Album Review: Moon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

One of my most anticipated films of the year came out in Vermont a couple weeks ago, and I finally was able to catch it in theaters. Moon is an absolutely brilliant film, and my full review for the movie is here, on my regular site.

The score stands apart, however, and Clint Mansell has really done a spectacular job with this score. His other big claims on films was Requium for a Dream and The Fountain. The Fountain soundtrack is a stunning piece of art, there's no way around that. Where that score is far more ambient and airy, Moon has a far different feel to it, with a rhythmic and repedative main theme that aids the feeling of isolation and loneliness for Sam Bell, played by actor Sam Rockwell.

Whereas in most scores, a monotonous and repedative score is a bad thing, this aids the film rather nicely because of its connection to the themes of the movie. Indeed, at points, the score almost overwhelms part of the film, one of the few annoying parts of the film, and it easily stands on its own for music. Welcome to Lunar Industries, the opening track, works beautifully with the opening credits as we're slowly introduced to Sam's life on the station. The first half of the soundtrack has a similar sound and feel, but for the second half, there is far more elegant and different feel to the remaining tracks.

This soundtrack is both beautiful, elegant and well worth purchasing. The film is brilliant, beautiful and well worth seeing.

Welcome to Lunar Industries - Clint Mansell

First Snow - Clint Mansell

Hype - Buy - Look

EP Review: Arrica Rose

Arrica Rose's short EP Pretend I'm Fur is a somewhat uneven affair, but a good listen that is sprinkled through with some stellar tracks. This short, 6 track EP falls well within the singer/songwriter genre, and mixes influences from indie, folk, soul and rock to create a very easygoing listening experience.

Rose currently hails from California, where there seems to be a lot of this sort of music lately, and if you like singers such as A Girl Called Eddy or Priscilla Ahn, she'll be right up your alley.

Pretend I'm Fur carries with it the very typical nature of indie-folk, but it's far more downtrodden than some of the other works out there by similar artists. Each song is pretty depressing, when you get down to it, dealing with various breakups, departures and so on. The saving grace for this album is the high points, namely Tragedy and Be, two songs that really stand out from the rest of the album for their sound, which is both unique and flowing.

This EP will largely appeal to the indie-rock crowd, and not much beyond that, ultimately, which is a shame because there is some good material on here.

Be - Arrica Rose

Hype - Buy - Look - Support

New Artist - The Rifles

Right off the bat, the London based group The Rifles sound quite a lot like The Cold War Kids and the Arctic Monkeys, releasing a digital EP, featuring four sounds from their second album Great Escape, released earlier this year and later in July in North America. The title track makes the cut, but the remainder of the album is all new material that won't be on the album.

The group came about in 2003 when lead vocalist and guitarist Joel Stoker met fellow guitarist Lucus Crowther at a concert and formed The Rifles, releasing their first album two years later, entitled When I'm Alone, gaining some airplay, and a tour. While touring, they began work on their next work in 2007, Great Escape, which was released in January of 2009.

The Great Escape EP is a fun, light affair across the four songs on it. There's a sense of raw and youthful energy throughout, and this works spectacularly well. There's a clean feeling to this album, with precise and to the point guitar licks and lyrics. This is the sort of album that would be very fun to listen to while driving really fast. Like the Arctic Monkeys, it's the energy here that carries the songs, with the same sort of Cold War Kids grunge/pop sound that catches the ear.

The Great Escape - The Rifles

Hype - Buy - Look

One Small Step For Man

40 years ago today, humanity landed on the moon, mankind's greatest achivement to date. What will come next?

MP3 Clip of EVA Activity

Look - Retrospectives - Interact

Fly Me To The Moon

I've talked a bit before about space history, and today is a particularly significant date in the field: 40 years ago today, Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on its mission to land on the moon. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins were aboard and would reach the moon four days later for their landing.

I did a brief writeup on the leadup to the moon mission, if anyone's interested: http://jeditrilobite.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/the-road-to-the-moon There'll be more on the 20th and 24th at the same site to cover the actual landing and aftermath.

Fly Me To The Moon - Frank Sinatra

Hype - Look - Watch

New Video - Nothing But A Miracle

I talked about Diane Birch yesterday, and just came across a video for her current single, Nothing But a Miracle. I'll be seeing her tonight in Burlington, and I'm quite excited!

.

New Artist - Diane Birch

New singer/songwriters are always fantastic to come across, and this holds true for Diane Birch, who has just released her first album, Bible Belt. This thirteen track album is one of the most refreshing albums that I've heard thus far this year, and it's quickly tracking to be one of my favorites for 2009.

Neo-Soul seems to be gaining a bit of popularity, with acts such as Grace Potter, Myra Flynn and James Hunter releasing some fantastic material. Birch is well poised to really make a splash with her first album. The first word that really comes to mind is rich, upon listening to Bible Belt - there's a good variety of sound that really makes me think of acts such as Rilo Kiley (especially with the track Valentino), Bonnie Raitt and Fleetwood Mac, among others. While it is a little odd to call an album refreshing, yet compare it to a number of established sounds, Birch forges ahead with a unique blend of influences and energy that marks the best albums.

