i hate the sound of guitars

On my first time through this seemed to have less distorted guitar/shoegaze goodness than prior efforts, and Yuki Chikudate’s vocals struck me as a bit more thin and chirpy than I recalled. On second listen, with the volume up a little more, I don’t hear what bugged me at all. My favorite track is “Trance [...]

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Four more thoughtful, intricately assembled songs from this outfit that doesn’t quite fit in any of the genres you might try to box it in: not precisely shoegaze, trip-hop, nor electropop. Some melodic elements and arrangement details here and there impart a hint of Eastern flavor and lead track “Lemoncholic” is maybe one of their [...]

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I’m sort of preparing myself for a hipster backlash against former blog darlings The Joy Formidable, on account of their major label debut, The Big Roar, including 4 tracks that originally appeared on their EP A Balloon Called Moaning.* I’ll admit I was initially a bit disappointed when I saw this, but after listening [...]

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Breaking all kindsa rules: I haven’t even listened to this record all the way through once, and it’s already one of my favorites of the year. It’s got me bouncing around in my seat so much, I just have to tell someone about it right now!!! Manhattan Love Suicides (from Leeds; the name is [...]

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