Tilly And The Wall – O (2008 Team Love)

With Tilly’s past albums, I’ve never listened to them all in one sitting before because the style didn’t vary that much, and as much as I like their brand of twee pop, I can only take it in fairly small doses. But this time, I let O play in its entirety and was left wanting more!
O sees the Tillys (Tillies?) stylistically mixing it up more than they have before, but remaining at least somewhat true to form – their trademark percussive tap-dancing, the male/female singalongs, just how fucking cute they are. On that note, my goodness! Adorable. “Jumbler” in particular makes me want to pinch their cheeks.

Actually, some of these songs kind of rock too. Well…as hard as Tilly can possibly rock, anyway. I remember being taken aback more than once at the uncharacteristic aggression, and how well they actually pulled it off.

Overall: 8/10

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008 Sub Pop)

I love this album. Completely out of nowhere too. It’s getting a lot of good reviews from even the more elitist of media outlets (cough cough Pitchfork) as well as mainstream sources like Entertainment Weekly.
Mainly, the vocal harmonies are fucking heavenly. I could (and do) listen to this shit over and over again, particularly “White Winter Hymnal.” I don’t know if it’s the whole band singing together or one guy multitracking, but I can’t recall voices meshing together this well in recent memory.
The instrumentation, though somewhat sparse, is very effective as well and complimented by the general sonic quality of the album. Phil Ek did a great job, and you know how I can tell? Because I can’t imagine fleet foxes sitting in some state-of-the-art modern studio with digital hardware tracking every song to perfection. It sounds too warm, analog, folky to be from this year or even this decade. Not that it sounds particularly dated either – it’s more timeless. Vocals swathed in reverb, crisp guitars, robust percussion…this is one of those rare cases nowadays where whoever produced/engineered/mixed it knows exactly what the hell they’re doing. Or got very lucky. But I’m betting on the former.

Overall: 9.5/10.

Panda Bear – Person Pitch (2007 Paw Tracks)

This album got a lot of hype and ended up topping a lot of “best-of-the-year” lists. Many critics sang its praises and compared it to Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, both in its engineering and the scope of Panda Bear’s vocal harmonies.

I can certainly see (and hear) all that, but such comparisons can only destine Person Pitch to fall short. This is certainly a good album and an unexpectedly accessible offering from a member of a group as eclectic as Animal Collective, but after a year’s worth of hype, I’m not sure it’s the best thing to have come out in 2007. I don’t know; it’s very nice to listen to, for the most part – the repetition of “Bros” can be a little taxing – but nothing really stuck with me after it stopped playing. Yet I find myself going back…
(Note: this review seems to defy my moral fiber by insinuating that it has to be catchy to be good, which I don’t necessarily agree with…but in Panda Bear’s case, it might have helped. I mean, come on. Even Animal Collective has memorable hooks.)

Overall: 8/10

The Reign of Kindo – Rhythm, Chord & Melody (2008 One Eleven)

I really like this album and will likely grow to love it. “The Moments In Between,” “Great Blue Sea,” “Nice To Meet You” and especially “Hold Out” are key tracks that channel the best parts of their self-titled EP and expand upon them. I do enjoy all of the songs – TROK’s sound is unique enough that they’re all excellent and well-crafted – but I’m only dismayed at how poppy some of them are. They do pull it off and add a bit of TROK flair to what could otherwise be an unremarkable song, but in doing so they’re honestly selling their collective talents short…though the vocals are strong enough to carry even the least impressive tune. Also, the sonic quality and engineering of the album would have benefited from a more jazzy tonality – the drums in particular. That’s a fairly minor detail though, I suppose.

Overall: 8.5/10.