Girls, Zee Avi, I Break Horses, Loney Dear, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

At times, they recall their sunny-pop influences from the 60s.  At others, they bring to mind early 90s alternative rock.  Sometimes this happens on the same song. It can be a schizophrenic album, but it all works well together.  Nowhere is this more evident than on “Vomit”, which starts in the mold of 90s rock, then transitions into breezy pop, and ends with a repeating refrain of “Come into my heart,” while a Procol Harum-esque organ plays in the background, and a chorus backs up the refrain.

It’s a good album for these fading days of summer.

Favorite track: “Vomit”

Rating: 4/5

Zee Avi – Ghostbird

Light, airy folk, with a hint of bossa nova at times (and more than a hint at other times).  It’s a good album for a lazy day…somewhere in the vicinity of Bebel Gilberto or Carla Bruni, with some Feist thrown in for good measure.

Favorite track: “Concrete Wall”

Rating: 3/5

I Break Horses – Hearts

A nice little summery shoegaze album.  I like it, but there’s not much to it.  By about the middle of the album, all of the songs bleed together into one big reverb-soaked mass.  There’s nothing wrong with that (like I said, I like it), but I was at the end of the album before I knew it, and I couldn’t really think of any songs that sounded much different from the rest of the album.  This seems to be a good one to put on and just let the sounds wash over you.  They basically sound like Beach House, with more than a nod to the drones of My Bloody Valentine.

Rating: 3.5/5

Loney, Dear – Hall Music

Loney, Dear haven’t changed much since they started.  Three albums in, and they’re still making the same sort of big, well-orchestrated pop music that they did on their first album.  However, they do it so well that the sameness of their albums doesn’t really bother me.  This is a good, solid album.  There are a handful of songs that I like a lot, and the rest of them fall into the category of “pretty good,” even if I can’t remember exactly what separates them.  Still, they know what they’re doing, and it shows.

Favorite track: “What Have I Become?”

Rating: 3/5

Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You

I didn’t care for Stadium Arcadium, but, for some reason, I was hoping that I would like this album.  I do not like this album.  It starts off well enough with “Monarchy of Roses”.  It’s not a great song, but it’s decent, and it’s a good, high-energy song to start things off on the right foot.  The album quickly falls off, though, culminating in the awfulness of “Look Around” and “Happiness Loves Company”. 

To quickly summarize: it’s an album filled with a couple decent songs, a lot of bad ones, and a couple terrible ones.

Favorite track: “Brendan’s Death Song:

Rating: 1/5