Welcome to Leakage, a BYT column dedicated to listening to your favorite band’s releases months before the street date. Every week I’ll be giving you brief reviews of said leaks with an MP3 to sample. If you want us to take down your song, holla back (info@brightestyoungthings.com)
(Sorry guys, I’m not posting the album in it’s entirety or giving you something other than the single. Plus if you don’t know how to use Google by now, you’re shit out of luck anyway.)
Some parting words: if you like the band, buy the record. You don’t want to be that guy.
The Knife, Tomorrow, In A Year (Release date: March 1): I wouldn’t consider this a leak, but it’s still worth mentioning. NPR put up the stream of this record for their First Listen series — where they preview an album a week before it drops. We won’t see a physical release until March, but Tomorrow, In A Year will be released digitally on Tuesday. The brother-sister duo collaborated with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock after being commissioned by the Danish performance group Pro Forma to write the music for the opera that hits the stage in Copenhagen in September. Tomorrow, In A Year is definitely a challenge to listen to. If you’re not already a fan of The Knife or Fever Ray, you’re probably not going to get into this.
Listen: The Knife — “Colouring of Pigeons“ | Like it?: Pre-order Tomorrow, In A Year
Yeasayer, Odd Blood (Release date: Feb. 9): As much I wanted to love All Hour Cymbals, I couldn’t get behind it. Sure, “2080” was the jam, but the rest of the record left me bored. Now here I am roughly three years later and I’ve fallen head over heels for Odd Blood. Gone are the ethnocentric, globe-trotting sounds, and they’ve been replaced by a wash of refreshing electronics. It’s a complete departure in the best of ways.
Listen: Yeasayer — “Ambling Alp” | Like it?: Pre-order Odd Blood
Toro Y Moi, Causers of This (Release date: Feb. 23): This Columbia, S.C. native gave music bloggers a boner last year with his Blessa 7″. Well, now we have a full length on the Internet. Similar to his 7″, Causers of This is drenched in reverb and glo-fi treatments. This one will probably get a lot of spins by the end of the year.
Listen: Toro Y Moi — “Blessa” | Like it?: Pre-order Causers of This
Titus Andronicus, The Monitor (Release date: March 9): Boasting five songs of 7-plus minutes, The Monitor is this New Jersey band’s magnum opus with this “sort of” Civil War themed record. Cameo appearances include: Ponytail, Wye Oak, Hallelujah the Hills, Double Dagger, Spider Bags, Vivian Girls and The Hold Steady playing different people from that era (Walt Whitman, Jefferson Davis, Abe Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison among others) and backing up the band on songs throughout.
I know it’s January. I know this album will be released in March. And I know it’s gauche to claim album of the year this early in the release calendar, but Titus Andronicus have thrown down the gauntlet with The Monitor.
Listen: Titus Andronicus — “Four Score And Seven” | Like it?: Pre-order The Monitor
Right on! The Titus record is dope as shiiiiiiiiit.
After the greatness of Airing of Grievances I was hoping for some serious guitar heroics. Way to deliver, guys. The second half of the opener is a hell of a stomp-along/headbanger.
January 29, 2010 at 6:02 pm@Hieronymus — Yeah, the Titus Andronicus record is my favorite I’ve listened to all year. It’s going to be hard to top it.
@Amanda — Don’t worry. We’ll keep up with it, but this first one we’re having to play a little bit of catch-up to highlight the stuff that leaked. This next week’s will be more up to date.
January 29, 2010 at 8:55 pmOdd Blood is a completely overproduced mess of a record. Maybe “One” and “Madder Red” are listenable, but the rest manages to overcook half-baked ideas, if that’s possible. People want this band to be better than it is. The emperor has no clothes.
January 29, 2010 at 8:57 pmtoro y moi’s “low shoulder” is precisely the regionally prescribed synth(etic)ized drug we need to shake this snow oppression.
February 9, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Haven’t all these things been “leaked” already? I mean ‘Ambling Up’ was released as a single months ago.
This is a good idea for a column, but only if it’s actually on top all the blogs/band sites/etc.
And doesn’t Svetlana already do a column similar to this with links to where you can download the mp3s?
January 29, 2010 at 4:34 pm