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Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Album reviews

Dave Longstreth has built his reputation on the appeal of his constantly wandering ambitions, but never before has he so successfully collected those ambitions in one place than on Bitte Orca, somehow fitting together things like catchy guitar riffs, girl group R&B vocals, and sweeping orchestral interludes in a way that feels more cohesive, accessible, and simply wonderful than many musicians could ever hope to pull off when running in so many different directions at once.

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Various Artists – Dark Was the Night

February 20th, 2009 | 1 Comment | Posted in Album reviews

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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