The Null Device blog: Recent CD roundup

And now, a few quick mini-reviews of CDs I've listened to recently:

Origami, Please Exit Quietly. Their first release on Stewart Anderson's 555 label, and they got a proper jewel case in the deal too. It's pretty much standard guitar-and-Casio garage indie-rock, somewhat reminiscent of Life Without Buildings in places, only the lyrics are less vague and more politically charged (in the riot-grrl sense). It certainly has some of the most sweetly sung smash-the-system vocals, with the possible exception of Stereolab.
Sarah Sarah, Sing Till It Hurts: Loud, brash and about as subtle as the Australian sun in summer. They have a promising career ahead of them, possibly doing theme songs for youth-oriented TV soaps.
Club 8, Spring Came, Rain Fell: I've been listening to this quite a bit lately. A very nice (if somewhat brief) indie-pop album from Sweden. Shimmering guitars, subtle keyboards, understated boy-girl vocals, quietly lush harmonies, fey, bittersweet lyrics, handclaps, and the token synthpop number or two. Think The Field Mice meet Saint Etienne, or possibly a combination of Birdie, GusGus and a less stilted Kings of Convenience.

I also picked up Sigur Rós' (); I haven't listened to it in its entirety yet, but it certainly doesn't seem like they're going for the mass audience, what with the near-complete lack of text in the packaging; not to mention with cheerful tracks like the 13-minute Death Song. So far, it sounds a bit more lush than Agætis Byrjun.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com | Fri Dec 13 12:52:40 2002

Hmm, ()'s alright, though not as instantly appealing as Agaetis Byrjun - a little bit too Pink Floyd in places. The last two tracks, whatever they're called, do crack along nicely though.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Fri Dec 13 14:43:32 2002

I noticed.

Of Agaetis Byrjun, I only really liked track 2.

Posted by: diane | http:// | Sat Dec 14 03:17:07 2002

Oh, Svefn-g-englar is also my favourite track from Agaetis Byrjun.

Posted by: lapse | http:// | Sun Dec 15 01:18:06 2002

my favorite: ny batteri

i'm not sure if () is a worthy follow-up at all, i've given it plenty of listens now and only two songs manage to keep my interest

Want to say something? Do so here.

Note to spammers: This comment system applies the rel=nofollow attribute to the poster's URL and all links. Posting links to this page will not improve their search engine rankings.

Please keep comments on topic and to the point. Inappropriate comments may be deleted.

Note that markup is stripped from comments; URLs will be automatically converted into links.

Display name:
URL:(optional)
To prove that you are not a bot, please enter the text in the image on the right in the field below it.