I first encountered the Austin-based indie rock band Spoon after the release of their fifth studio album, 2005’s Gimme Fiction. Their spare, crisp sound and founder Britt Daniel’s raspy vocals made up one of my favorite releases of that year.
I’ve mostly kept up with the band since, missing out on just one of their releases in the past decade. Spoon is one of those bands whose work I always love when I play it, but whose music I seldom play.
It’s that time of year when the promise of new music bursts forth like flower blossoms in spring. This week I’ll feature songs from five upcoming albums I’ll definitely buy.
It’s been four years since a 16-year-old Lorde became the youngest artist ever to score a #1 Billboard hit. Her album Pure Heroine was a smart and resonant collection, all the more impressive when you took her age into account.
My only association with this Ellie Goulding song, from her 2010 debut album Lights, is my impersonation of its opening lines. My wife was (is?) a fan of this album, while I would pass up no chance to make fun of it.
My schoolyard taunts included saying Goulding sounds like a “wispy unicorn,” mocking her pronunciation of “this love” as “this loaf” and singing the beginning of this song as “a toy a too a tee a toe” in my best Ellie Goulding accent.
Badly Drawn Boy’s 2000 debut album, The Hour of the Bewilderbeast, remains a remarkable collection of baroque pop and acoustic loveliness with a level of quality that Damon Gough sadly hasn’t approached since.
Admittedly, I haven’t kept up with everything he’s released over the past 17 years (which includes a couple of movie soundtracks and five more studio albums) but the few I do have pale in comparison to this beauty of an album.
Wrapping up my look at the music of 1990, here’s Teenage Fanclub with their debut album, A Catholic Education.
The Scottish alternative band would morph into more of a power pop band on subsequent releases, but this album sounds like an early grunge record. I’m guessing I’d prefer their later work.
Meet Me In Montauk 