Reviews by kuvien

Very fun to hear the duo return after a nine-year absence! Though the fantasy and quirkiness have been traded in for a more streamlined art-pop sound, the charm and the violins remain. An excellent offering for listeners who want pop, want it fast, but also want it clever.

The clock is kicking on your sanity. You like awake sleepless nights and think about all the people you could kick down the stairs. People you know. People who think you actually like them. Ha! Oh wait. You don’t have any friends.

Not as good as.

Power pop is not a genre I seek out, and I’d get really tired of it if there was too much in rotation. Everything about this album is fun and beautiful. This is power pop at its best... at least of what I've heard. What I love most about this album is the bets they clearly took. "Bet you can't make a country song using wordplay and actually make it sound good!" BAM. "Bet you can't write a beautiful, soaring ballad about football!" BAM.

Acoustic guitar, harmonica, and harp—of course, but also more than a few post-rock guitar moments far behind weird vocals. I like it. Also, anyone who, in her music, expounds upon themes set forth in The Song of Solomon is all right in my book!

A freaky, warbly mezzo-soprano singing electric guitar and organ-tinged folk mixed in with old-times tunes that indulge in swinging pianos and lonesome harmonicas.

With only tinges of weirdness, Foster produces an album with all the hidden help of her indie folk peers, drawing on not only their sparse backing vocals but also their unconventional instrumentation. Much more singalong-able than I expected from Foster.

As founders of LAFMS, these guys and gals put the "free" in free music. Most of this album is composed of fuckaround tracks that are less than a minute, mostly involving snippets of conversation or melody. There's even some belching.

This is another one of those dark folk albums that’s all about atmosphere: pastoral, like a sylvan winter, a warm light in the cold darkness, like a blazing hearth. There’s an instrument used that sounds something like an accordion. Maybe it is, I don’t know. But it gives a richness to the tracks on which it’s used.

A fun little indie power pop album that gives my ears a break from all the seriousness.

Some freaky female vocals and it'd be perfect.

The poetry of this experimentally minimal folk album is stunning. So calm and sparse, overall, and the instrumentation is lovely and anachronistic.

Quite a strange and interesting vocal experimental album that dabbles in chuckles, the spoken word, Fontaine's quirky writing style, and quasi-cinematic string orchestration. There's a lot of space on this album--space between the vocals and the instruments--space enough for the mind of the imaginative listener to roam. You definitely gotta meet this album halfway.

It's all so sparse, intimate, loose. Brilliant! If you ever wanted a private performance, something done just for you, then this is it. Watch your step, though. You might lose your footing... and then your heart.

Let's listen to a beautiful folk song, so mellow and soothing--oh what the fuck is that screaming! Nicely done. Now let's move on to some half-sung poetry accompanied only by some tribal drums. Where is this album going? Religious overtones one moment, silly spoken word tidbits the next. Wonderful in its unpredictable eclecticism. She bleats like a billy goat for all the petit garçons.

The powerful, emotional female vocals backed by a folk rock sound makes me think of this as a Norwegian version of Pentangle--no! Renaissance. The ever-present violins (sometimes fiddling) are the wind upon which this music sails. I recognize a tune or two of traditional ballads sung by other folk singers in other languages.

In the grand tradition of Russian folk, there's a leader chanting out the main lines with a chorus of White Voice women coming in, raising the energy of the leader to ebullience. Mix in some computer effects and what you get is some corny, loveable late-80s shtick laid over a Russian folk base. This is just plain fun.

How do you strike upon coincidence with such an unusually specific name as “Reinhold Messner”? They didn’t know there was a famous dude actually named that? Okay, weird. Also, I wonder how many people a fake ID with that name would’ve actually fooled. Anyway, about the music—it’s typically Ben Folds, exploring themes of failure with beautiful melodies and clever lyrics. As far as I know, this is his only concept album. “Lullabye” is such a beautiful closer. Gets me every time.

Ben Folds is having as much fun in the studio as he does in concert. From the scathing criticism of fat Americans to the not-so-subtle reminder that there's always someone out there cooler than I am to the hilarious and beautiful rendition of "Bitches Ain't Shit", this album has all the fun.

This is fun piano rock from a guy who seems really down to earth. He's just a normal guy who loves his family and plays piano for his fans. His topics are basic, everyday life stuff, accessible to everyone without sacrificing musicianship. Also, it seems he played basketball with Elliott Smith on occasion, so that's cool. RIP