There's energy aplenty here, which I really like, but the album does sink to a couple of more reflective songs that give a good balance throughout the album. Birch takes over the piano throughout the album, with a very good backing group, ranging from brass, violins to the typical guitar, bass and drums. This is coupled together with some solid lyrics that really mesh together to give the album a fun tone that's not overly heavy. Tracks such as Fire Escape, Fools, Nothing But A Miracle, Rewind, and a couple others are fairly mellow, laid back and easy going, while a couple others, such as Valentino and Don't Wait Up kick the energy a bit and pick up the pace for a couple of fun minutes.

Aspects of Diane's life are throughout the album. The daughter of a pastor within a fairly strict religious community, according to her biography is evident through songs such as Nothing But a Miracle and Forgiveness, but there's elements that really move against this a bit, with influences from the classics of pop-rock as well. There's further evidence of youthful rebellion in the song Don't Wait Up, which helps to make this album more than a one off sound and theme. This is a fun, interesting and complicated album.

Birch is a singer/songwriter of the Internet generation, getting her music on Myspace and garnering attention at smaller gigs, but she's far beyond the artists who merely post because they like hearing themselves - there is real and genuine talent here, and as her bio describes, Bible Belt is a tour-de-force album. Amen to that.

Nothing But A Miracle - Diane Birch
Photograph - Diane Birch

Hype - Buy - Look - Charity

Power! Top Gear Returns

One of my favorite TV shows, Top Gear, has come back on the air, in the UK on Sundays. There's quite a bit of Jeremy Clarkson hate out there, but I love the three presenters and their style of reviewing, their rediculous analogies, and the absurd amount of fun that they seem to have with their jobs.

The thing that the show has really done for me is instill a love for driving. I've posted up a couple of driving mixes on here, which I always get a kick out of putting together, and it's a pastime that I really enjoy, despite the rising prices of gas... er... petrol. Driving is supposed to be fun, more than just going from point A to B.

This season has been fun thus far, and from the opening preview of the season, it looks like they're just going to have a lot more fun with the remaining episodes.

No Cars Go - Arcade Fire

The Shock Of The Lightning - Oasis

Grounds for Divorce - Elbow

Hype - Buy - Look

Review: Tarpits and Canyonlands

Last year, I came across the fantastic band Bombadil with their debut album A Buzz, A Buzz, which I loved for its quirky nature and fun sound. Now, the guys are back with their latest disc Tarpits and Canyonlands, which is out today in all fine records stores and via internet shops.

Tarpits and Canyonlands is a fantastic followup to A Buzz A Buzz, retaining much of the quirk and charm that they have since established with their prior works, but there is a hint of growth with this followup that demonstrates a bit of restraint and wisdom on the part of the group. They haven't felt the need to go and completely change up their sound - they have something that works, and works well, and as this album amply shows, they don't need to do much to it to make a fantastic record.

The record opens very strongly with a trio of songs - I Am, Sad Birthday and Honeymoon that set up the record nicely with a sound that's largely reminiscent of their prior record before the tone shifts slightly: Reasons feels more somber, Cold Runway, So Many Ways to Die and Marriage take on a far more reflective look towards storytelling than I was expecting, and the result gives the album a bit more depth and changes it just enough to prevent this album from falling into the trap of being a carbon copy of their first album. The tone picks up a bit more for the last third of the album with Laurita, Kuala Lumpur, Pyramid, 25 Daniels and Matthew, bringing out more of the odd sounds that the group has demonstrated in some of their concerts and other works.

When it comes to a followup album, there are a number of expectations, from fans, from critics and the members themselves. Everybody has their own ideas about what the direction should be, and it's a hard path to follow to both meet and exceed expectations. Bombadil has done this wonderfully with Tarpits and Canyonlands, by putting together a clever, interesting and reflective album that exceeds what they did with A Buzz, A Buzz. Hopefully, we'll see more of that in the future.

Sad Birthday - Bombadil

Pyramid - Bombadil

Hype - Buy - Look

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals : Medicine

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have been in the news a bit lately. They lost one of their original members because of creative differences, and have since added on two additional players (Benny Yurco and Catherine Popper), and have been busily working on their next album, which was just announced: Medicine. There are no details on what tracks will be making up the playlist for that album, or a release date, but eager fans should mark down their July 12th concert in Burlington Vermont for the International Waterfront Festival, which is celebrating the 400th anniversary of Lake Champlain's discovery by European Samuel D Champlain. There, they'll be playing some of their new songs from the album.

Here's a couple of new discoveries from Archive.org, including what's most likely the title track to Medicine:

Kitchen - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Medicine - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Hype - Buy - Visit