It somehow doesn’t feel like it, but Toward The Low Sun marks the first proper full-length from Dirty Three in seven years, as well as the Australian trio’s first record for Drag City. For better or worse, it may be exactly what fans of the band were expecting: It sounds . . . well, pretty much exactly like a Dirty Three record—any Dirty Three record. After such a long wait though, it’s surprising how predictable a record it is. While there’s no denying that Toward The Low Sun is an achingly beautiful piece of work, it doesn’t expand much on the band’s aesthetic or break any particularly new ground for them. (more…)
If there’s one good thing that can be said for what turned out to be a furthering of turbulent and dark days the world over, 2011 was at the very least a good year for music. A great year, even. (more…)
The concept of the “sophomore slump” may be a tired old critical cliché, but it’s applicable often enough that when a band with a great debut gets around to that second record, one may find oneself a bit nervous. Thankfully, Peggy Sue—whose Fossils and Other Phantoms was likely the best debut album of last year—have not only avoided the second record hex, they’ve completely obliterated it. It’s difficult to recall another sophomore effort that so masterfully retained the best of its creators’ aesthetic while expounding upon it by orders of magnitude; the example that springs to mind is Castanets’ First Light’s Freeze, and like that record, Acrobats may well stand as a modern classic. (more…)
In the exhaustive (and frankly exhausting) world of Internet forum guitar dorkery, few topics seem as sure-fire a heated debate-starter as the mere mention of Fender’s output in the halcyon days of the 1970s. To be fair, even in the mesozoic Internet days of the late ’90s, when I was working in a mostly-vintage-and-used guitar/hi-fi shop, plenty of—ahem—discussion was to be heard nearly any day of the week when it came to Fenders of that period. (more…)
There are some songs so perfect for TV shows, that when I hear them, I wonder why on earth the producers haven’t picked them to be on the soundtrack. The producers of True Blood have so far not needed my help and have done an amazing job of choosing evocative and intriguing music that enhances the show. The songs on Volume 3, the latest soundtrack release, are in so many cases the perfect True Blood songs. (more…)
You may have already heard that PJ Harvey has won the UK’s 2011 Mercury Music Prize for her most recent album, Let England Shake, but what you may not know is that she is the first person to win the award twice. Additionally, she was the first female to win the award ten years ago for her outstanding 2001 album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea.
Watch her performance of “The Words That Maketh Murder” at the Mercury Prize ceremony on September 6.
We reviewedLet England Shake on the Popshifter blog back in February, with J Howell saying that it “will likely stand the test of time as one of the finest, perhaps even one of the most important, records of the early twenty-first century.”
On September 12, 2011, PJ Harvey will release an exclusive iTunes Session which can be pre-ordered on the iTunesStore. The EP features seven recently recorded live tracks along with an interview. It also includes four songs from Let England Shake as well as three of her most widely acclaimed songs from past albums.
iTunes Session track listing:
1. Let England Shake
2. The Words That Maketh Murder
3. The Last Living Rose
4. Written On The Forehead
5. Angelene
6. C’Mon Billy
7. Down By The Water
8 – Interview -
Says Harvey of her win, “I feel surprised and astonished that I’ve won twice and I do feel proud, it’s amazing, I can’t quite take it in but at the same time I feel that making music and words is very important to me and I’ve always tried to make it the best it could possibly be and I hope to continue doing that. I hope to be back here again in another 10 years’ time with another record because it’s very important to me to keep making word that is of relevance, not just to myself but to other people.”
If there’s one thing that can be said about Polly Harvey, it’s that she is full of surprises.
While a detailed discussion of the breadth of Harvey’s compelling body of work is beyond the scope of this review, it’s fair to say that while her music has always been inhabited by an often harrowing multitude of characters, the protagonists are generally embattled on an intensely intimate level. Just as often those same characters could arguably be described as victims. (more…)
The title song of singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop’s second album, Hunting My Dress, might sound odd, until you listen to the song and consider the lyrics. Rather than describing a woman’s article of clothing, she seems to mean instead the search for a guise, or perhaps a disguise. With all the various personas that she inhabits on this album, it is quite a fitting term. (more…)
