February Selections - Pt 2

I am a bit overdue sharing the music I added to my collection in February, so here's what rounded out the month:

Awesome pop tune out of Nova Scotia, somehow manages to be lazy and tight at the same time. I get some Pavement vibes and Cass McCombs at his jangly-est. My only reservation was should I just buy the whole album instead? It so happens that it just came out Friday (March 9) and it's certainly worth an entire play.

A standout for sure on this great record. Super slick, wearing MJ on his sleeve and I’m not minding one bit. Throw in a little spaciness on top of the soul and consider me a new fan.

This British-based pop collective put out a pretty cool record that toed the line between sample-laden hip hop like The Avalanches and hazy dream pop. They lean into the latter on this closing track, though still driven by a typical hip hop drum beat. The groove is so catchy I can even forgive the phone alarm sample at the end of the song.

I played a show with this guy a few years back and was impressed by his ability to play the guitar and drums (at the same time) in his live show. I am now equally impressed by his solid songwriting throughout this album. The songs shift pretty seamlessly as the lead alternates between electric and acoustic, with a sound leaning pretty heavily onto 90’s alt rock. I’m all over the guitar tones. He also uses a nice 2-octave doubled vocal which serves to cement some of the Built to Spill vibes of many of the songs.  The whole album was name your price and I paid $2 which is admittedly probably short-changing him a little, but trying to stick to my $10/month. It’s given me the thought to do a future piece on “Name Your Price” ethics.