Sorry I’ve neglected the Album of the Week. It’s really hard to write about music. I think I am going to make my requirements for AOTW postage less strict.

So with that in mind, this weeks Album of the Week is the eponymous Ladyhawke
. It’s a very 80’s sounding album by the interesting artist Ladyhawke. According to Wikipedia Ladyhawke has a weird seagull disease, Asbergers syndrome, and is allergic to medicine?

I love the songs Paris is Burning, and Dusk ‘Til Dawn. If you can get ahold of the international version of Paris is Burning where she sings english for most of the song and French for the chorus that is most excellent. I haven’t been able to find it though.

Colors: Black and Hot Pink.

This week’s Album of the Week is Anywhere I Lay My Head by Scarlett Johansson. The album is comprised of Tom Waits covers done by Johansson. According to my friend Neil and also Internet, Dave Sitek, also made quite the impression on the album as a whole.

The main impression one gets from the album is it’s muddled sound. It’s as if Johansson is singing from the bottom of a lake or something. That has a lot to do with all of the effects on the songs. I think it gives the album an interesting feel. I have one friend that when he listens to it he can’t get through a song because he just wants to listen to Tom Waits originals.

I think this album is good for listening to when you are feeling introspective and the Nuckelavee are after you. If you need some solace from the outside world let Scarlett envelop you with her voice while Tom Waits sings through her.

Favorites: I Don’t Want To Grow Up, I Wish I Was In New Orleans, Fannin’ Street, Falling Down, Anywhere I Lay My Head.

Colors: Black, Blue, Brown.

Furr by Blitzen Trapper is the Album of the Week. This post (as well as 2-3 others) should have been done earlier in the week, but I was a little swamped. Sorry if you were on the edge of your seat

So Furr has definitely been my favorite album this week. I can tell because Last.fm tells me I have listened to it ELEVEN TIMES in the past 7 days. I would describe the style as somewhere between Neko Case (indie country) and Bob Dylan. I have also seen the band compared to Neil Young as well.

Their style is also slightly erratic, with songs like Fire & Fast Bullets, which brings OK Go to mind, and then Gold For Bread which is more like older rock, but with weird noises in the song at some parts. Very intriguing music.

Factoid: both Furr and God & Suicide have been on the NBC show Chuck. You may not like that show, but it definitely has lots of indie music (whatever that means.)

I dig the lyrics. The first song that caught my ear, Furr, is about the transformation from man to wolf to man. And then we have Black River Killer:

Then I went to the river for to take a swim
You know that black river water is as black as sin
And I washed myself clean as a newborn babe
And then I picked up a rock for to sharpen my blade

Favorite songs: Furr, God & Suicide, Black River Killer, Fire & Fast Bullets, Saturday Nite, Gold For Bread.

Colors: Tan and Brown.

Brave by Marillion is this weeks Album of the Week. Before I get into specifics I need to tell a story about how I got into Marillion…

I found out I loved prog music because of Transatlantic. Marillion’s Pete Trewavas is one of the members of Transatlantic. I checked out all of the other band member’s groups, but I never did check out Marillion (as in order a CD.) One day I was in the thrift store and I happened upon a Marillion album (Season’s End.) It was surprisingly good and I bought up a few more albums (Misplaced Childhood, Fugazi, and some other one I can’t find.) Anyway, I just cannot believe that I found music that excellent at a thrift store.

Back to Brave. Brave is one of the earlier Marillion albums, yet it still falls into the “Hogarth” era Marillion. I would compare Marillion with Radiohead, except I don’t really like Radiohead enough to know them that well. Marillion often has fairly dark music, and Brave is no exception. I have never actually noticed the lyrics on Brave (except for The Great Escape,) but Brave is a concept album. I recommend reading the lyrics instead of listening to me about that though.

I would also describe this album as very heartfelt; that is, I would say that feeling and meaning tend to bleed through. I would compare this to how I feel about The Arcade Fire.

Brave is one of those albums that you really should listen to in its entirety. It has a great intro and an excellent finale. Brave is a good album to listen to when it’s pouring rain out and you just feel like brooding.

Favorites: Bridge, Living with the Big Lie, Hard as Love, Brave, The Great Escape.

Colors: Black, Navy.

