Beirut: March of the Zapotec/Holland

Beware the back slash

Beirut-March of the Zapotec/Holland

Release Date: February 16, 2009

As a girl who claims to be quite a huge Beirut fan, my natural reaction when I first heard about the newest production from said band was, OMG! I had read in an article in Fader Magazine that front man, Zac Condon, had traveled down to the Oaxaca region of Mexico and recorded with a troop of local musicians known as Banda Jimenez of Teotitlan del Valle. This bit of information made Zapotec all the more exciting, as a blogger of Mexican decent, to feast my ears on.

The Leaky Faucet: Silversun Pickups – Swoon

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Silversun Pickups – Swoon.

Retail Release Date:  April 14, 2009

The Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date:  March 26, 2009

The Silversun Pickups new album Swoon landed on my hard drive last week.  I wasn’t thrilled with the last Silversun Pickups album.  I really liked their live show, but the energy of that show didn’t end up on the record.  This album continues that trend, but is overall a far better album anyway.  Why’s this?

Swoon is the kind of album that simply isn’t made much anymore:  a major-label 90s alternative rock record.  What I mean by this is that it has that shiny perfection in every sound and an overall gloss that makes it really easy to listen to.  There’s strings in parts where there should be strings.  The guitar is fuzzy but never distorted.  The vocals are clean with just the proper amount of reverb.  If you fondly remember the production style of Bush’s Sixteen Stone or Candlebox’s debut album, then you’re totally going to dig this record.

The songs are good here, especially the driving rhythm section.  There’s a decent amount of dynamics here; Silversun Pickups don’t do Pixies-ish loud-quiet-loud too much, but rather slow builds from soft to loud.   The lyrics sound cool, but in the end have no real meaning to me.  I might not be paying attention that much because the groove is really quite excellent.

Again, these songs are likely to sound even better live, but this album is a good listen.   Recommended.