tender bruises + scars
Fever Ray is Karin Dreijer, one half of The Knife's solo project, though I read an interview where she expounded on how it is not a solo project and how it is also not a band project, and, to be perfectly honest, I didn't get what she was talking about, but I have had this album on heavy rotation since first listen. It's got all the normal pop-snaps of Knife's work, as well as those slightly off-kilter anti-occidental noises they are known for, though everything seems slower, much sadder, and her lyrics are more introspective. Karin Dreijer's vocals are tense, anxious, and fragile all the while thru.
Fever Ray :: Seven 2009 (I think it came out this month)
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I think I was one of the last people to realize that Fur + Gold was the best album of 2006, and I mean besides the obvious greatness of that one song Sarah. The new album, Two Suns, sadly is more a cacophony of ideas, a jumble of sounds, and slightly messier, slightly adrift, all these are meant in the sincerest of ways, because I still believe in her, and still like her. Glass is relentlessly good, though, it's the first track off the album and comes out like a lion, I've found it pairs well with Portishead's also-first track from their most recent output, Third. Also, if you are the right type of person, check out fellow Bat For Lasher Caroline Weeks new solo work, she's doing this gorgeous-drippy-melancholy-little-girl-troubadour thing.
Bat For Lashes :: Glass 2009 (out April 6th)
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From the guy that in some ways started everything, Trevor Jackson, he's fallen a bit off a few maps by now but he's the guy that got the whole disco-punk revival going 10 years ago, before the words post-punk were on the tips of everyones tongues, he spearheaded Gramme, whose six song E.P. is still outstandingly perfect, flawless and, of course, the only thing they ever put out. He coddled The Rapture and gave DFA space for their first couple of experiments, then let the whole scene walk on it's own. I like what he does to this Doves track from their soon-to-be new album, his touch is pretty unmistakable, and it lends itself well to the otherwise tangled somber transcendental sounds of Doves.
Doves :: Push Me On (Playgroup Megamix) (album also out April 6th)