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6. Cove, the debut full-length from the Portland-based band A Weather, sounds like a whispered secret. It’s hushed, calm on the surface, but impassioned, like there’s always a driven purpose on hand, expressed or not. At the same time it’s open music, welcoming. The musicians yield a variety of instruments to generate one warm, organic sound. Meanwhile a man and woman sing together in a special fashion: with each other, off each other, together and apart. Their songs voice anxieties and then try to calm them away. The album carries its own sadness, but also an accompanying sense of potential reassurance. They sing and play both worries and come-ons sweetly, sweeping us up onto soft but not necessarily steady dream-clouds. The Coolest Thing About Love (Happy Happy Birthday to Me; US: 12 Aug 2008) 7. References to flowers, kisses, and summertime abound in their songs, and the Smittens seem like the band most likely to break into a group singalong at any moment. That means they’ll get dismissed by some as too cute, which is a shame, and not just because haters would miss out on fantastic melodies. Their music is more than just happy-go-lucky. It has more to it than just fun (though fun it is). On The Coolest Thing About Love, that happy/cute side of the band seems mostly an idealistic dream of what love can be, one that in real life is felt in passing moments but still worth striving for. Love is complicated by distance, personal failures, and the passing of time. But when everything clicks right, it generates excitement, peace and contentment. The Smittens capture all of that in suitable song forms—classic pop anthems, impromptu doo-wop ballads, the melancholy strumming of a guitar. Hold Horses (Heart Phone; US: 5 Feb 2008) 8. Once upon a time Mike Downey lived in Illinois rocked out in Wolfie, the New Constitution, Mathlete, and his one-man band the National Splits. Now he lives in Sweden and rocks out under his own name, with his computer. His sense for melody and knack for writing memorable songs about his own life has only improved over time. His music has a sense of freedom about it, bolstered by his willingness to throw crazy sounds into the mix as it pleases him. But it also comes straight from whatever place—mental, emotional or geographical—that he’s in at the time. The songs on Hold Horses are memorably descriptive about the world through Downey’s eyes. The music itself is just as descriptive, filled with small, impressive touches. Writing Down Things to Say (Words on Music; US: 18 Nov 2008) 9.
The cover of the UK band Lorna’s third album is a stunning horizon photograph of where sky, sea, and earth meet. Its calm beauty is similar to that of the music on the album: a carefully crafted, peaceful but mysterious soundscape. We’re instantly pulled into an atmosphere that’s placid but not uniform. Lorna’s gentle dream-pop songs have not just mood, but also personality. Lap steel and harmonica add a country-campfire feeling, while horns and strings subtly give cause for the adjective “orchestral” to be employed. Husband-and-wife Mark Rolfe and Sharon Cohen-Rolfe sing lovely together, on songs that keep returning to themes of home, of finding a place to belong: a place that the music’s comfort emulates.
I Worked on the Ships (Pony Proof; US: Available as import; UK: 11 Aug 2008) 9. Scottish songwriter Gordon MacIntryre has been fronting ballboy for over 10 years now, and seldom getting the acclaim he deserves for his thoughtful, bittersweet pop-rock songs. I Worked on the Ships, ballboy’s first LP in four years, starts out filled with longing, someone singing for the long-distance love that will never be. And it continues in that lovelorn state across the album. “Nobody knows which way is up anymore”, he sings during one song, and the inhabitants of these songs do mostly seem lost, looking for something more. It’s a state of the heart that the album brings vividly to life, without ever completely abandoning the feeling that hopeful times could be around the corner, but without projecting certainty that this will ever be the case, either.
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