Sweet music to your ears. LP’s, EP’s and everything in between this is the place you will find out about the latest music and maybe even some oldies but goodies.
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My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (reissue)
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Pseudo Kids: Stay Glad EP
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B.O.B: Strange Clouds
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Beach House: Bloom
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mewithoutYou: Ten Stories
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Silversun Pickups: Neck of the Woods
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Off!: Off!
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Father John Misty: Fear Fun
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Death Grips: The Money Store
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Jack White: Blunderbuss
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Reptar: Body Faucet
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Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light
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Miike Snow: Happy to You
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Battles: Dross Glop
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Rusko: Songs
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High on Fire: De Vermis Mysteriis
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Bear In Heaven: I Love You, It's Cool
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Tanlines: Mixed Emotions
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Ear Dropps Come Lately
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Odd Future: The OF Tape Vol. 2
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Drudkh: Eternal Turn of the Wheel
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The Shins: Port of Morrow
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The Men: Open Your Heart
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The Decemberists: We All Raise Our Voices to the Air
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Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself
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Damien Jurado: Maraqopa
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Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral
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Earth: Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
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Fionn Regan: 100 Acres of Sycamore
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Loma Prieta: I.V.
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Schoolboy Q: Habits & Contradictions
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Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas
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Howler:America Give Up
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Nada Surf:The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy
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Lana Del Rey:Born to Die
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Cloud Nothings:Attack on Memory
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First Aid Kit:The Lion's Roar
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Chairlift: Something
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Anthony Green:Beautiful Things
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The Big Pink:Future This
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Gates of Mourning:Nightfall Blooms and Golden Horns
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Nicole Miglis:EP
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Kathleen Edwards:Voyageur
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James Blake:Love What Happened Here
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Alcest: Les Voyages de l'Ame
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The Weeknd: Echoes of Silence
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Best Albums of 2011
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Best Songs 2011
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M83:Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
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Feist: Metals
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Wilco:The Whole Love
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Tom Waits:Bad As Me
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Wolves in the Throne Room:Celestial Lineage
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A.A. Bondy: Believers
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Slow Club:Paradise
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Mates of State:Mountaintops
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Gotye: Making Mirrors
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St. Vincent:Strange Mercy
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Mister Heavenly:Out of Love
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The War On Drugs:Slave Ambient
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Blood Orange:Coastal Grooves
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Active Child:You Are All I See
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Yip-Yip:Bone Up
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Maximino:Not So Cold, Cave
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Thee Oh Sees:Castlemania
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Timber Timbre:Creep On Creepin' On
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Watch The Throne
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Little Dragon:Ritual Union
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Liturgy:Aesthethica
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The Cool Kids:When Fish Ride Bicycles
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Gang Gang Dance:Eye Contact
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Bon Iver: Bon Iver
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John Maus:We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
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TOKiMONSTA:Creature Dreams EP
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The Wooden Birds:Two Matchsticks
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Jamie XX:Far Nearer/Beat For
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The Antlers:Burst Apart
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Death Cab for Cutie:Codes and Keys
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Dangermouse & Daniele Luppi:Rome
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David Bazan: Strange Negotiations [Barsuk]
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Thurston Moore:Demolished Thoughts
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Foster The People:Torches
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Explosions in the Sky:Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
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My Morning Jacket:Circuital
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Man Man:Life Fantastic
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Okkervil River:I Am Very Far
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Pygmy Lush:Old Friends
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Elzhi:Elmatic
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Beastie Boys:Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
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Fleet Foxes:Helplessness Blues
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Young Widows:In And Out Of Youth And Lightness
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Gil Scott-Heron/Jamie XX:We're New Here
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J-Rocc:Some Cold Rock Stuf
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Little Scream:The Golden Record
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Cut Copy:Zonoscope
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Panda Bear:Tomboy
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Pains of Being Pure At Heart:Belong
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Acid House Kings:Music Sounds Better With You
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Bibio:Mind Bokeh
St. Vincent:Strange Mercy
Tags: 2011, 4AD, album review, Annie Clark, St. Vincent, Strange Mercy
9/10 dropps
4AD; 2011
Ever since St. Vincent (born Annie Clark) entered the sonic stagescape she has carried with her an eclectic, rosy-red moxie. Having been in the ornately dressed, baroque-instrumented families of Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven, St. Vincent utilized her time steeped in dramatic dexterity to secrete her own self-sufficient forte. 2007 birthed her solo debut, Marry Me, and 2009, Actor. The welding of imagery (in the form of erudite poetry) and technology (in the form of guitars, synth, and an arsenal of foot pedals) is where St. Vincent evinces expression of her humanity in the midst of a collective conscious – in an effort to snarl at suffocation and estrangement. With this, she give us Strange Mercy [4AD].
As the suave, sound engineer that she is, St. Vincent, once again, captains her creativity through a sea of digital-synth waves and drafts off the tempest of her blushing, orchestral arrangements. The opening track, “Chloe in the Afternoon”, asserts the artist’s grit-n-gritty mien blending a Close Encounters ambiance with jazz riffs and variegated undulation. “Cruel” and “Surgeon” were the first vivid peaks through the keyhole for Strange Mercy, as “Cruel” assays the ironless qualities of the unfortunate through airy, snappy guitarwork, and “Surgeon” takes St. Vincent (and all of her groovy, loop-lathered licks) under the knife.
These operations make her canorous dynamic seem as easy as a routine checkup. The album’s flow is keenly balanced with unbridled allegro on “Chloe in the Afternoon”, “Northern Lights”, and “Hysterical Strength.” Distinguished largo pulses on beats of “Year of the Tiger”, “Dilettante”, and the title track “Strange Mercy,” where the emotive scene, “I’ll be with you lost boys / Sneaking out where the shivers won’t find you” is experienced. All in all, the punctuated-by-music lyrics: “I don’t want to be a dirt eater no more / I don’t want to be a cheerleader no more”; “Gotta get young quick / Gotta make this last / If it makes me sick”; and “Oh America / Can I owe you one?” exemplify St. Vincent being cognizant of abject moments that were once desires, but are now seen to her as needing strange mercies.
– Zach Frimmel
Thu Sep 15
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