Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle

Human Highway is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie and Nicholas Thorburn of the band Islands. While I'm not a huge fan of Islands, Human Highway has simply blown me away with their undeniable pop sensibility and amazing harmonies. This is a band that I hope to hear more from in the future.

Tracklisting:
1. The Sound
2. All Day
3. Get Lost
4. What World
5. Sleep Talking
6. Moody Motorcycle
7. My Beach
8. Ode To Abner
9. Pretty Hair
10. Vision Failing
11. Duties Of A Lighthouse Keeper
12. I Wish I Knew

Iron & Wine - Around The Well

Admittedly, I am an avid Iron & Wine fan, so Sam Beam and Co. could release an album full of him reading War & Peace and I'd still on some level love it. Fortunately, however, Around The Well is nothing like that. It is a double disc album full of rare and unreleased songs. Disc 1 is a collection of home recordings and demos; Disc 2, a compilation of B-side tracks that were recorded in studio, but that never made the final album cuts. Around The Well is career-spanning, including outtakes from The Creek Drank The Cradle through The Shepherd's Dog. It is honestly beyond me how some of these tracks have taken so long to be released; they are brilliant.

Tracklisting:
Disc 1:
1. Dearest Forsaken
2. Morning
3. Loud As Hope
4. Peng! 33
5. Sacred Vision
6. Friends They Are Jewels
7. Hickory
8. Waitin' For A Superman
9. Swans and The Swimming
10. Call Your Boys
11. Such Great Heights

Disc 2:
1. Communion Cups and Someone's Coat
2. Belated Promise Ring
3. God Made The Automobile
4. Homeward These Shoes
5. Love Vigilantes
6. Sinning Hands
7. No Moon
8. Serpent Charmer
9. Carried Home
10. Kingdom Of The Animals
11. Arms Of A Thief
12. The Trapeze Swinger

Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door EP

The Open Door EP is an EP which consists of tracks recorded during the "Narrow Stairs Sessions", but that didn't make the album cut. The songs are great, but have a completely different feeling from the tracks on Narrow Stairs.

Great songs; I'm certainly glad that they released them anyway.

Tracklisting:
1. Little Bribes
2. A Diamond and a Tether
3. My Mirror Speaks
4. I Was Once A Loyal Lover
5. Talking Bird (Demo)

Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism

Death Cab For Cutie is a band that I have always appreciated, but it seems like I have been able to listen to few bands other than them for a few weeks now. Not just Narrow Stairs either; I'm revisiting their old albums, which certainly accounts for this post.

Regardless of how great Plans and Narrow Stairs are, neither can or will ever be able to touch Transatlanticism in my mind. It is a wonderful and cohesive album that represents my freshman year of college, when I was just beginning to pan out the good bands from the river of bad, and one that stood out was Death Cab. Say what you will about them and their recent popularity, it is hard to not smile when you hear songs like "The Sound Of Settling" or "The New Year". Beyond the radio friendly pop songs, though, are incredibly and meticulously crafted gems like "Tiny Vessels" and "We Looked Like Giants".

Death Cab For Cutie is a band that will forever be great, because Ben Gibbard and Co. refuse to write songs that appeal to anyone other than themselves. Either that, or they are brilliant at feigning it. Regardless, they make great records that speak.

Tracklisting:
1. The New Year
2. Lightness
3. Title and Registration
4. Expo '86
5. The Sound Of Settling
6. Tiny Vessels
7. Transatlanticism
8. Passenger Seat
9. Death Of An Interior Decorator
10. We Looked Like Giants
11. A Lack Of Color

Highlight Tracks: "Tiny Vessels", "Transatlanticism", "We Looked Like Giants", "A Lack Of Color"

News

In non-music related news, I proposed to my lovely girlfriend Rachel this past weekend and she said yes.

Look how cute she is...

Clint Mansell - The Fountain OST

The Fountain is easily one of the most inventive and beautiful films I have ever seen. Having said that, it would be difficult to imagine such an important film having anything less than an amazing soundtrack.

On The Fountain OST, Clint Mansell has created some of the most organic and beautiful music I have ever heard. This soundtrack is, for lack of a better word, phenomenal.

Tracklisting:
1. The Last Man
2. Holy Dread!
3. Tree Of Life
4. Stay With Me
5. Death Is a Disease
6. Xibalba
7. First Snow
8. Finish It
9. Death Is The Road To Awe
10. Together We Will Live Forever

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Another "it" band that actually lives up to the hype that surrounds them. There is not much that I can say about Silversun Pickups other than that they play great indie/rock music.

MYSPACE

Tracklisting:
1. There's No Secrets This Year
2. The Royal We
3. Growing Old Is Getting Old
4. It's Nice To Know You Work Alone
5. Panic Switch
6. Draining
7. Sort Of
8. Substitution
9. Catch and Release
10. Surrounded (or Spiraling)



I apologize for the Rapidshare, I'll re-up it once I find a mediafire link.