California English, Pt. 2, is a B-Side from the Cousins single and will be featured on the new album, circa 2010. Enjoy!

You can listen to Ledmonton here:

The album’s attempt to convey his feelings in a little under 4 minutes, 9 times in a row, really paints a portrait for the listener and puts them in the front seat of wherever they wish to go. You can really hear Vernon’s struggle and emotions in these tracks; something that is hard and at times intangible to many artists these days. There are many pieces of music I hear throughout spans of time, or even at random instances, but I am sure the potential that For Emma, Forever Ago sheds has extracted what beautiful music is no matter what definitive moment in time as well as it’s separation from the rest, just as Vernon had done when creating the album.

The following 9 tracks are all written and composed by Justin Vernon:

1. Flume
2. Lump Sum
3. Skinny Love
4. The Wolves (Act I and II)
5. Blindsided
6. Creature Fear
7. Team
8. For Emma
9. re: Stacks

I hate doing this, that is, picking out the ‘best’ tracks, so to speak. The one’s in bold are the numbers that personally connect with me, but in actuality, every single song on this album is just beyond perfect. And that’s to say the least. Tracks #1-8 seem to tell the story of Vernon’s agony and emotions of love, whereas the last track, re: Stacks, can be seen as a resolution to the previous tunes. Skinny Love was the first single released, followed by, For Emma, and re: Stacks. Please have a listen; I watched a live venue of Bon Iver and he was so grateful for the feedback he’s received for the album and his fans.

The verdict? 5/5

* Oh yeah, it’s pronounced Bon Iver (Iv – Yare), not Bon Eye-Ver. It’s a bastardised version of “Good Winter” in French.

What do you think? VW are one of my favourite bands out there and are perspectively worth every penny from all angles. Their new album entitled, Contra will be released January 12, 2010 in the US and January 11 everywhere else. Let the countdown begin!

Because of the Times is probably one of the Kings’ best album, dating back to 2006, and is responsible for a little under half the set list on their North American Tour. Reinstated, these “Newly Born Fans” need to pick up their feet and start listening to some older LP’s. True, “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” are well-written and solid hits, but this band just has way more to offer – Because of the Times does just that.

• “Knocked Up” – 7:10**
• “Charmer” – 2:57
• “On Call” – 3:21**
• “McFearless” – 3:09
• “Black Thumbnail” – 3:59
• “My Party” – 4:10
• “True Love Way” – 4:02
• “Ragoo” – 3:01
• “Fans” – 3:36**
• “The Runner” – 4:16
• “Trunk” – 3:57
• “Camaro” – 3:06
• “Arizona” – 4:50

**Even though all these songs are worth listening to, thrice, Knocked Up, Fans, and On Call have to be one of the band’s best offerings.

Check this out for yourself and hopefully their other older LP’s; maybe you won’t be as confused when you attend a KOL concert and only know the chorus to “Sex on Fire” and half of “Use Somebody”. Wake your mainstream asses up, America.

The Verdict? 6/5 Yeah, that’s a 6.

The album begins with my favorite track, “Her Morning Elegance,” which has a very relaxing beat, yet it still holds your attention, not making you zone out and forget you are actually listening to music, as can happen with some of the other music similar to his.

Track 2, “The Man Who Isn’t There,” combines soothing piano melodies with chilling vocals, backed by strings. This is a very good song to listen to if you use music to help you get to sleep, or if you have a long drive.

Next on the album is “The Opposite Side of the Sea,” the title track. It has a much more upbeat feel to it, with strong vocals and a string accompaniment that sounds like an orchestra arrangment translated to a much smaller scale.

The fourth track is “Locked In A Room,” which begins slow and then starts picking up. I personally don’t like this track as much as some of the others on the album, to me it is forgettable, though to others it might be their favorite track on the album.

Following this is “Ruby Rises,” which I find similar to “Locked In A Room” in its style. It is a slower song, and that is really not for me as I’m more of the upbeat/synth type.

Track 6, “A Dream Within A Dream,” is a very haunting and laidback song, which is to be expected from a song sharing the name of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. In this song, he uses acoustic guitar and other string instruments, as well as piano. This song has a “soundtrack” feel to it, I can see it being used in the scene following a main conflict of a movie. The song has a uniform sound to it the whole time and doesn’t stray far from the path that was intended in the beginning.

The next track is “Trouble Don’t Rhyme,” which has a very slight Beatles feel to it. This is a much simpler song than the rest of the album, as it doesn’t have the sweeping string melodies of some of the other songs on the album. Even without that though, the acoustic guitar in this song is excellent, as well as the vocals.

Track 8 is “A Short Goodbye,” which brings back some of the other string elements from earlier in the album coupled with acoustic guitar and effective use of a shaker in the background. This song gives the feeling that it is about to change tempo andtake off into a much faster beat at any moment.

After that is “Don’t Let Your Hair Grow Too Long,” one of the deepest songs on the album. It begins with a somber, almost lonely sounding piano intro, and then the vocals come in and give the song a lounge feel. An excellent example of Oren’s talent, you don’t want to stop listening.

The tenth track on the album is titled “Blue Smile,” which has a great guitar intro and an echoing vocal track, which has an excellent contrast with the chorus which is a single voice.

Finally, the album ends with what is called the Unhidden Track, which shares a title with Oren’s record label, “A Quarter Past Wonderful.” This song is another one of my favorites, the guitar and vocals give it an incredibly relaxed feel, this is a good song to listen to when you have nothing else going on.

Overall, I would give this album 4/5 stars, Oren is an incredibly talented musician. On another note, I highly recommend watching the video for “Her Morning Elegance,” it is filmed in stop motion and could possibly be one of the greatest and most creative videos I have ever seen. I have included it below!

Discovery is a new side project between Vampire Weekend’s keyboardist and producer Rostam Batmanglij and the lead-singer of Ra Ra Riot – Wes Miles.

Anything that is remotely to do with Vampire Weekend gets my attention straight away, so this album was an instant winner. Unfortunately, that’s not how a review works, so here goes…

Discovery is very different from Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot. I’m not saying that these bands aren’t funky, but LP is fun-ky!

Most of the tracks carry a strong hip-hop vibe of something that sounds like it might have come from the opposite end of high-class sounding Vampire Weekend, or indeed Ra Ra Riot.

I’m not going to lie here. I haven’t heard too much from Ra Ra Riot, except for the odd single. Did you notice? They do sound incredibly similar to Vampire Weekend though. Which shocks me, I would have guessed that RRR sounded a lot different to VW – based on the genre clash that is Discovery.

Back to LP itself. It’s futuristic, synthy and even features the odd special guest such as Ezra Koenig or Vampire Weekend. Shit, I went back to VW didn’t I. Sorry about that.

By the last two tracks. There is no rock/indie left in this album. It’s all very R’n'Bish, and the final track sums it up. ‘Slang Tang’? Wu-Tang more like. To be fair, the final track itself is a retreat back to the classic keyboardy soft-vocals of Vampire Weekend.