reviews for you

thom yorke - The Eraser: For fans, this is certainly an adequate appetiser for the main course which should be served up some time next year. Essentially a bare bones electronic-y radiohead album, these could easily have graduated to b-side status if they were beefed up with some more bass, guitron, and drums. As exciting as this release could have been, it is easily eclipsed by the 10 new actual radiohead tracks I've heard so far from their recent european jaunt.

mason jennings - Bone Child: Hyped up 5th release, due mainly to being on isaac brock's new imprint doesn't quite live up to the hype. Pretty bland, nothing grabs hold of me to suggest I should listen again.

camera obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country: Belle & Sebastian meet the Concretes on their third release. Breezy, harmless, whimsical, and occasionally cynical twee.

peeping tom - s/t: Mike Patton is back with this 11 part collaborative effort which varies stylistically from song to song, though never straying too far from standard patton since its held together by his alternately soulful croon and menacing yowl. We have some of the usual suspects (rahzel, dan the automator), making appearances along side more unlikely pairings (bebel gilberto, norah jones). There are also contributions from massive attack and dub trio (both of which have/will have slightly different versions found on their own albums as well). I've warmed up to the variations on a theme, and expect this to get more frequently repeated listens in the days to come.

the minders - It's a Bright and Guilty World: Elephant 6's answer to the Shins. Former members have included folks of such pedigree as Apples in Stereo, Dressy Bessy, and the Jicks. Here, as with their 2003 release, we are back down to a core of three (Martyn Leaper, his wife Rebecca, and Joel Burrows). This has been in my regular breakfast rotation.