Bat for Lashes
Two Suns
(Astralwerks)
Bat for Lashes' second album has a split personality. On the one hand, Two Suns features songs brimming with unexpected stylistic juxtapositions. The melodramatic "Glass" successfully combines operatic vocals, tribal percussion, chiming synthesizers and metal bombast. "Sleep Alone" sets New Age Celtic singing against starkly programmed beats. Enya meets The Knife, maybe. But the album is also breathtakingly derivative. In a blindfold test, most people would identify "Moon and Moon" as a Tori Amos song. The surging synth-pop anthem "Daniel" sounds eerily like a lost Kate Bush single. Yet many of these songs cast a spell that makes troubling questions of originality vanish for as long as they're playing. —Jeff Jackson
Zachary Cale
Walking Papers
(All Hands Electric)
With his sophomore album singer/songwriter Zachary Cale successfully incorporates more musicians into his easygoing world of no-frills folk. They skillfully accentuate his ever-present acoustic guitar with simple drums, bass and the occasional backing vocal. Secondary guitar lines, while never moving beyond the basic, add a welcome touch to the tracks they grace, as does the use of slide guitar like on the track "Gone Girl." However, the music is always secondary to the lyrics and the road-weary voice that sings them. Cale's voice practically begs to be compared to the early Bob Dylan, and will probably never shake that comparison, but it deserves to be heard on its own merit. —Michael Cimaomo
Two Dark Birds
Two Dark Birds
(V-fib Recordings)
Two Dark Birds is singer/songwriter folk and country with a little Southern rock flavor and a late-'60s hippie-pop feel. It is laid-back and melancholy, but somehow avoids being depressing. Co-founder Steve Koester (vocals/guitars) describes it as "a kind of American music that doesn't cut itself off from the other kinds." Perhaps this is why so many of the tracks sound familiar. Highlights include the groovy blues bass line in "Cut Down to Size" and the catchy tune "Call it Love." Indie-rocker Koester has made critically acclaimed music with previous bands Punchdrunk and Maplewood and done solo work as well. —Jennifer Burwell
Ilad
here//there
(Syjip)
This one starts in wonderfully odd fashion, looping backwards speech, then kicking into a pleasant and Beatles/Indian-tinged melange of jazzy groove and unhurried vocals. Ilad builds grooves in interesting ways, layering rhythms and instruments to create a graceful whole that's sophisticated enough to reward close listening, but clearly qualifies as some flavor of rock. There's just enough dissonance and distortion to keep things interesting, though the sometimes unfocused tangles of sound might prove a tough sell to non-jazz fans, despite short track lengths. Hints of Moody Blues or Pink Floyd-style grandiosity surface, and make for a compelling set of songs. —James Heflin
