Save This Harmony

To normally suggest that “so and so” hasn’t broken any new ground on “such and such” album would probably be a bit disheartening to both “so and so” and those listening to “such and such” album. However, in the case of Tommy Keene and his new album, In The Late Bright, it’s a comfort to know that after almost 30 plus years in the biz, he’s still penning gorgeous pop songs that rely more on a mix of melancholic nostalgia than that of his contemporaries. Such as the feeling one sometimes gets where they can’t help but believe that, after years of change and discourse, they can, indeed, sometimes go home. This one, a melodic mid-tempo rocker, is my current favorite but, like all of Tommy Keene’s records, will more that likely change in a day or two or three…

Tommy Keene – “A Secret Life Of Stories” (mp3)

(from the Second Motion Records CD, In The Late Bright, 2009)

Currently Making Me Sway...

…is the title-track from the upcoming Camera Obscura album, My Maudlin Career, which will hit stores at the end of April. While nothing about the song screams “single,” there is something utterly charming and wispful about it all the same. More of a slow-grower rather than an instant pop classic.

Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career” (mp3)

(from the upcoming 4AD CD, My Maudlin Career, 2009)

By Morning Light

I was dismayed upon hearing last year that Page France frontman, Michael Nau had more or less stated that he would only be concentrating for the foreseeable future on his other outfit, the Cotton Jones Basket Ride. However, dismay has turned to joyful glee upon sitting down and listening to the band’s debut full-length, Paranoid Cocoon; an album that as slowly been shaping up to be an early 2009 favorite.

This track might be my favorite, a track that doesn’t really rush to get anywhere fast but which takes you someplace, somewhere all the same. The accompanying guitar lead can only be described as a feeling of writhing with a loved one on the dewey grass of a vast meadow with the sounds of a rolling creek piercing the silence which surrounds you.

Cotton Jones – “Some Strange Rain” (mp3)

(from the Suicide Squeeze Records CD, Paranoid Cocoon, 2009)