The Price of Being Skint In Avalanche

I took a little wander into town yesterday in an attempt to break the monotony of an uneventful lifestyle. And, as is inevitable, I ended up in Avalanche Records, the best shop in Edinburgh. I only had thirty squids on my person, and for a music nutter such as myself that is just not enough… I always have an itch to buy everything I see. I noticed Conor Oberst has a new album out. Huh? How did that slip past me? And I still haven’t got Grizzly Bear’s most recent album. Bugger, fuck, shite, cunt and arse-flaps. I need a job.

Anyway, I did buy three albums so here goes…

Aidan Moffat – How To Get To Heaven From Scotland

This is actually pretty decent. Not as good as I anticipated, but good nonetheless. I was expecting something slightly more sophisticated and quirky, but it turned out to be rather predictable in places. It has a rather safe structure and safe set of up and down tunes. Moffat’s lyrics are quite clever and witty, but seem to lack any real conviction, which is a bit of a problem for some, but it can be easily ignored so not to worry. The stand out songs on the album for me are Big Blonde and Oh Men! both with up-beat folky jingle-jangliness, if that makes sense.
Overall it’s not bad, but could be better.

MySpace

Zoey Van Goey – The Cage Was Unlocked All Along

When I uploaded this to my iTunes earlier the genre column was automatically filled with “Unclassifiable”, which perfectly describes this album. It has everything in it. To try and put a label to this band would be like trying to find a can of Irn Bru in America. Impossible. This album encompasses nearly every style of music I can think of. Well…you know what I mean. It’s got the obvious folk tinged indie that’s everywhere at the moment, but it has so much more. It’s hard to describe. There’s a vestige of electro and at times there’s a splash of reggae thrown in to the mix. There’s also a very comfortable classical feel to it, which may just be me, I don’t know. It’s weird, there’s so much to mention about this, but I really just want to say, fuck it…go and buy this, then sing and dance and have fun. You will not be disappointed. Really. There’s not one song you won’t like.
The nice guy at Avalanche let me know that they’re playing instore on the 25th of May at 2pm or thereabouts, so be there or be square.

MySpace

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

This is just fucking outstanding. Not much else to say. Camera Obscura’s previous releases have been brilliant, but this is the crème de la crème. Don’t think I can write about this without using the word perfect. There’s nothing wrong with this album. Tracyanne Campbell’s voice is to die for. If she doesn’t make you melt and reduce to a puddle on the floor then I don’t know what will. The lyrics are lovely, as is the music. The balance between the two is immaculate; they compliment one another magically, which seems to be slightly absent thesedays what with bands using the irony of happy music and sad lyrics.
I first put this on while I was tidying my house and within the five seconds it took to get a hang of the beat I was dancing with the Dyson.
It’s brilliant. End of. Buy it. Now.

MySpace