07022015 - Gal Costa "Índia"

Gal Costa is one of the most important voices of the Brazilian Tropicalia movement, and this album, released in the legendary year of 1973, is one of her most legendary releases. It's as cool as it is smoking hot, and her vocal delivery on most of the material is the aural equivalent to a cool drink on a tropical day. At least that goes for the laid-back songs, like the title track or the brilliant "Volta", but when she picks up the tempo, like on "Relance", she shamelessly turns up the heat! Thankfully she finishes with a just gorgeous rendition of the Tom Jobim chestnut "Desafinado", which finishes this lovely record with a light and soothing breeze.

06022015 - Ranger "Where Evil Dwells"

You want METAL? These Fins will give you METAL! This album will not be released until the middle of March, so it's probably a bit unfair to write too much here, but I will let you know this: if you have a need for speed metal or a bloodlust for old fashioned fist pumping, siren screaming, riff roaring heavy metal that fires on all cylinders, uses all the tricks in the book yet retain a little something called identity (a good enough substitute for originality any day), Ranger is your band! Check out their recent compilation of everything they have ever recorded while you wait for this shiny and sharp piece of steel to be unleashed!

05022015 - Finno-Balkan Voices "Finno-Balkan Voices"

This ensemble does exactly what you would expect from the name. You get a Bulgarian and a Finnish-Estonian female vocal group meeting up, and the result is simply stunning! If you ever heard the sounds of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares or Trio Bulgarka - either on their own or with Kate Bush - you will have some idea of what to expect from the Bulgarian part, and the rest is equally haunting and beautiful. No instruments, just voices that captivate from start to Finnish!

04022015 - Butch Walker "Afraid of Ghosts"

I had never heard of this guy before. Apparently he's had "major-label success" in the 80's and 90's, including hit singles with the bands SouthGang and Marvelous 3, both of whom I also missed out on. Lately he's worked as a songwriter and producer for people like Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry, and in my book that's far from a guarantee for greatness. At the same time he's worked with The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, Sevendust, Weezer and several other poppy noiseniks, so to say there's several sides to him would be fair. Now to his latest album, released this week. The main reason I got interested is because he's got a song called "Chrissie Hynde" on it, which is pretty cool. The songs, however, are far from uptempo rock, but have more of a melancholy Tom McRae/Jesse Malin vibe to them. Which is nice. It will probably take a handful of listens for these songs to really sink in, but my first impression is that it will be worth it.

03022015 - Triggerfinger "By Absence of the Sun"

I was led to believe this Belgian band's music was a mix of Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age. It is not. It's more similar to The Black Keys, as well as a plethora of other bands, and although not entirely bad they do not excite me. This is mostly due to a clinical sound that has none of the grit a band like this should have. Even the fuzz guitars sound polished and thought out, like the perfect designer holes on the knees of too expensive jeans. They try a lot of things, including a grungy groove, college rock, blatantly poppish melodies and some semi-funky stuff, and all in all we have a band that tries way too hard to please everybody and end up being interesting to none. When they finish off with a track that features Method Man and sounds like an entirely different band altogether, my indifference turns to disgust. This is merely a product, and to this product we say "NO!"

02022015 - Jim White vs. The Packway Handle Band "Take It Like A Man"

I dig Jim White. And having had the pleasure of working with him, I will also have you know that he is one of the nicest, most pleasant people yo could ever hope to meet. Now, I have never heard about Athens, Georgia troupe The Packway Handle Band before, but judging by the most uplifting music they lay down on this here record I have no other option than to check out their stuff without Mr. White as well. Call it bluegrass, newgrass, hole-in-my-wandering-shoegrass or whatever you like, but this is one banjo plucking, mandolin wielding happy pill of an album! with songwriting credits split evenly between White and TPHB (5 songs each + one co-write), this is still a solidly consistent album, and you really couldn't tell that the writing was split like that or who have written what. Mostly. Like many other fun albums, the laughs that have been had occasionally make for songs that are forgotten as soon as the record is over - not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, not all bluegrass project albums were meant to be legendary, and if putting smiles on the listeners' faces is wrong, who cares about being right?

01022015 - Vic Godard & Subway Sect "1979 NOW!"

Hi again, it's good to be back! After hitting a brick wall a while back I put the blog on hold, but I never stopped checking out AT LEAST one album that I have never heard before every day. I believe I have averaged three new albums a day in January, and finally it's time to put the virtual pen to the electronic paper yet again. This album, from punk hero Vic Godard & Subway Sect would seem to be the thematic follow up to the Subway Sect album "1978 Now", released in 2007, which consisted og new recordings of songs originally written for Subway Sect's debut album back in - you guessed it - 1978. This album was released in October last year, and is - you guessed it again - new recordings of songs that Subway Sect would play in 1979. Confused? Whatever. What matters is that these songs sound fresh and vibrant in all their Northern soulfulness, not least thanks to the help of Edwyn Collins, who produced this record. It's 1979, but it's NOW, y'know… You know?