Tallahassee is the album of the week. This was the first of the higher quality albums put out by The Mountain Goats. If I were to describe The Mountain Goats concisely I would probably say they are depressing, prolific, and well-read.

I think the lyrics of this band really need to be put at the front stage, so check out these samples:

From Southwood Plantation Road:

All night long you giggle and scream
Your brown eyes deeper than a dream
I am not going to lose you
We are going to stay married
In this house like a Louisiana graveyard
Where nothing stays buried
On Southwood Plantation Road
Where the dead will walk again
Put on their Sunday best
And go with unsuspecting Christian men
La la la la la

And from the classic No Children:

I hope that our few remaining friends
Give up on trying to save us
I hope we come up with a failsafe plot
To piss off the dumb few that forgave us
I hope the fences we mended
Fall down beneath their own weight
And I hope we hang on past the last exit
I hope it’s already too late
And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
Someday burns down
And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
And I never come back to this town
Again in my life
I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die

Notice a theme? That goes through almost all of the albums by The Mountain Goats. This album is actually entirely about “the alpha couple” but other albums have them too, except in those albums the song title starts with “Alpha.”

My favorites on this album are: Southwood Plantation Road, No Children, Peacocks, See America Right, and Oceanographer’s Choice.

Colors: Brown, Tan.

Ultravisitor, by SquarePusher, was one of the first experimental techno bands that I was introduced to. It has the distinction of being the only music I’ve ever listened to with my friend Fjord that he asked me to change. It is quite noisy, but it also has some very pretty parts.

Do you have friends who say, “Yeah, I’ll listen to pretty much anything except Country music,” or some variation of that? Well, show them this album. They might be down at first, but they’ll probably change their mind after a few tracks. I even had a friend who claimed that this album doesn’t count because “It’s not music!” That is certainly a falsehood, as I think this album is quite an interesting experience. You may not be able to listen to it all the time, but it’s still worth hearing at least twice.

An interesting fact to note about this album is that, while it is techno, SquarePusher plays at least one “real” instrument, the bass guitar, and it sounds very pretty. The bass is very environmental, which is probably true of most bass guitar, but this is much more in the foreground.

Favorites: Iambic 9, Ultravisitor, Circlewave.

Colors: Black and White and Pink and Cyan

This Saturday someone broke into my car. They stole my GPS unit, my awesome Treo 650 + 32 Gig SD Card mp3 player, and the faceplate to my stereo. I am not telling you this so that you’ll feel bad for me; I am telling you so that you will understand why I have chosen Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse as the album of the week.

Out of all of the bands that I know and love, Modest Mouse is probably the second most depressing. Their worldview is almost entirely pessimistic. The music is great in that it’s easy to listen to and great to jam out to, but it is also unusual in the strange singing style. Modest Mouse is good to listen to when you are depressed (assuming you don’t have suicidal tendencies) and also when you just wanna rock out with the windows down.

One other interesting observation: I think that Float On is probably most (if not only) positive song by Modest Mouse. An interesting thing about that is that it presumes negativity but says that sometimes things are good and that ultimately everything will be “OK.”

Favorite Tracks: Float On, The Ocean Breathes Salty, The View, One Chance, and The Good Times Are Killing Me.

Colors: Light Blue and Brown.

A good friend told me that instead of making huge lists of albums I should instead make a post a week for an album. What a great idea! I begin this today.

Caveat Lector: I don’t care if a band is popular, is musically weak, socially unacceptable, or any other reasons unrelated to the sound of a specific album. I don’t care about what you said about it or what your indie reviews said. I just care about if I liked the album. With that said, let’s get started

I figure that if I have to start with something I will start with (statistically) my favorite album. This surprises me, but according to last.fm October Rust by Type O Negative is my favorite album of the past 12 months. It seems that way from that graph anyway.

My roommate tells me that Type O Negative is technically classified as industrial. I have looked all over the place for something that’s actually similar and I can’t seem to find anything. October Rust is excellent for background music, but it’s also excellent if you want to have your very own personal hour and twenty six minute long Halloween.

I don’t know if using words to describe music makes much sense, so that’s all I’ll do for that this week.

My favorite tracks of the album: Love You To Death, Red Water, Die With Me, Wolf Moon, and Haunted.

Colors: Black and green.