What I'm Listening to this week

Every week i'll be listing down three or four albums which have struck me. They can be old, new or a compilation.

so the big album of the week is :


Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

WOW what a jump. I know that Iron and Wine (aka Sam Beam) hinted at a more expansive sound on his Woman King ep but this completely took me by surprise. Combining African percussive techniques and shining melodies, especially on the bouncy ( yes bouncy!) House by the Sea. Not since Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell has a solo artist managed to fuse two different cultures so easily. Maybe through this jump Beam has lost some of his previous fragility but with such rich music I don't mind. Lyrically this has to be his angriest album to date as well but he disguises his disgust for politics very deftly. The Shepherd's Dog is the sign of an artist who is not scared to push boundaries and place his sound in different musical territories.



Danny and The Champions of the world - Self titled

Now this is one hell of an album. Danny ... are a floating collection of musicians and they churn out richly textured country guitar pop. Zithers, flutes and pedal steels all weave in and out of the songs creating something that grabs you instantly. Whatmore is that the band excude loads of energy, it non stop action with different sounds shooting at you from different directions. An album that should be checked out.



Various Artists - Juno OST

I haven't seen the film yet but when I received an e-mail notification from the moldy peaches mailing list last november saying that Kmya Dawson will be contributing some songs to this soundtrack, I had to invest in it. I'm glad I did. Juno OST actually feels like the mixtape some mate made for you when in the past. Belle and Sebastian, Moldy Peaches,Kimya Dawson, Mott the Hoople and The Kinks all feature and it blends acoustic naivety with soaring anthems with jangling sixties tunes. It's well sequenced and doesn't outlast it's brief 45 minutes at all. Plus it's a load of fun to listen to.