The second post from Paper Aeroplanes within a month is posted because the duo has just released The EP’s-Time To Be & A Comfortable Sleep (November 2013) which is essentially a long-player (10 songs) that combines the EP’s Time To Be (2011) and A Comfortable Sleep (2012) in a single cohesive collection. Paper Aeroplanes may still be struggling for mass appeal, but Sarah Howells and Richard Llewellyn continue to churn out accessible folk-pop that you only need to hear to fall in love with….
Read MoreDelightfully listenable and a great bit of positive energy, here is the fun I Am Who I Am from the folk-popsters Buckeye Knoll. I have to say that I laughed out loud when during the video, a man looking strikingly like Bob Ross, the long dead painter, held up a sign that read, “I Am Not The Bob Ross You Are Looking 4.” I Am Who I Am comes from the long-player, Lovecreek (April 2013), and all of Buckeye…
Read MoreScottish band Dropkick have a new three-song EP, appropriately titled Style (November 2013) which includes the song Style as the single-and what a single it is. Dropkick shows off their tight melodic hooks and their propensity to harmonize. Formed on the East coast of Scotland in the late 1990’s by brothers Andrew and Alistair Taylor and friend Ian Grier, the band has transformed itself over the years from punk-pop, to power-pop and alternative country after being influenced by the likes of The Jayhawks and…
Read MoreUpdate: The original video does not appear to exist. There is a studio-quality audio-only version here: The Parlotones make a pop-rock with an eye towards progressive rock. Here on Stand Like Giants, the title track to the band’s 5th studio long-player (September 2013), the band takes aim at what can be a thorny subject-our own feelings of inadequacy. When we understand that we are not alone, that there are others like us, and that everyone has these feelings, we can tap that energy to…
Read MoreMore than a year ago, Midlake appeared on this blog, with their 2009 release of Acts Of Man, a haunting tale of forbidden love and betrayal. It’s been several years since Midlake has had a new release but the wait is finally over. Enter the title track for the new long-player, Antiphon (November 2013). Musically and lyrically, Midlake still tend towards the darker underbelly of the human experience, but the music is textural, fluid and infinitely listenable. With melodies that tend toward the minor key, these…
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