Tim Cohen - Laugh Tracks

Tim Cohen
Laugh Tracks
(2010, Captured Tracks)
RIYL = Fresh & Onlys, French Quarter, singing with an acoustic guitar

Cohen, of the fancypants garage rock band The Fresh & Onlys, has now blinked onto us this, his second solo album. And while his debut was pleasant, Laugh Tracks is much better. Everything is still shoe string (as I imagine it will always be with Cohen), but on Laugh Tracks the hooks are there, the songs are ripe, and everything sticks. There is a slack feeling of Cohen enjoying himself on the album, self-assured and beaming with quality and consistency. La la la, what else is there to say? Great grand goodness with an acoustic guitar and all that pithy blah-talk. That’s it, I’ve nothing more. Listen and learn yourself.

-Thistle

Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils
Beach Fossils
(2010, Captured Tracks/Woodsist)
RIYL = A Faulty Chromosome, Real Estate, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Beach Fossils is the summer of 2010. Or maybe the summer of 1980. Or even the summer of 1960. It’s kinda timeless like that. Like a melting ice cream cone. Like The Sandlot (1993). (Like early eighties New Order.) So Beach Fossils is, simply, summer. And for that it is wholly appropriate (I would’ve posted about it earlier this week, but felt like the appearance of snow in Salt Lake City was a sign to forbear). Beach Fossils is straight laced indie rock. It’s as simple as that. And with that understanding you might be tempted to yawn, flip your pillow to its cooler side and fall back to sleep. But you’d be making a mistake. Listening to Beach Fossils is far more comfortable/relaxing/rejuvenating than a Saturday nap. And more consistant too (you never wake up with that disorienting, "What? It's already 6PM?" feeling). Eleven straight tracks goodness - no filler. With their jangly guitars and understated-yet-powerful hooks (so Brooklyn right now!), Beach Fossils have turned out one of the best pop albums of the year. There is not much more that one can say than that, right? Nope, not much.

-Thistle

Hanoi Janes - Year Of Panic

Hanoi Janes
Year of Panic
(2010, Captured Tracks)
RIYL = The Fresh & Onlys, Blank Dogs, Thomas Function

Listening to Hanoi Janes I can’t get the image out of my head of some frail pack of boys with broken wrists and broken ankles. Haha. I don’t know that says about Year of Panic, the band’s (or, more accurately, Oliver Scharf's) debut LP, but I like it. I really like it. The guitar strings on this album have been wrapped up in pulleys to lift up the sun in the morning, I’ll tell ya. I want to say infinite hooks, and then I want to say white washed to oblivion, and then I want to talk about how the guitars spew glitter, rainbows and flower petals. Is that sufficient? This is music for blasting from your 1988 Ferrari Testarossa convertible (as soon as I can get $64,900, this is exactly what I’m going to do). But, don’t worry, you don’t really need a Ferrari to enjoy this wonky, time worn gem. All you need is an 11 dial on your volume control and some shakin' hips. Seriously, I have nothing to say about this album except that it is the summer of 2010 and why not? I’m ready for some warmth and faded blue skies. Alright, let’s get to the nuts and bolts: Year of Panic - fifteen beautifully wonderfully smiling garage pop gems that musically bedazzle your life, I kid you not.

-Thistle

not on the album, but you'll get the idea...