February 15 Album Releases

Here I am with my, I believe, third installment of "Drop it Like it's Hot" and alas, I'm in the same boat as always--floating in a sea of albums released by artists I don't know well, or have only heard of a little bit, or who, if I'm lucky, may come up on my iTunes shuffle every once a while. It's time to take a listen and begin my endeavors through the unknown. Put on on your headgear and get out your flash light. Things are going to get suspenseful, eerie and maybe even dangerous.

Oh wait. Except with Bright Eyes. We're safe here.

I know Bright Eyes pretty well, just like every other person under the age of 25 who's at all familiar with Indie music. Conor Oberst opened my eyes to a world outside of Mario and Nelly featuring Tim McGraw (those were the days). He made it so my 8th grade dances were no longer cool, 'cause my yellow Chuck Taylors (signed by Gerard Way--that's for you, Cassie) belonged on no hardwood cafeteria floor, but rather stomping the neighborhood streets with my preteen angst, or in the back of movie theaters making out with my boyfriend who liked AC/DC.

Since my young heart was first swept up by those big brown eyes and that hypnotizing music, I've never looked back. And nor will I ever. Album after album and project after project, Conor Oberst has proved to be nothing less wonderful than The NeverEnding Story. From the depressing "Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh" (Artex drowning in the sadness swamp) to "Bowl of Oranges" (Atreyu's riding Falkor around town, 'cause Falkor's got Atreyu's back, and if ever he feels like crying, he's going to try to make him laugh--too far? Sorry), Conor Oberst's endearing and passionate music never ends. And there's so many others works too. Hundreds. Thousands. Maybe even millions. One begins to wonder when a brother is going to run out of ideas. One wonders, but of course never hopes.

Anyway, he's done it again with The People's Key. It's been roughly four years since we've last heard Oberst under the name Bright Eyes. We've missed it, but there were other things to keep us full, like Monsters Of Folk, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, etc.

The People's Key is a masterpiece of sorts--a trophy to be hung in a display case. But so are all of Oberst's albums. So what if its beauty was expected, it's still a different kind of beauty. And so there's still that sense of having never heard something like it before.



As if his lyrics couldn't be more compelling and full of wisdom, Oberst one-ups himself yet again with a sureness not to be confused with charade. Heck, the guy's been trying to figure things out for years now. The time for a realization album has come, and The People's Key is that realization album. It's a great grandpa album and I want to sit on its fragile yet powerful lap and have it tell me stories of war and life and explain to me everything in the world.

Anyway, I loved it. I'm probably going to actually buy it, because Oberst, for sure, has not already sold enough copies of his albums over the last, what, 13 years?

Okay NOW we're heading into that dark cave full of music I don't know that well.

Beans with End it All: I like to eat beans, and that's all I know of the subject. Beans as in music--that I don't know. Turns out, what is a legume is also a rapper/hip-hop artist from Brooklyn, NY. He's 40 and has a family, and produces hip-hop music that's clever and not annoying to me. Nice.

The Dears with Degeneration Street: Definitely heard of them. Ah, they're from Montreal. Of course they are. Oh, Canada. When listening to this song, "Blood" from the new album, I think it's okay. It sounds like it's on the brink of System of a Down, though, without all the chaos, if you know what I mean. And I hate System of a Down soo.....moving on.

Drive-By Truckers with Go-Go Boots: Is it bad this is the first time I've ever truly listened to Drive-By Truckers? Sorry. Don't quite feel like listening to their whole discography for a comparative source, but I think this album is charming, in a hillbilly makin' his 'ma proud kind of way. What a quintessential Southern accent, too, my goodness! It's like a bottle of Southern Comfort wrapped in a paper bag, used to fill my ears and mind only with sweet, sweet contentment.

PJ Harvey with Let England Shake--Sister's Uh Huh Her is on my iTunes playlist, but only comes on every once in a blue moon. Thus, I don't know much about her, except that she's a bit of a weirdo. Grungy, eerie guitar riffs support her shaky falsetto and so I come to the conclusion that I like it only in small servings. Let England Shake seems different, though--less like it's coming from the depths of an unsafe alley-way scattered with trash and robbery and more like it's coming from an old-time fairground. Still strange, but less frightening, maybe even jovial at times.

I feel I've overdone it and so here's just a list of a few other albums released this week, with an embarrassingly frequent question mark next to each band I've never heard of:

Brown Recluse: Evening Tapestry (?)
Cowboy Junkies: Demons (Somewhere in my mind have I heard of them).
Ginuwine: Elgin (?)
La Sera: La Sera (?)
Mogwai: Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (jeez.)
Nelson: Lightening Strikes Twice (?)
Rev Theory: Justice (?)
Saigon: Greatest Story Never Told (?)
Sonic Youth: Simon Werner a Disparu (oh, cool).
Stryper: The Covering (?)
Ten: Stormwarning (?)
Twilight Singers: Dynamite Steps (?)
Yuck: Yuck (?) (Ha).

And there you have it, brothers and sisters. If you'd like to see any more detailed reviews of said albums, check out the reviews on our site.

--Hannah Cook, Managing Editor