Opinz

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Already an early pick for album cover of the year, It’s Blitz! is also a pretty incredible record – the band manages to move past indie garage punk and into something much more danceable, incorporating some definite late 80s U2 influences while managing to not abandon their signature sound; It’s Blitz! opens with the decidedly not techno (in spite of the first few frantic synth notes) “Zero”, and moves into the dreamy dance-rock of “Heads Will Roll”, but the gem of the disc is the hauntingly gorgeous “Skeletons” – It’s Blitz! is their strongest, most likable album to date.
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Tags: dave sitek, interscope, it's blitz!, karen o, nick launay, polydor, yeah yeah yeahs

Various Artists – Dark Was the Night

An AIDs charity compilation offered by 4AD and Red Hot, Dark Was the Night gathers the most recognizable names in the world of indie music for two discs worth of new recordings, the first folk-centric and the second more electric; as one would expect the results are mixed, with some big highlights – excellent contributions from Grizzly Bear (“Deep Blue Sea”), Arcade Fire (“Lenin”), My Morning Jacket (“El Caporel”), a team up between David Byrne and Dirty Projectors (“Knotty Pine”), and one of Bon Iver’s best songs yet (“Brackett, WI”) – and some disappointments – Spoon seem to phone it in on “Well-Alright” and Sufjan Stevens’ 10-minute epic “You Are the Blood” is not nearly as impressive as it thinks it is – but who cares because it’s for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: aaron dessner, andrew bird, antony hegarty, arcade fire, beirut, ben gibbard, blonde redhead, bon iver, bryce dessner, cat power, compilations, conor oberst, dark was the night, dave sitek, david byrne, devastations, dirty delta blues, dirty projectors, feist, gillian welch, grizzly bear, iron & wine, jose gonzalez, kevin drew, kronos quartet, my brightest diamond, my morning jacket, riceboy sleeps, sharon jones & the dap-kings, spoon, stuart murdoch, sufjan stevens, the books, the decemberists, the national, the new pornographers, yeasayer, yo la tengo

TV on the Radio – Dear Science

TV on the Radio – Dear Science

September 22, 2008
4AD/Interscope
Rating: 4.4 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: With strings, horns, handclaps and just about anything else they can think of, these Cookie Mountain art rockers have put together one of the most subtly immersive and enjoyable albums of the year.

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Tags: dave sitek, dear science, tv on the radio