I’m going through the music I’ve loved this summer. Hopefully I can get back up-to-date sometime soon (but I wouldn’t count on it). Anyway, these three were all part of my summer soundtrack.
First we have the new Strand of Oaks and his first one on Dead Oceans. I did struggle a bit with some of the songs early on. Mostly with that 80s-influenced stuff. Maybe I still struggle a bit, but overall it’s still a strong album. Some of it is absolutely amazing. Timothy’s Jason Molina tribute called JM might well be the best song I’ve heard all year. I really love that song. It’s a perfect tribute and takes me back to those days when I found Songs:Ohia and kept on listening to Axxess & Ace for days. This is JM from the new Strand Of Oaks album Heal.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSbJDbzsak]
Then there’s a new Centro-Matic album Take Pride In Your Long Odds out there. I had it on heavy rotation in June during the world cup. It might not be the finest bunch of songs Will Johnson has ever written, but there’s nothing to complain about either. Another really good addition to the mostly excellent Centro-Matic catalogue. This one is called Cross Path.
Then something a bit quieter, but equally good. The new Wooden Wand album Farmer’s Corner came out on Fire Records in May. This felt like a minor disappointment at first (especially when compared to the excellent Blood Oaths of the New Blues). This is rather bare, laid-back and sounds very pleasant to me. You really have to pay attention to these intimate folk songs or otherwise this just ends up being pleasant background music. At least this happened to me. Nothing really grabbed me when I had it just playing around the house and I didn’t really start to appreciate it until I started doing nothing else than just listening to it. But I suppose there’s no harm in actually focusing on listening to music (After all, I’m writing a music blog for heaven’s sake and each month I spend a huge chunk of my day job salary to buy music.) This is Alpha Dawn from the new Wooden Wand album.