Purity Ring – Shrines
Since those early singles all mined such similar sounds, it was an open question how Purity Ring might mix things up over the course of an 11-song, 38-minute full-length. But Shrines is not about range, instead offering subtly different versions of a single, near-perfect idea. You might think of the album as a sculpture, and each track offers a different vantage point. “Ungirthed” is how you see it head on; “Fineshrine” is what it looks like from a low angle, with a bit of shadow from the overhang providing an extra touch of darkness; “Crawlersout”, with its sharper percussive edges and extra portion of ghosted vocals, is the view from 90 degrees to the left; and then “Grandloves”, with unwelcome guest vocals from Isaac Emmanuel of Young Magic, is like having a guy standing between you and the work, and he won’t stop talking on his cell. Read the full review on Pitchfork
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDASw6Ry9c
Mumford and Sons – Big Easy Express DVD
In the opening scene of Big Easy Express, Jade Castrinos, singer for folk troubadours Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, is seen frolicking between train cars. The setting is last spring’s Railroad Revival Tour, a multi-day jaunt that found Castrinos’ band, Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show traveling by a 14-car train from Oakland to New Orleans, playing six concerts along the way. Read the full review on Rolling Stone
Passion Pit – Gossamer
Gossamer, Passion Pit’s second full-length release, comes nearly three years after the band’s debut album, Manners, which itself dropped almost a year after Angelakos’ Valentine’s Day demos caught the attention of music blogs and major labels in 2008. The gestation period, long by today’s publish-or-perish standards, belies a record that wasn’t easy for Angelakos to make. It’s not the easiest to listen to, either. Dark topics and production difficulties slam against Passion Pit’s glittery sound to create an album that, while peppered with catchy melodies, is overstuffed and under-edited. Gossamer is a tortured beast, disguised in a crunchy candy shell. Read the full review on Pretty Much Amazing