Richard Thompson – Dream Attic
Since the ‘60s, when he helped Fairport Convention fuse rock and British folk music, Richard Thompson has been one of our time’s mightiest guitar gunslingers. His style is rarely predictable, making connections to bagpipe drone, free-jazz harmonics and psychedelic studio effects (pretty cool how he can sound like he’s playing a “backward” solo while going full speed ahead).

But he’s relatively under-celebrated as a great soloist, in part because he puts an equal if not greater premium on songwriting, often muting his instrumental capabilities to serve his literate, lacerating songs. At times this has led to albums that can appear a little dry, easy to respect but short on the kind of goosebump-inducing peaks he’s capable of conjuring in concert.

With “Dream Attic” (Shout! Factory), he attacked that problem by recording his latest batch of originals on the road with his touring band. Coincidental or not, the setting opens things up considerably for Thompson the guitarist, his songs gaining an immediacy and intensity that sometimes gets refined away in his sometimes too-careful studio recordings.   Read the full review

Disturbed – Asylum
Don’t let this first track fool you. The album opens in a rather disappointing fashion with “Remnants”, which is an extremely weak and effortless instrumental offering. As one of the few rock bands with a defining instrumental capability at their disposal, Disturbed really disappoints with this one, as the intended opening to “Asylum”. Sure, it might pay some homage to their senior rock inspirations, but it pales in comparison. It’s one thing to include nearly a minute of near-silence somewhere on the album as a brief respite, but I find it to be another thing entirely when you start your album off with nearly a minute of near-silent filler.

Luckily, “Asylum” quickly kicks up the gritty bass drum and guitar work that I’ve come to know and expect from the band. My interest is rewarded: the album really starts with Draiman passionately intoning, “Release me!”. At first, I didn’t like this track. It felt a bit too one-dimensional for an opening track, but after listening to it a few more times with my system turned way up, I began to peel back the layers. This one is definitely for fans of Indestructible. I found myself repeating the hook to myself after listening: “And the loneliness is killing me.” Don’t be too surprised if this hits your radio – HARD – as the second single. Read the full review

Jenny  & Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now
Jenny & Johnny represent a different situation. In this couple, the woman is the powerhouse and the man, though forceful in his own ways, rises to her challenges. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice have been creatively and romantically involved for half a decade; the lady, one of indie’s most successful thinking beauties, is the bigger star. Maybe that’s why this project, though lighthearted, has some of the prickliness of a real day-to-day relationship. The title may be “I’m Having Fun Now,” but there’s room for wisecracks, bitterness and worry amid the lovey-dovey stuff. Read the full review

Ray Lamontagne – God Willin
Ray LaMontagne’s voice is like sea salt caramel: smooth, thick and sticky, with a little bite. Some people think it’s a bit too much; others can’t get enough. In his previous albums, the Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter has tried different wrappings for that instrument: He’s gone dark and moody; mimicked the manly chug-a-lug of his inspiration Stephen Stills; and put some horns on it, edging into retro-soul.

Nothing’s worked perfectly. But on this new effort, self-produced at home with his touring band on hand, LaMontagne made the good decision to not worry much about packaging. “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise” has a natural feel, comfortably ranging from bar-band rave-ups to contemplative acoustic numbers, with master pedal steel player Greg Leisz leading several tracks into the expertly unfussy territory of blue-chip Nashville country rock. Read the full Review

Esperanza Spalding – Chamber Music Society
A classically trained bassist, Esperanza Spalding made her jazz debut in 2008 and became something of an overnight sensation, with bookings on Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel and an invitation from President Obama to perform at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and concert. As its title suggests, her new album draws on both her jazz and conservatory impulses. The result is an intimate, heady mix. Read the full review

NOFX – The Longest EP
“The Longest EP” is for fans of NOFX. Outsiders just wouldn’t get it. Plus, if you’re into punk and don’t already know NOFX, you seriously better wake up and smell the Valuum (lame joke, sorry).

It’s been referred to as the sequel to 2002’s “45 or 46 Songs That Weren’t Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records”, and all other NOFX EPs are going out of print on release of this album.

