Friday, April 01, 2011

a review or two


(march 28, 2011)

everyone had been raving about the young singing sensation Adele since her recent album, 21, came out so when i inadvertently purchased it from itunes (i still don’t really know how i managed that), i wasn’t disappointed.

but after a few listen throughs and i am not sure.  it is good.  it is enjoyable.  i love the song Someone Like You, which is heart wrenchingly sad and exactly what i like in my music, but the rest of the album is a little lacklustre.

nevermind, i’ll find someone like you.
i wish nothing but the best for you too
don’t forget me, I beg
i remember you said
sometimes it lasts in love
but sometimes it hurts instead

eesh, i do love me a sad lyric.  and you might recognize the tune from last week’s episode of grey’s anatomy (sidebar: i am totally up in the air about how i feel about that ending.  really, you are going to tell me that callie might float above the rest of the cast for an entire show while we wait to find out if she is dead?  we’ve been here with meredith and of course, she lives.)

another album i bought recently, after seeing her perform live when she recently opened for Joshua Radin and (no The) Cary Brothers is Laura Jansen’s Bells.  she was an amazing live performer, just her and a piano and the most delicate songs gave me goose pimples.

her album is also in the range of medium, but i do love her cover of Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody and i will always remember her telling the story of cutting her own hair after breaking up with a ‘douche bag’ on christmas when i listen to her song Single Girls (which, coincidentally, is awesome).

a band that is making me get up and move lately is Miike Snow, a swedish group that is great to put on your running tunes playlist.  i have been listening to their self titled album over a glass of wine if i am heading out for a night on the town because it makes me smile.  i have no idea how this album came to me, but my favs on it are Burial, Animal, Cult Logic, and Black and Blue.  awesome.

and as i mentioned, i saw Joshua Radin and Cary Brothers in concert (at the century casino, formerly known as the silver dollar action centre, of all places on a sunday afternoon).  I did my homework and listened to both the singer songwriters’ stuff beforehand and have become more obsessed since.  there’s never been anything that compares to listening to men sing about heartbreak.  and as i announced to the twitter world (or twitterverse, as it pains me to write) the whole evening made me want to fall in love and break up over and over again because they made it sound so wonderfully bittersweet.  my favourite Joshua Radin songs are No Envy No Fear, One of Those Days, the most romantical song Today, which he sang for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia di Rossi’s wedding, and You Got Growing Up to Do, which could regularly bring tears to my eyes if i let it.

wake up lonely with you by my side

what i’d give for that first night you were mine

i don’t belong to you

as for Cary Brothers, I wholeheartedly recommend Belong as another soul draining song of broken love (wake up lonely with you by my side…what i’d give for that first night when you were mine… i don’t belong to you), the upbeat Ride, Honestly, and another for the running play list, The Last One, Break Off the Bough, and Someday.

i have also given a thorough listen to the newest Arcade Fire album, Suburbs, recently and i do believe that it deserves all the accolades it received at this past weekend’s Juno awards.  those dudes continue to rock.

and with all these amazing artists, life is just too damn short to waste listening to bad music.