Dan Deacon shares new album info...Neil Young streams new album online...The Beach Boys share new track...Digital music is winning...Beck collaborates with Childish Gambino...What We Saw From The Cheap Seats...
Well, let's start with Dan Deacon. Now, I've never been a huge fan, but I have had this curiosity about Deacon's work that has spanned the last few years, and a friend once burned me a copy of Deacon's album A Spiderman in the Rings, but I lost it and never looked back, but I threw it out as another boring electronic musician that I could do without...until I heard the song "Big Milk" from the aforementioned album playing in the car while driving down a heavy-Christmas-lighted street, and let's just say that in the moment, it was magic. Anyhow, Deacon has announced that he's coming out with a new album, titled America, which is scheduled to be released on August 28, and he's released one track, titled "Lots" to tide fans over. You can listen to that below:
I won't spend too much space on this because I've already talked about it, but Neil Young and Crazy Horse are streaming their album of folk covers, titled Americana online, and you can listen to it on SoundCloud.
Moving along, the Beach Boys have shared another track from their upcoming LP, That's Why God Made the Radio, which is scheduled to come out on June 5th. The song is titled "From There to Back Again," and it's a signature Beach Boys track, which means the production is excellent, the harmonies are wonderful, and it's just an easy-listening song that can serve any particular moment. You can hear that here.
Also, NME has recently reported that in the UK, digital music sales have surpassed physical music sales, IE: vinyl and cd. It also reports that this is the first time this has happened, noting that digital music sales have accounted for 55.5 percent of total music sales. I can't say that I'm surprised as hardly anyone I know still buys CD's or vinyl. It's pretty sad for local record stores, but NME points out that this is good for record companies in that they've seen an increase in sales because of people buying digital music, so I guess there's an upside to everything, depending on how you look at it. You can read more about this here.
Lastly, Beck has collaborated with Childish Gambino AKA Donald Glover of the show Community. Beck also co-produced the track with Glover, and from first listen, it's excellent. Being a huge fan of Beck means also being a huge fan of Beck "the rapper," and on this song, he doesn't disappoint. You can hear the track at Stereogum.
LISTENING: I've spent this entire morning listening to Regina Spektor's latest endeavor, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats, and having listened to the entire album twice, my thoughts are a little mixed. There are a few great tracks on here that makes me think "she's still got it!" and then there are a few tracks I can do without. I guess this goes in line with how I measure great albums, which is when you can play the whole thing through and love every track. This isn't great, but that doesn't mean it's not good. Tracks like "Firewood," "How" and "Jessica" are some of Spektor's finest moments, in my opinion. Though Spektor has noted that a lot of the songs were written pre-Soviet Kitsch and pre-Begin To Hope, the production of the album is what often skews my perception of what could be a great album. I'm not exactly blaming the production as it is, but I feel that Spektor's focus on it has definitely rid the songs of some of their integrity, like on "All The Rowboats." Aside from that, and the fact that it could have done without "Oh Marcello," the album is a solid effort. You can hear one of the album highlights, "How," below:
That's all. PEACE.
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