I picked up a couple of albums over the last few days.
While I was perusing Target, I spotted the new Spoon album on sale for $9.99. Couldn't pass that up. You shouldn't either.
Over the last year and a half, I've come to really enjoy Spoon. A very mellow rock sound, with an A++ in the Mutt Lange School of Production...fast, then slow.
Each album impresses me more with their range and lyrical abilities, and these lads from Britain continued in that spirit on Gimme Fiction.
Wednesday, I picked up the new Son Volt @ Best Buy. Again, I lucked out, getting the DualDisc CD/DVD with an additional Live DVD for only $11.99.
Still making my way through the disc, but very impressed so far. Jay Farrar sent the band on hiatus for about 7 years while he pursued his solo career.
Now, armed with all-new bandmates, Okemah & The Melody of Riot has a heavy, distorted sound to the mix, adding some punch and flavor to Jay's haunting vocals...no where more apparent than in "6 String Belief", a reinvention of Jay's previous released solo work.
While I like the older, acoustic version better, this one has a brand new feel to it. Definitely, a solid record with mounds of potential.
Here's what Rolling Stone says:
Son Volt Okemah and the Melody of Riot
(Transmit Sounds/Legacy)
On his recent solo albums, Son Volt leader Jay Farrar suffered from a serious case of the vagues, outfitting his half-legible folkie tunes with hazy atmospherics and gazing at American history like it was a Rorschach test. Those shortcomings make Okemah and the Melody of Riot especially welcome: As the first album in seven years credited to Son Volt, the band Farrar formed after the demise of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, Okemah replaces Farrar's indulgence with a gently rocking back-porch feel. With the help of three new bandmates, Farrar turns out thirteen elegantly wasted, begrudgingly tuneful songs: He rides to ragged glory on "6 String Belief" and turns "Afterglow 61" into an apt soundtrack for a summer road trip. Farrar drowns his sorrows on mellower cuts such as "Atmosphere," but by finding the right mix of pastoral beauty and bar-band swagger, Okemah usually keeps his head well above water.
(CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Two days. Two great new albums. Touche.
