July Music Wrap-Up: Catch-Up Edition

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of my favorite and other notable new releases. The songs are for sampling purposes only. Artists or labels notify me with any complaints and I will remove the song as soon as possible. Please support these musicians as that's the reason I'm featuring them in the first place.

There were only a couple of new releases this month that piqued my interest, so a majority of this Wrap-Up is the catch-up edition. Armed with All Songs Considered's list of the best albums of the year (so far), recommendations from friends, and releases I remembered skipping by in past months, I compiled a normal-sized Wrap-Up for you to enjoy.



The Books - The Way Out
#1 - I Am Who I Am
#2 - All You Need is a Wall

The new Books album is absolutely brilliant. Think about the amount of work that went into this. Someone slumped over a computer for hundreds of hours, making hundreds of tiny little edits to try to craft the vision in their head and tell a story without words. Something that no one will ever know the true meaning of, but only what it means to them. I love knowing that Internet forums will spring up to dissect these songs and over-analyze them to death because they love them so much. Then I remember that more people will be listening to the latest American Idol winner.

Against Me - White Crosses
#3 - I Was a Teenage Anarchist
#4 - Rapid Decompression

In a lot of ways I see the new Against Me CD as a way of saying, "The world is shitty, and everything I used to believe is bullshit, but hold out hope and things will get better." It is an adult reluctantly coming to terms with what life is really about. Giving up his former ideals and making sacrifices for his child. Tom Gabel has realized that things he really believed in as a teenager, like anarchy, just don't fit with his life anymore. Plenty of people have given the band shit for signing to a major label, and a majority of those people are probably still teenagers. They'll grow out of it. Life is about making sacrifices.

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
#5 - Sun Hands
#6 - Camera Talk

I'm kind of enjoying this folk-inspired trend in indie rock, though I can easily see it getting tiring to some. From Bon Iver, to Blitzen Trapper, to Horse Feathers, and even further down this list to Mumford and Sons -- it's certainly a trend. I guess how you feel about it all depends on how you feel about folk music.

mc chris - goes to hell
#7 - Bossk on a Segway
#8 - Smackababy

I've featured almost all of the releases leading up to ...goes to hell. A lot of the songs on this CD are remixes of songs previously found on his Part Six mini-albums, but they are really excellent. The two I'm featuring here are brand-new though, but if you're a fan of mc and have heard some of the skits on his past records you'll enjoy them even more as they are based on jokes in those skits. Seriously, how has someone not made the epic journey that mc chris relates through his skits into an animated show on Adult Swim, or a video game? Make it happen!

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
#9 - Recoiled
#10 - Computer Face/Pure Being

Listening to Flying Lotus is like what I imagine it will be like when we're flying around in spaceships. I haven't gotten into electronic music very much, but if it is all as fascinating as this then I'm sold.

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
#11 - Laredo
#12 - On My Way Back Home

I got this CD just before we left for a vacation and it continued to repeat for much of our road-trip without barely a notice. Few releases could stand up to continuous repetition without becoming a nuisance, but it blended in so well that none of us ever complained and switched it out. That's a win in my book.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
#13 - Stylo
#14 - White Flag

I never really "got into" Gorillaz, though it was never because I disliked what little I heard. It took me awhile, but once I forced myself to sit down and listen to Plastic Beach straight-through, I really enjoyed it. Still, it hasn't grabbed me like it seems to with most. Perhaps I should dive into the characters and storyline that the band has created. That sort of stuff usually hooks me with other bands.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
#15 - I Learned the Hard Way
#16 - Money

Another big trend in the indie scene today is harkening back to the music of the 60s or earlier, before rock and roll took hold and took music down a very different path. So it's the perfect time for Sharon Jones to come along and bring back the late 60s, early 70s, soul/funk sound that we've widely been missing since then.

The Knife - Tomorrow, In a Year
#17 - Epochs
#18 - Variation of Birds

This is the most fascinating music I've heard in a long time. Get yourself some good headphones and plug them in before you listen. It is... unique, but endlessly interesting to listen to. It reminds me of what The Sound of Animals Fighting were trying to do with Lover, The Lord Has Left Us, only done better and with less of an air of pretentiousness.

The Divine Comedy - Bang Goes the Knighthood
#19 - Neopolitan Girl
#20 - Bang Goes the Knighthood

My Twitter buddy, Jasmine, could explain why this band is good better than I ever could as she's been a fan for quite awhile, and, in fact, she does on this episode of her podcast. They remind me of The World/Inferno Friendship Society a lot, which is an excellent thing being that they are one of my favorite bands.

Dangermouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
#21 - Just War (Featuring Gruff Rhys)
#22 - Star Eyes (Featuring James Mercer)

Yeah, I'm extremely late to the party on this one. If you're unaware, there is quite the back-story behind this release. Sad, the lengths that artists have to go to sometimes for their music when dealing with the record industry and all of their legal issues. Either way, this release is amazing, it's just too bad Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) isn't alive to have finally seen it's official release.

Inspired Flight - We All Want to Fly
#23 - It Always Takes
#24 - Before I'm Done (Featuring Rugged Monk)

I'm not normally a fan of rap, but that is usually because of the tone surrounding the music. Inspired Flight feature a lot of rappers in their music, but they surround it with extremely calm, ambient, relaxing music. It's an interesting mix, but one that I think works perfectly.

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
#25 - Sigh No More
#26 - The Cave

The folk influence clearly stretches into bluegrass as well with this band, but given that I'm also a big fan of The Punch Brothers, I wasn't bothered by that. The songwriting is excellent and memorable here, and I suspect that after a few more listens I'll be singing along loudly.