John Fullbright, "From the Ground Up" (Blue Dirt/Thirty Tigers): The Oklahoma troubadour offers the same kind of socially conscious folk music as Woody Guthrie, who hails from the same town (Okemah). Glenn Frey, "After Hours" (Hip-O/UMe): The Detroit-born Eagles singer gets his kicks on "Route 66" and 13 other covers ranging from the Great American Songbook to the Beach Boys and Randy Newman. Dee" (Virgin): The Blur/Gorillaz/et al auteur takes another left turn here with an Elizabethan-styled opera piece inspired by the life of British scientist and court adviser John Dee.ĪLO, "Sounds Like This" (Brushfire): After making its last album in Hawaii with Jack Johnson, the California jam band kept closer to home, recording its fourth set in San Francisco.īarenaked Ladies, "Stop Us If You've Heard This Before" (Rhino): A collection of rarities and unreleased material, including three live tracks and a remix of the hit "One Week."ĭROKK, "Music Inspired by Mega-City One" (Invada UK): Portishead's Geoff Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury join forces on this set of music inspired by the "2000AD" comics series.
The Los Angeles modern rock quartet continues the sharp growth trajectory it demonstrated between its first two albums, finding a dynamically sophisticated, intricately arranged wheelhouse that blends slam-bam energy with increasingly accomplished musicality in a place frontman Brian Aubert dubs "somewhat explosive." Producer Jacknife Lee (R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Radiohead) helps guide and shape Silversun's journey through the industrial textures of "Skin Graph" and "Dots and Dashes (Enough Already)," the jazz fusion-style jamming of "Simmer" and the club-worthy electro grooves of "The Pit," while drummer Christopher Guanlo emerges as the star of the show, his nimble and facile playing putting a real pulse into this "Neck."ĭamon Albarn, "Dr. The combination of that with Rice-Oxley's top-shelf songs make "Strangeland" a pleasant and even inspiring place to visit. Fortunately he has Chapin's firm tenor to voice those feelings, supple enough to convey both heartbreak and the fortitude the lyrics express. Co-produced by Dan Grech-Marguerat (the Vaccines, Moby, Scissor Sisters) and introducing touring bassist Jesse Quin as an official member, "Strangeland" also finds Rice-Oxley in a reflective frame of mind, surveying life to this point with a decidedly adult air as he asks, "Is there somewhere I'm meant to be?" - before concluding, of course, that place is exactly where he is, warts and all. That sense of care is evident in the smooth, swelling majesty of "The Starting Line," the airy restraint of "Black Rain" and the Beatles-flavored melodicism of "Watch How You Go," while "On the Road," "Sovereign Light Cafe" and the pep talk "Day Will Come" put some muscle into the proceedings. After getting caught up in production and tone - to good effect - on 2008's " Perfect Symmetry" and the 2010 follow-up EP "Night Train" - chief writer Tim Rice-Oxley and his mates return to the focus on songcraft that marked the British group's earlier albums. Tom Chapin declares, "We dream hard, we shoot high" on Keane's fourth full-length album, and more often than not here the British group hits its marks.
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