Fresh Tracks: Santigold, Jack White, Miike Snow, Andrew Bird, The Shins, Hundred Waters, Ezra Furman, Beach House, Poor Spirits

It’s been a while since I posted… Honestly, I had a bit of a lull where I just wasn’t discovering too much of anything worth while. Fortunately, things are picking up! Here are a few tracks I’ve recently added to my personal collection!
Enjoy!

Santigold

On my last post I shared a couple singles Santigold released Prior to launching her album, Master of My Make Believe, the 1st of this month (May 2012). I LOVE this album! It is amazing from start to finish! Even though the year is young, I am confident it will make my top ten of 2012. Do yourself a favor and listen to Master of My Make Believe in its entirety!

Jack White

Jack White is a “Jack of all trades” in the world of music! The talented musician is commonly known as the front man for The White Stripes, founder and collaborator of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, as well as his acting roll in Cold Mountain. Now the musical genius goes solo. Jack White’s solo project has been a smashing success! His new album, Blunderbuss, released April 24th, 2012, is currently the top album in the US. I have listened through the entire album multiple times now, and I can honestly say I appreciate this album and truly admire this man! I personally get a very bluesy vibe from much of the album, and unlike my brother who seems to listen to anything and everything blues, I am picky about blues music.

Love this

I’m so jealous my niece got to see Jack live!

Miike Snow

Miike Snow is an electro-indie band from Sweden made up of childhood friends Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg. The duo added a third member, American songwriter, Andrew Wyatt. I loved their self titled debut album back in 2009, and the new Happy To You album released March, 2012 is no disappointment. Best electronic music of 2012 after TRUST. The videos are strange, but then, strange often translates to genius! 

Andrew Bird

  
American indie folk artist Andrew Wegman Bird plays multiple instruments from the violin to the glockenspiel. He was taught the Suzuki method of playing violin from age four. His new album Break Yourself, released March this year, is overall very pretty. The track Hole In The Ocean Floor is by far the star of the show for me. I listen to it repetitively. It’s extremely beautiful, really… the blend of violin and acoustic picking, along with Andrew’s haunting vocals. Pure bliss.

The Shins 

 

I’m not crazy about the new Shins album as a whole. Port of Morrow released in March of this year. It is the third album by the indie rock band out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The track It’s Only Life is my personal favorite, very simple, clean, and pretty. 

Hundred Waters

Hundred Waters is a brand new discovery for me. A most excellent find!  From Gainesville, Florida, this eclectic dream pop band infuses folk, jazz, and electronic. And they do it well! Their self titled debut album released April of this year, and it is a truly well-rounded album from start to finish. Best of 2012? Some of the vocals remind me of Bjork.

Very “Bjork” sound

Ezra Furman

Another track from Ezra Furman, who I adore, off his new solo album, The Year of No Returning, released back in February. I love it. Such a unique voice. Enough said. 

Beach House

Baltimore, Maryland, Beach House is an indie dream pop duo. I would describe their sound as lazy, psychedelic, and mesmerizing. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are almost ethereal. It is a very unique sound that may require a certain brooding or sentimental mood to listen to, but it is quite good. Their previous album, Teen Dream, is ingrained in my brain. I’ve only touched the surface of the recent,  Bloom, dropping the 15th of this month, but I’m sure it will become just as familiar with time.

Poor Spirits

 

I discovered this electronic/dance artist sometime late last year, but held off on sharing it since there was very little info and limited access to the music. It is very low profile. Over the past couple months not much has changed, I still can’t dig much up. Apparently Poor Spirits is one individual, California native moved to New York. The album Forever Cruising released sometime late 2011, and I somehow managed to download it. All I know is I’ve been listening to it, and I genuinely like it. If you can get your hands on the album, I recommend it.

That’s all for now folks.

Fresh Tracks: Santigold, Fanfarlo, Sinead O’Connor, Hot Chip, New Build, M.I.A., TRUST

It’s a rainy spring day…. I find it a perfect opportunity to sit down and share a few freshly released tracks that have recently caught my attention and made their way onto my i-pod. Ooooh! So many great new tunes!
Enjoy!

Santigold

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Santigold blends hip-hop and electronica. I’ve been looking forward to a new album from this exuberant artist since her debut album, Santogold, in 2008. The up-coming, Master of My Make-Believe, launches early this May! Here are a couple pre-released tracks to hold you over until then.

Fanfarlo

London is the home of this indie pop/folk band. Their recent album, Rooms Filled With Light, released late February of this year. Overall, the album is… good. However, Feathers, is a great track! I absolutely love it’s vibe and it has been my favorite, most repetitively listened to song, for the last couple weeks! Replicate and Shiny Things are runners up.

Sinead O’Connor

It’s been FIVE years since Dublin, Ireland’s Sinead O’Connor has released a new album! Time has not changed anything! Sinead remains one of the all-time best female vocalists… ever. Released late last month, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?  is possibly her most blatant, dramatic, in your face, to the point album yet! What else would you expect from Sinead?  She tells it how it is, and does it well! I love this album more every time I listen…

Born in 1966, pushing 50, Sinead continues to rock a live performance! The woman still has pipes!!

The lyrics of this song are frank, at times harsh, but thought provoking… “I don’t know what to want from this world”.

Sinead does manage to offer up one happy, up-beat track! This song makes me think of my best friend Denise, who loves Sinead and is getting married soon! This track will be played at her wedding!!

Hot Chip

Electro-indie band from… surprise, surprise, London… Hot Chip just announced the launch of their new album, In Our Heads, this June. I really enjoyed their previous album, One Life Stand, released in 2009, so I’m pleased to listen to Flutes, a teaser track from the anticipated album. (Wait a second… is that James Frain in the above image… nope.)

New Build

Interestingly enough, if you simply can’t wait for Hot Chip’s new album, you can listen to New Build. Three of Hot Chip’s five talented members (not including vocalists) collaborated on this debut New Build project. The album, Yesterday Was Lived And Lost, released this week. I  gave it a listen yesterday, and am pleasantly surprised.

M.I.A.

British hip-hop diva, M.I.A. released this single, Bad Girls, a few weeks ago! I’m hooked! She has yet to announce the date of her 2012 album release, but I’m content to listen to this track over and over again in the meantime! Here it is, just in case you are amongst the deprived who have not heard it yet… catchy song, love the video!

TRUST

Ok… I’ve ranted and raved about this new electronic duo recently. But that was prior to the release of their album, TRST, which I was anxiously awaiting, and it finally happened the end of February! Here are a couple more tracks that were unavailable until TRST’s release. Love the album. Best electro-indie of 2012! (To check out my previous post regarding TRUST, click here: http://eclecticcorinne.blogspot.com/2012/01/indie-discoveries-trust.html)