The artwork itself is a gift from the piss soaked Gods. It features a person or item from every one of the band’s previous releases, including Nubs, Timmy the Turtle, the nurse from “Pump Up The Vallum” and the George Bush clown. It was created by the genius behind the “Longest Line” EP artwork. Read the full review

Lost in the Trees – All Alone in an Empty House
Is it wrong to think that almost all music, at least of the vaguely ethereal variety, would sound better if played from two (or more) stereos at once, staggered slightly in time? I accidentally did this while listening to Lost in the Trees’ All Alone in an Empty House. The first take of the music came from iTunes, while the second, trailing closely behind, played via an automatic stream on Trekky Records’ Web page. Suddenly, string parts unfolded into a dense, sylvan thicket, like arms of ivy climbing into each other. It sounded, y’know, lost. Read the full review

Los Lobos – Tin can
Recorded in the East L.A. neighborhood where Los Lobos were birthed in the early ‘70s, there’s plenty of scruff in the stories on “Tin Can Trust.” The 11 tracks are all carefully decorated, be it the vintage guitar strut of “On Main Street” or the sparse atmospheres of “27 Spanishes,” where the hand drums, rhythmic clanks and jagged guitars reverberate as if they were laid down in an alley. Read the full review

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
The metrics of The Suburbs are misleading: At 16 tracks, including interludes and multi-part songs, it might seem like Arcade Fire are shooting for their Sandinista!, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, or Sign O’ The Times– a band at the peak of their powers reacting against the walls closing in by blowing everything up and trying anything. But the album actually plays out more like Bruce Springsteen’s The River, a generously paced collection of meditations on familial responsibility, private disappointments, and fleeting youth, much of which takes place in moving vehicles. It also reintroduces much-needed levity to an act that can be overbearingly self-serious. On the deceptively chipper chamber pop of “Rococo”, Win Butler borders on patronizing, evoking Nirvana’s “In Bloom” and using the title word as a sword to skewer an easy target: the hipster more concerned with following trends than locating a genuine understanding in the world around him. But the point is that Butler values directness and truth, and throughout The Suburbs, what he lacks in poetry, he makes up for with honesty. Read the full review

Gov’t Mule – Mulennium
December 31, 1999 ushered in a new century and millennium and called for something truly magical–and that night’s Gov’t Mule show at Atlanta’s historic Roxy Theatre delivered it. What made this New Years Eve show so extraordinary? For starters, Little Milton, one of Warren Haynes’ most important influences, joins Gov’t Mule for six songs including “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and “It Hurts Me Too.” Mulennium also marks the 10th anniversary of Allen Woody’s death and is the first official release featuring the original Gov’t Mule trio issued since his passing. Read full review

Black Crowes – Croweology
whether you’re already a fan or just now discovering the band, Croweology will be a great addition to any music collection. It gives you a look at one of the greatest rock bands in the last 20 years, it is a blueprint for what Rock n’ Roll was, is, and could be, and the music ain’t half-bad, either. You can play this record when you’re down, you can play it when you’re looking for a reason to live, you can play this record when you want to blame someone, and you can play this record when you’re wanting to forgive. It covers all the bases… all in a 20-song package. Read the full review

Blue Giant – Blue Giant
When Conor Oberst went from angsty indie to twangy country, he sounded ridiculous in foreign territory. But when Kevin and Anita Robinson of the psychedelic Portland rock duo Viva Voce expanded to become the rootsy country quintet Blue Giant, the transition seemed much smoother. The Robinsons have roots in their blood, originally coming to the Northwest from Nashville by way of Alabama. Their new self-title full-length is a collection of full and folksy songs deeply steeped in the blues. Read the full review

Our good friend and Pure Pop compatriot Herb has left the building -- and though he is gone, the emotional trauma he inflicted his memory lives on, namely in the music he played instore -- and a faint mildewy odor that still lingers on around the bathroom. Below is a list of songs that that have that watery smack of herb we’ve all come to love, albeit in that way you love a retarded child.

Richard Harris -- McArthur Park

This is a great example of herb’s ability to look past schmaltzy production staight to the emotional sentiment of a song. Where a lesser music appreciator would only see an obscure reference to mid 20th century poet W. H. Auden’s musings on a long life irrevocably lived -- Herb looked deeper stating “Dude, it’s not about a cake. It’s about a girl. Who left his cake out in the rain.”

Sparks -- Equator

Herb loved his joke bands. If you wore a hitler mustache and used puns in your album titles Herb’s probably commented on your youtube videos.

Husker Du -- Eight Miles High

Any time we’ve ever done lists here on Pure Pop Online herb will inevitably sneak in a Husker Du song. Don’t ask me why. I think he had his first kiss while listening to Zen Arcade, when he was 25.

