Florence and the Machine – Lungs

Another album I’ve been waiting for has finally been released, Florence and the Machine’s Lungs. A bit of mixed quality here but on the whole I think it’s pretty good!

Although I’ve been listening to this album pretty much constantly since I got my hands on it, I still wouldn’t say it’s perfect, though it’s not half bad. Although there are some fantastic tracks here I think my main problem is with the amount of old tracks used here. Even though I love her You’ve Got the Love cover, it feels as if it’s being used as filler. And even the old single, Kiss With a Fist seems a bit out of place here. I thought it was great when I first heard it but after later hearing some of Flo’s other music, e.g. the far superior Dog Days, I got a bit sick of it. To be honest I think the album could’ve done without it. A few more old tracks, My Boy Builds Coffins and Girl With One Eye crop up here too, although neither annoys me like KWAF.

That’s the ranty bit out of the way, now – there are some really brilliant tracks on here! The two singles, Dog Days and Rabbit Heart, are a great introduction to the best of what Lungs has to offer. One of the best tracks for me, and almost everyone else apparently, is Cosmic Love – you might know it as that song from the O2 Blueroom ad. Listening to this track kind of mirrors the live experience of the Machine; simple, beautiful and delicate at times, intricate, loud and intense at others, and always as genuine as possible. Flo really puts her heart into this. Other stand outs are Blinding and the fantastic Drumming.

On the whole it’s a really nice album, it shows exactly what miss Welch is capable of and the potential that’s there. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed with the inclusion of seemingly all the material she’s released before. It feels a bit like she’s scraping the bottom of the barrel (although for the most part it’s full of quality stuff). Perhaps all the hype surrounding her forced her to finish off an album as quickly as possible so she had to use what she already had? Either way, it’s clear from the progression from songs like Kiss With A Fist to some of the album’s better tracks, like Cosmic Love, that the quality is improving! While it might not be the best album of year it’s worth a listen and Florence is definitely one to keep an eye on for the future!

Drumming

Visit the website or myspace.
Lungs is released in the UK on July 6th. You can pre-order it from here, here, here or wherever else you fancy.

Jenny Lewis – Black Sand

The ever lovely Jenny Lewis has made a video for Acid Tongue opener Black Sand. It’s just a little bit trippy and made me want to go to the beach. But I can’t embed myspace videos here. Sorry about that. So instead you’ll have to clicky the link!

Here is a nice picture of Jenny to make up for not being able to embed the video.

Sing a Song For Them

Acid Tongue is available now and is awesome. As is Rabbit Fur Coat. Buy Jenny’s music from the usual places or your own usual places please.

Site & Space

Regina Spektor – Far

This is another album that has been very eagerly anticipated by me, although I was starting to expect disappointment after a lot of fans didn’t seem to be too happy with what they’d heard so far. And to be honest Laughing With didn’t really grab me instantly either. But, after having a listen… or five… I can happily say that this is actually quite a good album!

As I said, even though this is an album I couldn’t wait to hear, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to like it. So with the opening track The Calculation, I was pleasantly surprised – I loved it! She’s definitely progressing further from the Soviet Kitsch side of things and the more unusual vocalising, which isn’t a good thing, but the content of her songs isn’t any less interesting. And although I’m not sold on all the tracks (Two Birds, Genius Next Door, I’m looking at you) there are a few that I like a lot. Plus there’s a lot more listening to be done.

Personally I preferred Begin to Hope (controversial?), but tracks like Folding Chair, Machine, Blue Lips and of course, the single Laughing With (it grew on me a lot) are defnitely worth it. Not to mention what is, for me, the stand out track Dance Anthem of the 80s which is, of course, anything but that.

Yeah so I think it’s probably worth your money.

Dance Anthem of the 80s

Regina’s website and myspace to nosey at.
Far is released June 22rd on Sire. Pre-order the album from her site or iTunes now.

Lykke Li

The other day I found this video of her performing Dance, Dance, Dance with Bon Iver and realised I have yet to write anything here about Lykke Li, even though I think she’s fantastic… Enjoy!

Uhh, what a great little performance that is. And just so you know, with a (free) vimeo account, you can download that video from it’s source. Everytime I watch it I’m compelled to listen to the album. Which is also damn good.

Remixers also seem to love her, have a looky here and you’re sure to find tons of remixes, some interesting, others just pretty cool. I recommend the Knocked Up Rodeo Remix/Kings of Leon cover. And after listening to many many remixes, I finally bought the album Youth Novels, and was not disappointed. I just think there’s something so refreshing and different about her.
Also, I can’t wait to see her at Electric Picnic, looking through other Lykke videos out there suggests it’ll be worth the wait!

Visit Lykke’s website or myspace.
Buy her music from iTunes or whatever.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Little Bit – CSS Remix

Ham Sandwich 13/06/2009

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to see Ham Sandwich in Whelan’s on Saturday and, as I predicted, I was not disappointed. These guys definitely know how to put on a show!
They took the opportunity to showcase a couple more new songs, including White Fox and Concrete, which they had alreday played for us on Thursday. There was also a song called Out of the Darkness and one named in the set list simply as Quiet Song in the encore, which just that, and very nice it was too!

Apart from providing us with some tasty new tunes, we were of course treated to Carry the Meek in its entirety, an album of such consistent quality it almost seems as if any track could easily be a single. Not to mention every track being so well received by the adoring audience.  And just before they leave the stage for the first time they perform their outstanding cover of Stay and give another heads up on the Sparks N’ Mind album for Aware (again, see previous post).

Apart from the quality music supplied for the evening, Ham Sandwich put on their usual visual display which includes lots of confetti, Podge’s… erm… interesting clothing choices and on this occasion, about a dozen huge confetti filled balloons. They were fun for a while, but eventually they all suffered the same fate – they got popped. As well as that Podge had promised that he was going to “engage with the crowd”, which as always, he did. There is always much more than “just” the music to be had at a Ham Sandwich gig, I defy anyone not to come away smiling.

Anyway, apparently they’re going off to work on a second album now so that will be last we’ll see of them for a little while. If it’s anything like the first album though, I can’t wait to hear it!

You can have a look at my photos from the night here.
Following links are going to be a carbon copy from the previous post, sorry about that. Damn laziness.

Never Talk

EatHamSandwich.com & the MySpace
Buy Ham Sandwich’s music from iTunes or Amazon or a shop maybe.