Austin’s The Lovely Sparrows, produce sweet soulful harmonies backed by breezy acoustical guitars, combined with a multitude of various instruments on their latest five track EP Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint. This is their second release, the first being a 7″ released earlier this year. They have a similar sound to fellow Austinites American Analog Set, as well as influential mixture of The Kinks and Big Star in a similar fashion to way The Shins set up their compositions but more carefree. Lead singer and songwriter, Shawn Jones provides illuminated narration to the bands open and airy landscape. The setting is soft around the edges, like a fluffy cloud mixed with mini bursts of tiny explosions of percussion.
All of the songs are blended together rather inconspicuously and release an overall soothing impression. Upbeat finger-snaps and hand-claps nestled together with a harmonious jangling guitar strum and the robust patter of the percussion construct the third track “The War Has Seen the Best of Me”. In turn it is followed by “Attention Disorder Kid” which openly critiques how our nation is drugging our children and turning them into drones: “Attention disorder kid, they want to replace with you robots. All things not cool, come round, come round. You’ll hear them say settled down, settle down”. The piece is slightly scattered and has it ups-and-downs (as well it should) and concludes by seamlessly blending into the first 45 seconds of the final track “Let’s Watch the Tourists”. We watch the tourists as they shuffle along with another mixture of clatter and clanging, loosely meshed together as it closes the 20 minute collection rather nicely. But guess what, my two favorites are the first two tracks “Chemicals Change” and “Your Flowers Will Bloom” as they are both a bit more polished and shine ever so brightly. This EP sets up a promising future for The Lovely Sparrows that I am looking forward to hear.
Freebies
A high quality version of the lead off track Chemicals Change. Pick up the EP at eMusic or iTunes or order the actual CD from Abandoned Love Records.
I was holding out on this one but curiosity ultimately conquered my reticence. In case you’ve been in a coma or rely solely on Candied Pop for your music news, The Raconteurs are a so-called super group made up of The White Stripes’ Jack White, power-pop savant Brendan Benson, and The Greenhornes’ drummer and bass player, Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence. I’m not much of a White Stripes fan but I did want to check out how Jack White fared playing with a decent rhythm section. And I do really like Brendan Benson so I was interested to see how he meshed with a more bluesy-by-way-of-garage based crowd.
Let’s get right to it: Fort Recovery is outstanding. Sure, it’s a bit early to be talking album of the year but this one will stay at the top of my personal heap unless something even more amazing comes along to take it’s place. I’ve had it in ultra heavy rotation since picking it up a couple of weeks ago and its stature continues to grow. Like my obsessions last year with albums by Sufjan Stevens (admittedly months after everyone else), Bright Eyes, and Art Brut, Centro-Matic’s latest is my recommended daily dose of listening.
I received an advance copy of this quite a while ago. Initially I played it a bunch of times with the intention of writing a review and then realized just how far in advance it was. Since the release date was nearly two months away, I set it aside until this week. Turns out the layoff was probably a good thing. I was set to pan Axis of Evol but now feel a little more favorably about it. Despite glaring and unforgiveable shortcomings, it manages to be an okay album.
There is very definite dividing line for this band. If you like Morrissey and don’t mind a singer who borrows heavily from his vocal style, you’ll probably enjoy The Boyfriends. Call them Mozzeresque.