2006-11-17 15:08:00
Not content with musical convention, Chris Garneau restricts his soft voice to starts and stutters, as if it refuses to leave his lips. At its most fluttery, it brings to mind the likes of Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens, but Garneau breaks free of easy comparisons in "First Place!!!"
2006-11-14 13:34:00
The Chicago band Lesser Birds of Paradise, known for its hushed and pastoral folk music, takes "You Are My Sunshine" out of the American songbook and slows the classic to a crawl. Left to a hypnotic trance, the words take on significant new meaning.
2006-11-09 14:20:00
The Swedish bubblegum-pop collective I'm From Barcelona seems almost cult-like -- sort of like a grown-up version of an elementary-school choir. Dispensed amid soaring three-chord pop melodies and a chorus of happy voices, the joyful subject matter almost invariably touches upon the mundane.
2006-11-03 15:03:00
With an emphasis on the weird, unusual and forgotten, Peter and the Wolf's musical ambitions breathe life into sounds of the past. The most striking piece on his new Lightness, "Silent Movies," is an old-fashioned, swooning love song.