Wednesday, December 03, 2008

November's music

Because my life is so unexciting right now (no more spills in the kayak), I have nothing interesting to write about except my albums I picked up last month.

Coldplay Prospekts March Since it's original release earlier this year, I've been listening a lot to Coldplay's Vivi La Vida. It gets better with every listen. This month, Coldplay released a bonus ep of songs that didn't make Viva La Vida . With Coldplay, it's hard to go wrong. Most of the songs here are as good or better than the main album songs such as "Glass of Water", which could have easily have been a single. What Prospekts March did was add to my appreciation of the work that Coldplay has done for the Viva La Vida sessions. Only a duet with rapper Jay'Z hits a low point. Still, I admire the effort to reach out to different genres of music.
http://www.myspace.com/coldplay


Longwave Secrets are Sinister A band recommended to me from itunes was a good new find. Longwave has been on the indie scene for a while, but only now caught my attention. Longwave takes some of the elements of shoegaze (such as the waves of guitar)and mixes it with current indie rock melodies. More atmospheric than most indie bands out there, but it works well for me.
http://www.myspace.com/longwaveofficial

Travis Ode To J.Smith Another big release this month was from one of my favorite Scottish bands-- Travis. Once compared to Radiohead, Travis have remained dedicated to melodic brit pop that Radiohead left behind years ago. Travis has written some of the finest guitar driven songs over the last decade. On this one, Travis tries to be a little harder edge, but comes back often to their melodic sounds that have worked so well for them. Pretty good results.
http://www.myspace.com/travis


Rosie Thomas A Very Rosie Christmas I have never cared for traditional Christmas albums. I have never liked Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, or Johnny Mathis. Their music doesn't bring to mind warm Christmas memories, or move me to roasting marshmellows. To me, it sounds out of time (I understand not everyone feels the same way). Worst of all, it's everywhere. When a song is played repeatedly over the loud speakers at Wal Mart, it just loses that personal feeling. There's a lot of contemporary albums played repeatedly over the holidays that I can't stand either. However, when one of my favorite indie artist makes a stab at a Christmas album, I'll take notice and play it over and over again through the Christmas season. This year, my favorite songbird, Rosie Thomas made a warm and heart felt Christmas album as only she can do. Some are traditional covers, others are new songs. Works for me and puts me in a holiday mood.