May 2013
2 posts
7 tags
Track Of The Day - Seapony - Hangin' Out
Following up onto the back of their 2012 sophmore record Falling and an extensive touring schedule ahead of them to Europe we’ve been honoured with a new treat for our ears. “Hangin’ Out” has a very calm and collective ballad to it. Perfect song to reflect on the colder weather we’re experiencing at this time of the year.
7 tags
Track Of The Day - Lauryn Hill - Neurotic Society...
For someone who’s been a musical recluse for many years it seems odd to see a new song released out of no where but there’s more to it than that. Sadly for Lauryn Hill she’s been sentenced to three months in gaol for tax evasion. On the upside we got a very in your face attack from the 37 year old rapper.
March 2013
4 posts
8 tags
Track Of The Day - Azealia Banks - Young Rapunxel
Controversy is something that Azealia Banks has found hard to avoid in her short period of time in the media’s spotlight. During the long weekend she refused to take to the stage at a music festival in Australia over issues with the Stone Roses where she claimed they had sabotaged her set. Late last year it was here in Australia where she played a very short 25 minute set. Regardless of any...
12 tags
Track Of The Day / Laura Marling - Where Can I Go?
With the fourth studio album for the 22 year old due out on May 27 titled Once I Was An Eagle we see Marling continue along with her Americana folky twang style that she’s found comfort in creating. “Where Can I Go?” is a progressive build up of charming vocals reaching a pivotal climax with the volume hitting the perfect key.
7 tags
Track Of The Day / Chvrches - Recover
For those heading over to SXSW here’s my tip to woo you, Chvrches. This Glaswegian trio are breathing life into the electropop scene and with a track like “Recover” it’s no wonder they are gaining amazing levels of attention. Who needs a four year law degree and a masters in journalism when you can aspire to be the next big Scottish group? Lauren Mayberry, certainly...
6 tags
Track Of The Day / Soap&Skin - Sugarbread
Following up from her 2012 sophmore, Narrow, this Austrian singer songwriter who verges into the experimental territory has a 7” due out shortly. Bridging into some mysterious and dark themes across this track is an immersive experience.
February 2013
6 posts
8 tags
Track Of The Day / Ghost Loft - Seconds
Los Angeles producer Ghost Lofts offers you a seductive, tender electronic series of tunes with “Seconds”. There’s serious get up, stand up and dance opportunities on this track with the only shame being that it’s been near impossible to track down if this is a solo or group effort.
8 tags
Track Of The Day / Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Code...
This is hardly a new track after being released a couple of months ago but I’ve been searching through the backlog of Australian music I haven’t had the time to listen to of late. Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! are a group from Adelaide that have been kicking around for a number of years now.
“Codebreaker” has moments of Sia inspired sounds which leave a longer than normal radio...
4 tags
Track Of The Day / Noun - Will You Come Back To Me
Noun is the moniker used by Screaming Females frontwoman Marissa Paternoster. “Will You Come Back To Me” was originally circulated on cassette tapes between 2004-2007 but has been brought together with other works from the time on a new 34 track collection. Coming in at just under 2 minutes you’ll feel like you’re just starting to become engrossed in the sound and then...
7 tags
Track Of The Day / Purity Ring - Grammy
It’s Grammys season and although there are odd cut off dates and the such it means that Gotye managed to dominate yet another awards night. *Insert segway* Canadian synth duo, Purity Ring, have decided to take matters into their own hands and cover a Soulja Boy track of all things. Yes, I was doubtful of the choice but, the way this has been tackled is well crafted in that Shrines fashion.
7 tags
Track Of The Day / Phebe Starr - Jurassica
Introducing a new member of the Valued Music family called track of the day. Most days I come across fabulous new music from across the globe and what better what to experience this than by sharing it with my readers too.
Today’s track of the day comes from a Sydney songstress who goes by the name of Phebe Starr. “Jurassica” is a happy go lucky tune that is filled with...
10 tags
Tegan and Sara – Hearthtrob
Heartbreak, sadness, emotions, falling apart and you’ve got what makes up the essential themes on a Tegan & Sara record. These two ladies who grew up in Calgary and began playing music together as teenagers came from the humblest of beginnings and managed to claw their way up into becoming indie goddesses with the release of pivotal records such as If It Was You,...
January 2013
4 posts
9 tags
Local Natives – Hummingbird
The debut from Local Natives, Gorilla Manor, released back in 2009 was a record which stemmed a lot of themes from musical influences such as Grizzly Bear and The National but, that being said it always was solidly based on drawing from them and didn’t display too much of their own individual flare. Hummingbird comes along with an attempt at trying to stamp their own...
6 tags
Yo La Tengo - Fade
Fade is the thirteenth studio album from New Jersey band Yo La Tengo who has always stayed true to their particular signature of sound since 1984. One positive of being a fan is that you’re never left with many years between the next LP to be released.
Coming in with a running time of 46 minutes makes this a record that’s hard to not listen to in full even for a...
10 tags
Heathered Pearls - Loyal
When finding a way to channel emotions through purely sound can be a trying process to experience and Polish born Jakub Alexander may be a key example of this. Loyal is the first full-length record released under the name Heathered Pearls as he performs as a DJ under several other names too.
An ideal way of summing up the sounds portrayed on this LP is by imagining...
14 tags
December 2012
3 posts
30 tags
Top Ten Albums Of 2012
1. Beach House – Bloom
2. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
3. Tame Impala – Lonerism
4. Swans – The Seer
5. Purity Ring – Shrines
6. Grizzly Bear – Shields
7. Grimes – Visions
8. Chairlift – Something
9. Passion Pit – Gossamer
10. Sarah Blasko – I, Awake
10 tags
Julie Doiron - So Many Days
For years the term indie folk has been associated with this esteemed songwriter and it’s not hard to see why when her gravely and whispering voice drags on a very calm tone. So Many Days is the tenth studio album she’s made since 1996 making her a modern day underrated achiever as she always seems to sneak under the radar everywhere but in her native homeland,...
9 tags
Sufjan Stevens - Silver & Gold: Songs for...
Welcome to the kooky and holiday obsessed mind of Sufjan Stevens who makes it very clear just how much he loves Christmas on this 5 EP box set collection of works ranging from 2006 to 2012. Not all of the tracks are written by Stevens, with a wide selection of typical classics like “Silent Night”, “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas with their own...
November 2012
4 posts
9 tags
Crystal Castles - (III)
Crystal Castles set the stereotyped image of dysfunction so well and it seems to be that carries over into their music in a reckless style. If you trace your mind back it was in 2008 that their debut was released with monumental tracks like “Untrust Us” and “Crimewave” sending in the genre of mixing bitpop as a new style. Their third instalment that is...
10 tags
TOPS - Tender Opposites
Oh Canada, you’ve given us all so much music this year and is this wave running dry? That’s left open to your own opinion but Montreal’s TOPS maintain a push of interest with their debut LP titled Tender Opposites.
Being signed to the same label as compatriot Grimes would give the impression that this is a heavily hyped up and coming bunch of musicians with much to give...
11 tags
Sarah Blasko - I Awake
Last year there was a supergroup formed that wished to not be acknowledged as such and from there is long standing songstress, Sarah Blasko, who teamed up with Holly Throsby and Sally Seltman as a go-between project after releasing As Day Follows Night. Two years have passed and she has worked with an orchestral backing to see her latest LP, I Awake come to...
9 tags
Seapony - Falling
“Every time I go outside and you call my name, anyone still follow me right up to the grave” is how the sophomore release from Seattle’s Seapony approaches you. In a year where the emergence of soft female vocals has been making a wave of their own we find Jen Weidl doing this with pleasant harmonies.
With a sound comparable to the dream pop that Beach House do so well...
October 2012
2 posts
13 tags
Something For Kate – Leave Your Soul To Science
Long-standing Australian musical heroes, Something For Kate, have reformed to give what many fans of their work have been hoping would happen again one day. Leave Your Soul To Science is the staple of the sound that made them gain recognition at the dawn of the new millennium and crossing into new ideas.
After a six-year break from making music together there seemed to be a...
7 tags
Grizzly Bear - Shields
If anything has become renowned with the music that Grizzly Bear creates then it’s probably how beautifully crafted it is and that continues along with the fourth feature length release from this quartet from Brooklyn.
After a few years of absence and what may have been described as a hiatus of sorts as several members tried their hands at side and solo...
September 2012
2 posts
6 tags
The xx - Coexist
There’s been a fair bit of anticipation for a follow up from this English three piece since the self-titled début was deemed to be an instant hit in 2009. In the lead up to Coexist being released there were even rumblings from Jamie xx who stated that “There are some tracks on there that have been influenced by dance music but I don’t think the album...
7 tags
Swans - The Seer
This has to be the most experimental, no wave of releases of 2012 with arraying layers of music intertwining to become a solid entity. The Seer is the work of a group, which has been in and out of active formation since 1982 and reforming in its current incarnation in 2010. With this instalment we see twelve studio albums under the belt.
It’s best to mention now this is...
August 2012
5 posts
7 tags
The Smith Street Band - Sunshine & Technology
This brooding bunch of Melbourne boys has been causing a stir over a couple of years now and they aren’t looking like stopping any time now. It’s just been a single year since the debut No One Gets Lost Anymore was pressed and received with positive reactions onto the back of the 2012 sophomore LP, Sunshine & Technology. The name of the group comes from the...
8 tags
Yeasayer - Fragrant World
What pushed Yeasayer’s hype needle to the edge of attention was 2010’s sophomore release, Odd Blood, which contained psychedelic pop tunes one after the other without giving up. Well remembered are the big numbers such as Ambling Alp, Madder Red, O.N.E and Rome, that saw the group become an act that music lovers from all backgrounds would flock to festivals and see put on a quick...
7 tags
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
If anyone’s been caught up in the sensation that is Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All then they’d be well aware of the numerous young men that consist of this hip hop collective. In there we have the contentious front man, Tyler, The Creator who has held the majority of the exposure til now with Frank Ocean bring out his solo record, Channel Orange.
Cast away the...
8 tags
Alpine - A Is For Alpine
Enter Alpine with their debut LP, A Is For Alpine. It’s great to see another young Australian group who originally found success through triple j Unearthed sitting alongside the likes of Hunting Grounds to showcase the world a feature length release in 2012.
Coming together in 2009 the group managed to gain acclaim with a simple yet basic demo and found themselves...
8 tags
Purity Ring - Shines
If there’s something in the water that makes Canadian bands so acclaimed and highly regarded then it’s continuing into the future with Purity Ring’s debut LP Shrines. The duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick both grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, but are now based in Montréal, have really stamped their image on the scene with the 7” of Ungirthed coming out...
July 2012
4 posts
8 tags
Passion Pit - Gossamer
Get ready for a happy sounding vibe that holds darker undertones with the music on Passion Pit’s sophomore release, Gossamer. Most people would be familiar with their first instalment Manners and how much of a dance infused style it brought to listeners in 2009. A little jump from the electronic filled tracks has been made while trying to hold true to what...
12 tags
Hunting Grounds – In Hindsight
There are not too many organised bands that can claim to have formed with all current members at the age of 15 but that is what happened with Ballarat’s very own Hunting Grounds. To add these guys didn’t always go by their current name, with the use of Howl when they went on to win triple j’s Unearthed High competition back in 2009 with the song Blackout. Getting into...
12 tags
The Cast Of Cheers - Family
Try and think of how many big acts have made their way out of Irish Isles in recent times? Quickly off the top of my head I think of Two Door Cinema Club and The Thrills. In other words, not too many. So, here comes a little band who share their name with a popular 80’s sitcom, but that’s not all they live up to. The Cast of Cheers are feeling the weight of...
8 tags
Hospitality - Hospitality
This release is what sums up how much doubt arises in the mind of student new to tertiary education, or at least in their first couple of years, and struggling with what’s been given to them in the way of knowledge. Just imagine listening to this in a new town, no parental figures, no friends from high school and no stability. This is all about turning around on...
June 2012
1 post
8 tags
Beach House - Bloom
When you’re four records into the production process it’s best to imagine that you’ve had time to fine tune your craft and that is certainly what the duo of Victoria LeGrand and Alex Scally have done. You can hear the ways they have grown, bonded and intensified together to express themselves. It’s not that creative evolution was a struggle, as through previous...
May 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Best Coast - The Only Place
What’s next in the way of music being shown to us by the Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno combination? One always fears that after having a standout debut record that the sophomore edition can be a bit lacking, but there’s no need to even put that idea in your head with The Only Place.
Straight away we’re being surrounded by the title track...
5 tags
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Four years have passed since Bon Iver’s first record was released, what’s changed since then? Justin Vernon is well known for escaping to the woods, living in a cabin and recording an album on his own. For Emma, Forever Ago was a record about isolation, longing, loneliness and a broken heart but with this new incarnation the themes have changed. As you hit play for the first time,...
