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June 18, 2006
Summer's Sounds (on Sundays)
There's nothing quite like strolling to your local record shop to get exposed to something ethereal. And that's exactly what I got when ostensibly going to pick up Regina Spektor (neine, I will perhaps pick it up on my fourth try) and walking home with Asobi Seksu's second album Citrus.
The SoundFix descrip. focused on Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine influences, but I'm more swayed by the Talulah Gosh similarities, the female twee pop milieu that evokes dandelion picking and open-fields running.
Yuki's voice jerks from playful to forceful to diffident (as well as English to Japanese) in verses, and the steady drumming, sliding, psychedelic guitar scales up and down, pausing for some Interpol riffs during the chorus ascension.
I will align with Insound and provide you with Thursday, the album's third song, a forceful melancholy track that follows a drumline and sparse guitar to a second-verse subtle explosion. Sublime.
Download: Thursday
More goods here.
Extra credit:
Inasmuch as we seem to discuss bands that receive a lot of blog hype, but who fail to register in magazines, I wish to highlight a band that gets its Time Out, Fader-like props (not literally, I'm merely saying I've seen them in traditional publications) that hasn't seen its share of blog love. I am referring to 60s-inspired Essex Green.
While I first gave EG a second listen after hearing Don't Know Why (You Stay), a simple, carefree track, I'm more tempted to put Cardinal Points up here, for its Stars meets Stereolab sound.
Download: Cardinal Points
Posted by Keith O'Brien at June 18, 2006 05:28 PM
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