Listen to Shearwater, Field Music and Brooklyn Rider via NPR

From left to right: Field Music, Shearwater, and Brooklyn Rider.

NPR’s program “First Listen” spotlighted a few excellent bands with albums coming up within the next couple weeks. We took a quick look at them, and they’re definitely worth checking out. Read about them below and follow the links to stream their albums in full:

Shearwater:

A fairly straightforward rock group, Shearwater is led by frontman Jonathan Meiburg’s booming voice and a driving bass line from Kimberly Burke. The new album is called Animal Joy, and it’s out on Sub Pop Feb. 14. “Animal Life,” “Breaking the Yearlings” and “You As You Were” were some standout tracks on a quick first listen if you’re planning to stop by. You can listen to the full album here.

Field Music:

Field Music is an English band comprised of two brothers, David and Peter Brewis. Their style can sometimes be described as “art-rock,” but really there are a lot of progressive influences throughout. They hold up well with the best of classic rock from Queen to Yes and they have a certain “indie” inspired curve to them, as well. Their new album, Plumb, will be out Feb. 14 on Thrill Jockey. You can hop over to here to listen to Plumb in its entirety.

Brooklyn Rider:

This stringed quartet will be releasing their album Seven Steps two weeks from now, Feb. 21. These guys cater to a fairly improvised version of classical music, which eventually bubbles and boils into a powerful straight-to-the-heart explosion of force. At times eerie, and at times victorious, Brooklyn Rider show off their knowledge of classical music and their command of modern stringed composition. Most of the album features a rendition of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C# Minor, Op. 131, which is played in seven movements (clever, eh?). You can stream all of Seven Steps swelling strings here.

Look for some Ear Dropps on Shearwater, Field Music and Brooklyn Rider here in the future.

–Robert Miller