Guided By Voices -- My Valuable Hunting Knife

Herb may be alot of things, but one thing he is not not is a Rob Pollard apologist… Give it a second.

Prefab Sprout -- When Love Breaks down

As i said previously, herb has an uncanny knack for seeing right through the trappings of a particular period or genre and right to it’s frosted tip’ed, tear stained, incredibly self indulgently over-emotional core. And his introduction of Prefab Sprout to my life finally allowed me to listen to something other than Kate Bush, for about a week.

Pulp -- Common People

Herb: “See lecherous, bitter misanthropes CAN make great music!”

Daft Punk -- One More Time

There’s this dance that herb does -- it’s sort of like the Carlton Banks but whiter. Sorta like this:

New Order -- The Perfect Kiss

Though i may never forgive herb for making me listen to ol’ Berny’s side project Bad Lieutenant, i can never thank him enough to for finally opening my eyes back in the mid aughts to this band. These guys changed my perspective on what “Electronic” and “Punk” and “Dance” meant and much like Herb, introduced me to a whole world of excellent and under appreciated artists.

Thanks buddy, you’ll be missed.

Books – The Way Out
The Books have a terrific sense of humor– and it makes The Way Out, an album built on eccentric vocal samples, a good-natured discovery instead of a cheap piece of mockery. Imagine if a blog had posted these clips of goofball hypnotherapist and meditation consultants, or found a tape of a boy and a girl swapping violent threats with each other: You’d chuckle and move on. But when the Books use these samples, they give them integrity. You find yourself engrossed with people who are alien but also familiar. The flotsam and jetsam of American culture aren’t a cheap joke to the Books, but a source of endless discovery and joy. Read the full review

Sheryl Crow – 100 Miles From Memphis
If anything, 100 Miles is a sort of spiritual tribute to the Memphis soul and R&B Crow grew up with in the 70s, an album that conveys much of the sensibility and the mindset of those albums without painting itself into the corner of strict emulation. It’s clear from the outset that Crow considers this to be a vital extension of her own art– not, to return to the Detours metaphor, a side trip– and that the album is as much about exploration as it is winning radio hits. Read the full review

Dept of Eagles – Archives
This collection goes some way to confirming why Department of Eagles was seen as the less-important outlet for Rossen in the period between The Cold Nose and Yellow House. While sporadically as magical as the material on In Ear Park, Archive 2003-2006 is more a curio for converts to Grizzly Bear’s superb psych-folk/baroque-pop sound than an album proper. It’s a fragmented listen, several Practice Room Sketches breaking up the finished arrangements. Much doesn’t work – but there’s certainly ambition aplenty on show, which would later be refined into the In Ear Park experience. The first track here actually bypassed the Department of Eagles catalogue altogether until now, achieving completion as Yellow House’s opener Easier. Read the full review

So this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna give em to you. Two tickets to see Of Montreal at Higherground on July 31st, to one lucky person, cause we love our fans and we know our fans love Of Montreal. We’ll be choosing the winner at random from our Facebook Fans, so if you’re a fan, thank you – all you need to do is comment on our facebook wall that you want the tickets to be eligible! – if you’re not a facebook fan you might want to be!

The Winner will be decided early next week!

MIA – /\/\/\Y/\
Unsurprisingly (and happily), M.I.A. the insider is more dyspeptic than M.I.A. the outsider. Maya’s opening romp, “Steppin Up,” brings the braggadocio expected from a rapper following a massive hit (“You know who I am, I run this fucking club”), but it’s buried beneath power-drill samples and Ministry guitars. “Teqkilla” allures with a DJ-battle intro and Bollywood-via-Timbaland clank before plunging into a six-minute fever of rude synth burps and an unintelligible, indigestible, unforgettable chorus about “sticky, sticky weeeed.” M.I.A. comes close to recreating the lackadaisical bubblegum sway of “Paper Planes” with “It Iz What It Iz,” but doesn’t bother to enunciate the verses. Even in Maya’s slightly slumping middle third, she wages a pop insurgency by somersaulting between genres, sympathizing with suicide-bomber spouses and obsessing over how technology democratizes and distracts. Conspiracy-addled claustrophobic noises swath the hooks throughout, revealing the intoxicating assuredness of a star who sought the spotlight in order to barrage it with glitter and shrapnel. Read the Full Review

