Bebel Gilberto - "Momento", "Tanto Tempo", "Bebel Gilberto": Heard her on a Latin Jazz iTunes radio station and had to hear more. :) She swings to an easy bossa rhythm like her father and mother did (Joao and Astrud), but with a modern flair. The Portuguese language still sounds wonderfully smooth and dreamy, and the jazz matches well. Great, great background music.
Favorites from Momento (the best of the three CDs, although all are good): the title track, Tranquilo, Cadê Você?, Azul, Um Segundo. From Tanto Tempo, also the title track, plus Summer Samba (So Nice), Sem Contenção, Alguem, Close Your Eyes. From her eponymous debut, Aganjú, All Around, River Song, Winter. Lovely. :)
Iron & Wine - "The Sea & The Rhythm", "In The Reins" (with Calexico): both of these are EPs, and both are great! I really enjoyed Calexico's "The Black Light" CD, but never thought of them as collaborating with Iron & Wine. They bring in horns on several tracks, which gives the EP a different feel, but still really good. And Sam & Sarah's vocals sound great against a pedal steel. :) I especially like The Sea and the Rhythm & The Night Descending from the first one and Red Dust and History of Lovers from the other. Every track on both of these CDs is great, though. Well worth the money. :)
At the concert, they did several songs from "The Shepherd's Dog" CD, which I'd never listened to. There are a couple of songs on it where they keep their classic folk style ("Resurrection Fern", "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"), but the rest were of the Caribbean percussion-heavy style that I heard at their concert and didn't like as much. If you enjoy their original acoustic-folk two-part close-harmony styling, I'd download the two tracks above and skip the rest of "Shepherd's Dog."
The Shins - "Wincing The Night Away": A $3.99 special from Amazon. I've always wanted some of The Shins' music, ever since I heard their version of "We Will Become Silhouettes" on a McSweeney's Sampler CD, so I thought it was worth taking a flyer on this. "Wincing" was produced right after their success on the soundtrack to "Garden State", which has boosted more than one band's career, including Iron & Wine's and (posthumously) Nick Drake's.
Although it's a little experimental (& inconsistent stylistically), vacillating between summer-y pop and moody electronic noodling, I still liked "Wincing". It kinds of grows on you. Based on what I heard on "Wincing", I decided to pick up the four most popular tracks on iTunes from their other two CDs, Oh Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow. I can see why they're popular tracks.
My Shins favorites, then, (from all sources): We Will Become Silhouettes, Australia, Phantom Limb, Sea Legs, Red Rabbits, Black Wave, A Comet Appears, New Slang (esp. the live version with Iron & Wine, which sounds just like Simon & Garfunkel), Saint Simon (which sorta does, too - maybe that's why I like them!), Pink Bullets (ditto), The Past and Pending, Know Your Onion!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment