It's been a while since I did any music reviews. Here are two decent albums that came out this past month.
Vampire Weekend - S/T
If you follow the indie blogosphere, Vampire Weekend should already seem like old hat. The band has been buzzed about for months since their self-released EP a few months back. What you may not know is that their debut full length is leaps and bounds better then their previous disc. Production has been considerably improved, and the newer tracks are just as catchy and enjoyable as the older ones.
If you are still in the dark, let me describe them. Despite the awful goth-emo band name, Vampire Weekend are an enjoyable indie-pop troop with a slight influence of afro-pop. Think Paul Simon's Graceland meets the Shins. While it won't blow any minds, the album is still incredibly charming from start to finish. Making it one of the most listenable records in the past few years. It's incredibly clean and inoffensive, the kind of record that makes creating pop music look simple.
8.2
Black Mountain - In the Future
If you were a fan of Black Mountain's thunderous Sabbath-influenced riffs on their debut, you'll find more to enjoy here. Almost a little too much to enjoy actually. While the debut album showed the band switching from stoner-rock to indie-rock, Mountain only focuses on one genre this time. Which takes away some of originality unfortunately. They also lay down a few pretentiously long tracks like the 16 minute track Bright Lights which bored me within the first 2. I couldn't help but think of the Lite Bright commercial as the words "bright light" are repeated obnoxiously. Despite these occurrences, In the Future will please many fans of retro rock and pysch-rock.
7.0