Danger Mouse / Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul
It’s not signaled outright, but Dark Night comprises four sections, and plays like a revue. Linkous has always feared putting himself out there too much, and seeming too “pop.” It makes sense that he’d open this collection with a triptych from Wayne Coyne, Gruff Rhys, and Jason Lytle, all of whom frequently sing in Linkous-like registers shot through with delicate, boyish wonder and play with psychedelia in similarly rewarding ways. On “Revenge”, Coyne works in a wheelhouse he’s not seen since The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, evangelizing, “Once we become/ The thing we dread/ There’s no way to stop,” in the form of a plangent ballad. For his part, Gruff Rhys works best at the level of empire, and the fuzzy psych-country of “Just War” could fit nicely on Phantom Power. As is his manner, Lytle’s “Jaykub” traces an everyday schlub’s dream of receiving official awards for simply being himself– until the alarm clock wakes him up. Read the Full Review

Sun Kil Moon – Admiral Fell Promises
By opening the album with the line “No this is not my guitar, I’m bringing it to a friend,” Kozelek invites the listener into an intimate space, offering candlelit serenades as haunting and beautiful as the black and white photo adorning the front cover. The song from which that line is pulled, “Alesund” begins the album with a series of gentle flamenco-inflected sweeps and plucks, slowly galloping toward an elegant waltz that starts the album off with a mesmerizing grace. And on “Half Moon Bay,” there’s a dreamlike quality to Kozelek’s naming of places and memories, from the titular bay to the humming highway, which achieves an interesting sort of onomatopoeic effect as his rich baritone creates its own hypnotic hum. Read the Full Review

We’re adding a new feature to the blog starting………. now. Each week we’ll update you about the latest vinyl to grace the shelves here at Pure Pop. From the latest releases from your favorite artists to hard to find special used pieces, to collectors edition limited release vinyl. If vinyl is your game, Pure Pop’s your… pitcher? Team Mascot? Line-judge? (We’re not quite sure how to finish that analogy.)

If you don’t see the latest release post, just click the latest release button in the sidebar and you’ll be taken right to the listings. Easy as pie.

-Pure Pop

The Chemical Brothers – Further
While it continued the Chemical Brothers‘ trend of chart topping releases—2007′s We Are The Night was the duo’s fifth consecutive album to go #1 in the UK—the album awkwardly relied on a bevy of unusual collaborations (though, in reality, no more so than 2005′s Push The Button) which left it bearing little consistency. With Further they bucked the trend of reaching out for external collaboration (save for vocalist Stephanie Dosen who backs up Tom Rowlands on three of Further‘s tracks) and in doing so they have created a piece of music that oozes continuity; each track morphing into one another without the slightest bit of hesitation. Further is an album that sounds more like the Chemical Brothers of old than the group that released “The Salmon Dance” as a single; which is to say that it’s supurb. Read the full review

Wolf Parade – Expo 86
Wolf Parade’s greatest asset is the ability to appear on the verge of falling apart while marching ahead with lockstep precision. The Canadian indie-rock outfit’s third album, Expo 86, begins in the middle of a pounding drum lick that’s quickly joined by Spencer Krug’s quivering vocal, a zig-zagging guitar, a bloopy synth doodle, and a pulverizing bassline. Then things really get ramshackle on the opening track, “Cloud Shadow On The Mountain,” but not at the expense of the song’s twitchingly brisk forward velocity. The track sets the tone for an album that thankfully leaves Wolf Parade’s lackadaisical 2008 effort At Mount Zoomer on the couch for a long nap. Read the full review

Scissor Sisters – Night Work
A more troubled second album, still unshyly titled Ta-Dah!, featured a hit dance single whose lyrics pouted: “I don’t feel like dancing.” It was a move which proved that the Sisters were not merely the empty partying vessels routinely deployed at the wedding discos of heterosexual breeders. Camp – that cosy, normalising caricature of gayness – is what allowed the Scissor Sisters sell to a wide constellation of demographics. And that pesky camp is what they have tried to excise from their third album, Night Work, potentially threatening their tenure as Middle Britain’s tame wild things. With all its talk of dicks between legs, “Whole New Way” will probably not inspire the family singalongs the way “Take Your Momma Out” did.

This more hardcore Scissor Sisters outing is, really, their fourth: singer Jake Shearscorrect decided to scrap an album’s worth of songs and decamp (profuse apologies) on a sabbatical to Berlin, where the unbridled hedonism of that clubbing metropolis restored Night Work’s frisson. Read the full review