In my post on Guster’s new album, I praised their willingness to stretch their sound and try new things. On the opposite side of that spectrum is Ron Sexsmith, who just released his 13th album (in 24 years).
Not much distinguishes Carousel One from the dozen albums that preceded it. It’s packed with smart, melodic pop that’s equal parts The Beatles and Elvis Costello. A winning formula, to be sure, and one Sexsmith has never abandoned.
Like yesterday’s featured artist, Josh Rouse, Guster is a moderately popular indie act that has quietly amassed an impressive discography. The band’s new album, Evermotion, is their seventh.
This record finds them a god distance, sonically, from their early work even as the songwriting sticks to the same tried and true folk pop formula. Guster’s calling card in the late 90s was acoustic guitars and stick-free percussion, a very lo-fi organic vibe. Evermotion, in contrast, is synth-heavy — almost distractingly so in some cases.
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks exploring the new Courtney Barnett album, but it’s not the only new record I’ve picked up recently. I won’t go through the others track by track, but I will give them some love the rest of this week.
I’ll start with Jose Rouse’s The Embers of Time. This is Rouse’s 11th studio album in 16 years — he’s a lot more prolific than I give him credit for.
And so we reach the end of my 11-day discovery of Courtney Barnett’s album, Sometimes I Sit and Thing, and Sometimes I Just Sit. As I suspected, the final song on the album is a short one, juxtaposed with the nearly 7-minute epic that preceded it.
No clue what it will sound like (yet) and based on the blend of styles on the album so far, I’m not sure I can even venture an educated guess.
This track, from Annie Lennox’s 1995 hit covers album Medusa, is the odd song out on that record.
The lineup features renditions of cuts by Paul Simon, Procol Harum, Bob Marley, Al Green, Neil Young, The Clash and The Temptations. And ‘Downtown Lights’ by Blue Nile.
What the hell is Blue Nile, you ask? Good question. They are a Scottish band that has moderate success with this song in 1989. And by “moderate success” I mean it reached #67 on the UK charts.
Meet Me In Montauk 