Pick Word #40 - Modern

1. The Phoenix Foundation - Modern Rock

2. The Arcade Fire - Modern Man
3. Watson Twins - Modern Man
4. The Strokes - The Modern Age

5. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Modern Romance

2013: Top 60 So Far (Part #1): Places 51-60

What a great musical year it is so far. Many beautiful and innovative albums have been released so far, making me spending extra time to listen most of them. So I've decided to summarise what I've heard until these days, counting down from 60 to the first places, so let's start right now:

Number 60: Phoenix - Bankrupt!

Who Are They? Four piece Alternative Rock band from France (5th Record)
Why? Because it seems and sounds like a bankrupt...

Listen: Entertainment

Number 59: The Strokes - Comedown Machine

Who Are They? Five Piece Alternative Rock Band From New York (5th record)
Why? Because they sound so tired of playing, like an old band refusing to retire.

Listen: All The Time

Number 58: Deerhunter - Monomania

Who Are They? Five Piece Indie Rock band from Atlanta (6th record)
Why? Because there is so much hype around them so I couldn't ignore

Listen: T.H.M

Number 57: Olof Arnalds - Sudden Elevation

Who Is She? An Icelandic Folk singer, who released her debut album in English (3rd record)
Why? Because of the sweet voice and the simple composition of pure beauty

Listen: Bright And Still

Number 56: Anais Mitchell And Jefferson Hamer - Child Ballads

 

Who Are They? A collaboration of two highly acclaimed American Folk singers (Debut album)

Why? Because of the concept album about lost child ballads

 

Listen: Tam Lin 

 

Number 55: Phosphorescent - Muchacho

 

Who Is He? An Indie-Folk American singer called Matthew Houck from Athens (7th album)

Why? Because of one of the most beautiful songs this year....

 

Listen: Song For Zula (Amazing....)

 

Number 54: Adam Green And Binki Shapiro - Adam Green And Binki Shapiro

 

Who Are They? A collaboration of two young Anti-Folk singers from New York (Debut album)

Why? Because the catchy melodies and 60's scent

 

Listen: Here I Am

 

Number 53: Sally Shapiro - Somewhere Else

 

Who Is She? A Swedish vocalist, who performs Italo-Disco and Synthpop (3rd album)

Why? Because Swedish doing Italo-Disco better...

 

Listen: Architectured Love

 

Number 52:Ed Harcourt - Back Into The Woods

 

Who Is He? An English multi-instrumentalist, who performs Barok and Chamber Pop (8th album)

Why? Because of the special effort of recording this album in six hours, alone!

 

Listen: The Man That Time Forgot

 

Number 51: Eels - Wonderful, Glorious

 

Who Are They? It's mainly Mark Oliver Everett, a multi-instrumentalist from California (10th album)

Why? Because he's still one of the best song writers ever...

 

Listen: Peach Blossom



Comedown Machine - The Strokes

The Strokes were considered the new hot thing around in 2001, when they released their highly acclaimed debut album Is This It? I remember that I bought that disc only a few days after I heard The Modern Age and really enjoyed listening to it. But that was a long time ago, and although there weren't any changes in the group members (The five founders Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr., Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti are still together since 1998). they took a turn into more popular music, which sounds like another solo album of Julian Casablancas. Don't get me wrong, The Strokes are doing a fine job, even in this last release Comedown Machine, but they aren't getting closer to what they did at the start of the Millennium. Comedown Machine is well produced one but The Strokes sounds like an old band recording an album without any special effort to impress or surprise anyone. That's not what I was expecting from this young fellows. Down below you can hear three songs from Comedown Machine and two more which will remind how good they can be if they want to...

Welcome To Japan (Taken From Comedown Machine, 2013)

 

The Modern Age (Taken From Is This It?, 2001)

 

All This Time (Taken From Comedown Machine, 2013)

 

Heart In A Cage (Taken From First Impressions Of Earth, 2006)

 

Happy Ending (Taken From Comedown Machine, 2013)