Slipped Discs - Discs You May Have Missed by John Noyd

Los Campesinos!

Hello Sadness
Record Label: Arts & Crafts
Review published: November 2011

Licking delicious wounds, consuming outmoded empires, “Sadness,” greets everyday ennui with frank angst and heart-wrenching contempt lined in retreaded memories, invective conjecture and randy candor. Gawky jockeys chasing traceless impatience, LC!’s sharp, carping lyrics explode into wiry brain-knots, mating anxious drums and twitchy indie-rock to hopeful odes nursing regressed regrets, slicing open societal secrets through flag-waving saviors and pop-singing trail-blazers.

Votes: 0

Loom, The

Teeth
Record Label: Crossbill Records
Review published: October 2011

Bravely wavering between well-heeled alt-rock squalor and rustic murder-ballad pageantry, “Teeth,” embraces embroidered warrior voyages. Swooning in musical courtship, admonished sonics stir sea-worthy furies for elegantly tweaked chamber-folk fevers. The Loom’s hushed rustler’s rhetoric and wild-eyed folk-revival fosters sprawling banjo to brass passages, rip-roaring chorales built from war-torn madrigals reaping bonfire finales. The Brooklyn quintet plays UW’s Rathskellar November 12th.

Votes: 0

Lowe, Nick

The Old Magic
Record Label: Yep Roc
Review published: September 2011

Finger-snapping smooth and country-hip cool, Wilco tour-mate Lowe’s 13th album wraps itself around sentimental eloquence, replacing pub-rock raves made famous in his early days with a captivating compendium of frisky, rockabilly lullabies, starry-eyed Merseybeat and crooning Texas swing. Ace back-up and star-filled cameos from Paul Carrack, Jimmie Vaughan and Ron Sexsmith insure, Magic,” dazzles with professional performances surrounding impeccable arrangements.

Votes: 0

Lane, Nikki

Walk of Shame
Record Label: IAMSOUND
Review published: August 2011

Hard-hitting honky-tonk harnesses faraway wails and unflinching farewells, coasting home in tear-soaked commotion, timeless codependent tension burning bright beneath a sea of twang and reverb. “Shame,” tames coyote kiss-offs, hopping from swinging barroom bop to stoic alt-country romps. Nikki’s concrete cow-punk pairs sassy Southern gumption alongside I told you so odes, tipping a ten-gallon to reckless youth and restless penance.

Votes: 0

Lonely Forest, The

Arrows
Record Label: Trans Records
Review published: March 2011

Grass-roots minutiae fuel monumental pop as soft-spoken notions build to pouncing indie-rock onslaughts, “Arrows,” targets existential displacement inside self-assured thoughts. Pensive engines drive soul-searching questions, uplifting torrents of shape-shifting sympathies assembling resplendent, compelling parades.  Sailing and skating over breathless rhythms and runaway bass, TLF’s punchy electric strumming quivers in shiny, obliging slip ‘n slide wildness, barely containing contagious, ageless sincerity.

Votes: 2