Twenty albums you should hear (Part II)

Here's the second batch of five.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Remember how last time I mentioned that The Duckworth Lewis Method wouldn't sound out of place on an oldies radio station? Now that I've given it some thought, neither would these guys. Catchy vocal hooks with enough over-production to remind you of a lo-fi ELO or something, instruments kept to the background, and an overall pleasing sound.

An article in Maclean's a couple of weeks back had an offhand mention to Fleet Foxes being thrown on at a party where the previous music had been all Beatles and their ilk, and the Foxes being 'well-received'. I'm not surprised.

The only complaint I can level is that...well, it sounds too much like what's thought of as "old people music". Listening to the album again now, I'm still getting the "hey, this is good!" feeling I've had every other time, but I'm also realizing that it's background music, it's for people who say they like jazz when what they really mean is that they don't like metal, it's not something that will ever command 100% of your attention.

But it's still good. It's fun, it's folksy, and it's certainly a lot more accessible than most of this list. If you're after specific song recommendations - since this is one album where it's okay - let's go with "White Winter Hymnal", "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song", and "Your Protector".

The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound

I know, I've talked about this one before. But it deserves it. Deserves more, really.

This is what modern rock should be. While Nickelback might appeal to the lowest common denominator, Gaslight appeals to every denominator. While Metric might be making people think pop-rock is the only good rock anymore, Gaslight are proving them wrong. And so forth.

If you like Tom Petty or Bob Seger, you'll love this. Although I'm not a huge fan of the last three songs, they're still far better than the back-end filler on most albums.

The '59 Sound starts off with the somewhat jangly "Great Expectations" and the titular track, then gets into a few more straightforward rock songs, ending at "Film Noir", probably the closest thing this album gets to a hard rock or true punk song.

"Miles Davis & The Cool" took a while to grow on me, but is now one of my favourite songs on the album - and it only gets better with the next three, which are catchy, somewhat diverse, and just all-around awesome rock.

This CD should be blaring out of every car in the summertime. Awesome, awesome rock.

(Sink or Swim, Gaslight's first offering, isn't as good frankly. You can see where the foundations were laid for this one, but '59 is miles ahead.)

The Guess Who - Running Back Thru Canada

Heh. Yeah.

A bit of a throwback to my pre-indie tastes, this is the double-album that got me through dozens of night shifts stocking grocery store shelves.

There's something undefinably cool about hearing the music your parents grew up to, only thirty years later and with the musicians thirty years older.

Backstory: In 1999, The Guess Who reunited for the first time since 1983, to play a cross-Canada tour. The entire tour was recorded, and songs from many different venues - Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Barrie come to mind right away - were combined to make this double album, which gives the feeling of being at one of the tour dates.

The songs will be instantly recognizable to anybody who grew up with The Guess Who - or anybody who, like me, grew up with classic rock. With Randy Bachman being part of the group, a few BTO songs are thrown in for good measure.

The capper is a 14-minute rendition of "American Woman", with lead singer Burton Cummings still sounding awesome.

This is one where you need to listen to the whole thing - it'll take a while, but if you remember the tunes, it'll be worth it. If not...well, it's some nice Canadiana for you.

Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle

A certain commenter will scold me for not knowing the backstory behind this group, but it's one guy from Islands and...somebody else. They play catchy lo-fi poppish stuff.

"The Sound" and "All Day" are both great tracks which gets the album off to a fine start. It's hard to say if the album never quite gets back to that level of excellence or if all the songs sound somewhat similar, so eventually they all blend together, but those two remain my favourites.

This is great naptime music. Drifting in and out of sleep, you won't know when one song ends and another begins, which is just fine by me.

"Moody Motorcycle" is the next song to stand out to me - although after another listen through, I think I mistakenly believed that half the songs were Islands tunes. "Moody Motorcycle" is a little less dreamy, a little quicker, and thus memorable.

I'm worried that I'm being too negative on this album - it's very good folksy stuff, it's just that there's not too much I can really say about it.

"Duties Of A Lighthouse Keeper" is another good song, and "I Wish I Knew" provides a bit different of an ending.

Good album. On the accessibility scale, it's pretty high up there, but not like Fleet Foxes or something.

Intelligence - Fake Surfers

This is a little lower on the accessibility scale. Not quite Animal Collective, but it's not too far off really.

The name of the game here is some relatively catchy vocals followed by a crapload of synthesizers and a guitar. "Moody Tower", the second song in, is the perfect example of this.

The album goes by in a breeze - twelve tracks, but barely over half an hour of music. Every song is pretty short - which is good, as if they were longer they would be obviously stretched out.

"Debt & ESP", the third track, is probably my favourite track on the album, if only because it's the catchiest. "I Hear Depression" is the exact opposite - vocals are not memorable, but the instrumental hook will be stuck in your head for hours.

I'm guessing this is the sort of album that gets easier and easier to enjoy when the amount of substances you're using gets greater and greater.

This album definitely doesn't drag in the latter half - the best way I can describe "Universal Babysitter" is that it's a Wolf Parade song if Spencer Krug no-showed and they didn't bother replacing him, I take back what I said earlier because "Thank You God For Fixing The Tape" is definitely both my favourite and the catchiest, "Pony People" sounds so normal that I'm sure I thought it was a Fleet Foxes tune, and "The Unessential Cosmic Perspectiv" is less crazy than you'd expect the crazy album-ending song to be.

In fact, I'd argue that while the trend is for most albums to be front-loaded and have random subpar material at the back, Fake Surfers is the opposite - it gets better as it goes on.

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I still haven't done the full pruning and replenishing of the blogroll at the left that I'd like to do, but I would like to draw your attention to one new addition.

Must Win Situation is a sports blog featuring The Sputnik's sports editor (and noted friend of the homeless) Kyle Brown. Also two other people who I don't know. And a podcast with two of my roommates for some reason.

But it's definitely good sports commentary, and it stands out by not just being the hockey/NFL/Jays combo you'd expect - NCAA, CIS, and even fishing have all been tackled on MWS.

I don't blog about sports nearly as much as I used to - so if you're missing that, check out MWS.

--Ryan