Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
Groovy guitar and soulful vocals peddle sultry tracks along a chill train on old tracks. Tight drumming and some 1970s waves ground the recordings in a familiar territory. Think Willis Earl Beal’s Nobody Knows, but with more depth and variation.
Top Tracks: Miss You, Gimme All Your Love, The Greatest, Shoegaze
RIYL: Gnarls Barkley, T-Rex, D’Angelo
Turnover – Peripheral Vision
With bands like “American Football” reuniting to play sold out shows across the country, it only makes sense that we’d start to see more new emo bands prop up with their own brand of whiny vocals and delicate guitar. Turnover isn’t a new band per se, they released a pop-punk album in 2013, but this album is such a radical departure from their previous work that they might as well be. Like any self-respecting emo album, this record is dominated by shiny guitar melodies, hazy waves of reverb and wistful vocals lingering overhead. Throughout this release, Turnover maintain a firm grasp of pop sensibilities and their album is thoroughly enjoyable and accessible.
RIYL: early Death Cab for Cutie, American Football, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Into It. Over It
Top Tracks: Cutting My Fingers Off, Hello Euphoria, Take my Head
Shark Week – Beach Fuzz
Washington DC’s Shark Week, like their namesake, aren’t exactly new or refreshing. They’re familiar, expected, and could be forgettable if they weren’t so much fun. There are times, however, when Shark Week ditches some of their influences and comes into their own. In the end, Beach Fuzz is more expansive than your typical 70s-influenced garage-pop album, with dancey fast tunes and slower, more angst-ridden, reverb-laden songs to sob to. Also the lead singer has a cool voice.
RIYL: Early 70s more punky David Bowie, The Stooges, the 70s in general
Tracks: Why Did I Let You Go, Dont’cha, Scratching Post, Gone
Stealing Sheep – Not Real
Ignore the silly name, this group is more artistic than musical, think Velvet Underground or Roxy Music, but not that they sound just like those bands. The music falls some where between Devo and Lily Allen. Soft and sincere, but also bright and fragmented. Muted and mellow for the most part. In many ways the track “Not Real” runs away from the rest of the album as the clear favorite.
Top Tracks: Not Real, Deadlock
RIYL: Lily Allen, Devo
Fritz Kalkbrenner – Ways Over Water
According to Wikipedia, when compared to the music of his brother Paul, Fritz Kalkbrenner’s “old electro-beats are influenced by warm soul-sounds and is a distinguishing characteristic from other electronic artists.” While my knowledge of German electronic music, or lack thereof, doesn’t allow me to gauge the validity of this statement, I will say that Kalkbrenner’s Ways Over Water is certainly unique sounding and provides a nice ambient experience reminiscent of movie background that you don’t music that you don’t realize you’re tapping your foot along to.
RIYL: Paul Kalkbrenner, German electronic music, Everything Elastic-era Four Tet
Top Tracks: Pass the Buck, Back Home, Void, Heart of the City
Best Coast – California Nights
Best Coast’s third outing, California Nights, isn’t exactly a thematic departure from the California duo’s previous two efforts, but their particular brand of sun-drenched guitar rock still works. Sure, lead singer Bethany Cosentino’s lyrics are still about weed, beaches, and cats, but California Nights is considerably less twee and edges more towards a real lo-fi sound than anything that’s come from Best Coast before.
RIYL: Bleached, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls
Top Tracks: Feeling OK, In My Eyes, California Nights, Heaven Sent