In our second installment of Guide Grooves, we’re showing you some amazing new music. First, two tracks from The Avett Brothers’ new album The Carpenter, which will build on their success from 2009’s I and Love and You. Next, a couple of songs from the newly-released album of the Canadian band stars. Also, look forward to a preview of Grizzly Bear’s album, due for release a week from today, and a shout out to the Dutch duo The Raveonettes, whose album The Observator was released today, yet isn’t yet available for download on iTunes. Today is also a great day for music, with the complete release of The xx’s Coexist, mentioned in last week’s edition of Grooves.
Winter in My Heart — The Avett Brothers The Guide’s review of The Carpenter mentioned the incredible feeling with which lead vocalist Scott Avett sings. There is no song on this album in which you can hear raw emotion more than “Winter in My Heart.” It’s just beautiful.
Live and Die — The Avett Brothers This is one of the emotional highs on this album. If you’re looking for an uplifting song to hook you into the album, this is it.
The Loose Ends Will Make Knots — Stars These Canadians are masters at male/female duets, like this one. It’s what made their old songs, like “The Night Starts Here” great, and it’s what makes this song special.
Progress — Stars The Guide’s review didn’t mention this song. But it’s typical Stars. And, since this album “as a whole is too similar to Stars’ previous releases to be memorable,” this song is also typical of the rest of the album. (Side note: I didn’t include “The Theory of Relativity” on this album, but it’s probably my favorite — I didn’t include it because it opens with an audio clip of a radio documentary and thus didn’t fit on a playlist.)
End of the Line — Sleigh Bells I could go on and on about how much I love this duo. Alexis Krauss, marry me, please. Honestly, I love this band so much so that one of the greatest regrets of my life is not driving eight hours from my hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., to Denver, where they played a concert last June. This song is the latest of Sleigh Bells’ musical genius.
Sleep Alone — Two Door Cinema Club The Guide made a serious understatement when they said that this song was “a definite treat to listen to.” It’s great. I which I’d grabbed tickets for either of their performances in D.C. on Oct. 2 or 3.
Yet Again — Grizzly Bear This single makes me so excited for the Sept. 18 release of Grizzly Bear’s first full length album since 2009’s Veckamitest, which was so good it drew Jay-Z and Beyonce to a Grizzly Bear gig that year.
She Owns the Streets — The Raveonettes When I heard this song, fresh off of today’s release of The Observator, I was really excited that I’d found a great new band. Then I discovered this band wasn’t new at all and immediately downloaded like 15 songs from the past decade. It’s a fundamentally uplifting song that will probably make you want to “dance in the streets” as well.
