unremarkable. Now if you’re a Tapes fans, before you get in a tizzy, let me explain myself.

There has been a serious influx of extremely complex music as of late. From the Decemberists to TV on the Radio, the trend is towards bigger, longer, or insanely produced songs. Even the Killers, who are already mega-famous, chose to create an epic, Springsteen-esque, arena-rock album for their sophomore effort. These days, the bigger, the better. Even more subtle bands like the Animal Collective or Sigur Rós (can I get away with calling Sigur Rós “subtle”…?) are hitting it big on big (in their cases, long and complex). I literally can’t imagine how these bands practice without an arena or a recording studio.

That is simply not the case for Tapes n’ Tapes. I can picture them perfectly fine plugging in their old and well-used guitars into older and just-plain-used amps, sitting around the garage, and writing an entire album. That’s beautiful.

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[mp3]http://bandofhorses.com/mp3/BassSong.mp3[/mp3]

Bass Song
From Everything All The Time

Hi. My name is Ethan and I’m a Band of Horses-aholic.

Hi Ethan.

Well, the trouble started in early 2006. I heard about Band of Horses when Sub Pop announced the release of their first album Everything All The Time. I bought the album without having heard a single song, which should have been the first sign that I have a problem. I couldn’t even wait until I got home before listening to the album. I opened the package right there in my car and put it in the CD player. Before the third song, I had turned the volume up to 17.

[collective gasp]

I know, I know. But it gets worse. Eventually, The Great Salt Lake was playing and I tunred it up even louder. And then… well… … then…

It’s OK, Ethan, go ahead.

… I listened to the song again. And then again… And again.

[a gasp followed by supportive murmuring]

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[mp3]http://www.sayhitoyourmom.com/SayHi_AngelsAndDarlas.mp3[/mp3]

Angels and Darlas
From Impeccable Blahs

Say Hi To Your Mom is basically the solo project of Eric Elbogen, though for this album he invited his tour mates to the recording studio. This album is their forth effort and is something of a concept album. The concept: Love songs by vampires. The album is almost great.

Almost.

I’m a nerd, so I think there’s something oddly charming about down-tempo emo pop songs about vampires. The lyrics are absolute poetry. Elbogen manages to capture specific emotional states in surprisingly few lines. Like these from the song Sad, But Endearingly So…

Thanks for coming out on such short notice.
We like your headshots, but your head could have been better.
Regrettably, you’re not right for consumers,
so better luck next time.
We’re looking for someone who’s sad, but endearingly so.

There’s only one problem. Eric Elbogen can’t sing.

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