Albums added in September:14,769

Featured Selections

Handsome Family, Through the Trees (13)

Funny story – my friend TNG played this alt-country couple’s album essentially non-stop for six months in an office we shared, and I hated it. Now I can’t live without it. I have since sampled the rest of their catalog, and while still quality all, they never top the lyrical genius and sublime modesty of tracks like “Weightless Again”, “My Sister’s Tiny Hands”, “Giant of Illinois” and “The Woman Downstairs.”

The Notwist, Neon Golden (13)

Glitch acoustic-inflected marginal pop, of the Ms. John Soda vein. “Consequence” will remind you of something you can never quite pin down.

Ulrich Schnauss, A Strangely Isolated Place (8)
-, Far Away Trains Passing By (6+6)
-, Passing By (4)

Ulrich Schnauss started out in homage to early Tangerine Dream and gradually evolves over multiple releases into warm 90s shoegazer ambience, sounding like instrumentals left off Slowdive’s Souvlaki.

Hector Zazou & Swara, In the House of Mirrors (10)

It came as a shock to discover that Hector Zazou had died, which I found out simply by reading a user review of this, his final collaboration.


Best Metaphoric Cover

Richard Strauss, Elektra (10+12)

Presumably meant to capture the titular character as “the personification of the passionate lust for vengeance.”

See Also
All Girl Summer Fun Band, Looking Into It (11)

Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam (9)
-, Water Curses (4)

Tori Amos, Live at Montreux 91/92 (16)

Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say That’s What I’m Not (13)

Björk, Dull Flame of Desire (6)

black tape for a blue girl, The Pleasures Everlasting (4)
-, the first pain to linger (7)

Harold Budd, A Song for Lost Blossoms (7)

Tony Carey, Blue Highway (10)

Caribou, Up in Flames (10+6)
-, Start Breaking My Heart (10+10)

Featuring the insouciant title of disc 2, track 8.

Cassette Electrik, Electromagnetic (10)
-, 28 Days (4)

Cassettes Won’t Listen, Freeze and Explode (6)

The Cinematic Orchestra, Ma Fleur (10)

Anne Clark, Wordprocessing (11)

Josie Cotton, Movie Disaster Music (11)

Daft Punk, Leftovers (12)

Matthew Dear, Asa Breed Black Edition (17)

Four Tet, Rounds (10)
-, Pause (11)
-, Everything Ecstatic (10)
-, Everything Ecstatic Part 2 (5)
-, Ringer (4)

John Foxx, Modern Art – The Very Best (18)

Front 242, Moments 1 (18)

The Gathering, Downfall – the Early Years (14+13)

Golden Girls, Kinetic (2)

Grouper, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (12)

Halou, Halou (14)

Handsome Family, Odessa (14)

Mickey Hart, Planet Drum Supralingua (16)

Kirsty Hawkshaw vs Arnold T, Good To Be Alive (8)

Gemma Hayes, Hollow of Morning (10)

Horse Feathers, House With No Home (11)

Human Drama, Moments in Time (15)
-, Feel (16)
-, The Best Of (16)

Ladytron, Runaway – single (4)
-, Runaway EP1 (4)
-, Runaway EP2 (4)

Laika & The Cosmonauts, Cosmopolis (27)

The Levellers, Letters from the Underground (11)

Annbjørg Lien, Waltz With Me (10)

Lightspeed Champion, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (12)

Lovespirals, Windblown Kiss (10)

Love Spirals Downwards, Idylls [Remastered] (16)

Luscious Jackson, In Search of Manny (7)

Mogwai, Batcat (3)

The Notwist, The Devil You + Me (11)

October Project, Angels We Have Heard (1)

Okkervil River, The Stand Ins (11)

Planar, This Battle Will Make Your Blood Boil (8)

Psychic TV, Peak Hour (11)

Ratatat, Shempi (2)

The Raveonettes, Sometimes They Drop By (4)

Rozalla, Everybody’s Free (12)

Kate Ryan, Alive (17)

Lee Safar, Who I’ve Become (5)

Sebadoh, III (23)
-, Bubble and Scrape (32)
-, The Freed Man (52)

If you have been on the prowl for 90s alt-punk Sebadoh, you might want to still check the bargain bin simply due to the track counts (108 over only 3 albums).

Vonda Shepard, (10)

Sia, The Girl You Lost to Cocaine (2)

The Smithereens, B-Sides The Beatles (12)

Solarstone, Spectrum (3)

Stone Roses, Sally Cinnamon (4)

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, Under the Covers Vol. 1 (15)

Kristy Thirsk, Under Cover (4)

Channeling her inner Goldfrapp on “Hourglass” and a slinked-up version of “When Doves Cry.”

Jill Tracy, Diabolical Streak (10)

Tricky, Knowle West Boy (13)

Sven Väth, Accident in Paradise (11)
-, The Harlequin The Robot and the Ballet-Dancer (9)

Way Out West, Spaceman (3)

Robert Wyatt, Comicopera (16)

soundtrack, Bones (13)
-, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (14)
-, The Simpsons – Testify (41)

Free

The Real Tuesday Weld, eMusic Compilation 2008 (10)

various, Global Symphonic Sound (6)

various, Simulacra Records Label Sampler (11)

Spoken Word

Lewis Black, Anticipation (11)

George Carlin, It’s Bad For Ya (28)

Randy Pauch, Time Management (1)

Basil Rathbone, Sherlock Holmes – Tales From Baker Street (2)
-, Tales from Baker Street [2] (2)

Tribute Corner

various, Time After Time Vol 3 (12)

Value

Tom Green, Music for MRI Scanners (3)