Opinz

Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective

A side project by Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, Lotus Plaza’s debut bears a marked resemblance to that band at first listen – a lot of shoegazey guitar work and floating, sometimes inaudible vocals – but the sonic textures here are more insistent in their dreaminess (the title track is an Eno-caliber instrumental build-up), the melodies are filled with an unexpected reverence for pop of the 50s and 60s; not necessarily better than Deerhunter, but far more focused.

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Tags: atlas sound, bradford cox, deerhunter, leak, lockett pundt, lotus plaza, the floodlight collective

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Beware

The foreboding title and cover of Will Oldham’s new album are pretty misleading: the songs within are some of the warmest and most affectionate he’s ever recorded, pushing far more into the sort of traditional, easy-going country sound that he’s sidestepped in the past; some songs soar in this new direction (“Beware Your Only Friend”, “You Don’t Love Me” and “I Am Goodbye” in particular) and some fall flat, but overall the result is something that’s not his most profound release but far too smooth and pleasant to really dislike.

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Tags: beware, bonnie 'prince' billy, palace, will oldham

Chris Cornell – Scream

To put it bluntly, Chris Cornell’s latest effort is just a weird record: take a grunge god, mix in an iconic R&B/pop producer, and toss in some jungle beats and techno hooks, and basically you’ve got Scream (to be fair, we should have seen weirdness like this coming after Cornell covered Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” on his last album Carry On) – whether it works or not is a tough question to answer; songs like “Ground Zero” sound good (and not weird), but parts of “Never Far Away” sound like they are lifted from a Kelly Clarkson record, and for a guy who was always “rock star” cool but never “pop star” cool it’s too jarring to be enjoyable, because it’s pretty much impossible to forget that this is the guy who was screaming on “Pretty Noose” 13 years ago.
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Tags: chris cornell, interscope, j-roc, mosley, timbaland, universal

Handsome Furs – Face Control

Wolf Parader Dan Boeckner and wife Alexei Perry’s follow-up to 2007′s Plague Park is soaked in New Order-style 80′s pop, along with a healthy dose of guitar and Boeckner’s distinctively swaggering vocal style, it’s hookier and more immediately enjoyable than his Wolf Parade work and far more memorable and impressive than Plague Park but it’s style of synths and drum machines certainly isn’t going to be anything you haven’t heard before.

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Tags: atlas strategic, dan boeckner, face control, handsome furs, leak, wolf parade

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

The newest album from alt-country songstress and New Pornographer Neko Case was recorded partially in a barn in Vermont, and the influence is clear: the songs within focus primarily on nature and our relationship with it (the record ends with a 30 minute field recording from a pond near her house), all delivered with an amorphous and hooky mixture of instruments and styles, not to mention Case’s undeniably powerful and gorgeous voice, making Middle Cyclone one of the most subtly enjoyable albums of the year so far.

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Tags: middle cyclone, neko case, the new pornographers

Various Artists – War Child Presents Heroes

War Child’s newest compilation – benefiting children affected by war – is structured around a premise that legendary artists pick modern day artists to cover their classics: Beck does a rousing, bluesy rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Lily Allen does a soft and ironically sweet cover of The Clash’s “Paper Planes”-sampled “Straight to Hell”,  Hot Chip dance-pops up Joy Division’s “Transmission, and TV on the Radio manages to make the first good cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” that this reviewer has ever heard; despite a few low points, (The Kinks clearly picked The Kooks to cover “Victoria” because of the similar names, and the results are quite boring, and Peaches’ can’t hold a candle to the badassness of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy”) the whole thing paints a more promising portrait of the state of popular music then you’re likely to get from most sources and besides, once again, it’s all for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: adam cohen, beck, blondie, bob dylan, brian wilson, bruce springsteen, compilations, david bowie, duffy, elbow, elvis costello, estelle, franz ferdinand, hot chip, iggy pop, joy division, leonard cohen, lily allen, paul mccartney, peaches, roxy music, rufus wainwright, scissor sisters, stevie wonder, the clash, the hold steady, the kinks, the kooks, the like, the ramones, the stooges, tv on the radio, u2, war child, yeah yeah yeahs