Two big albums coming out in the coming weeks here (aside from the big gorilla in the room) are from Bon Iver and Andrew Bird, and fortunately for everyone out there, myspace has Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP and NPR has Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast. I am digging both, and I have even heard one of the Noble Beast songs on XMU radio last night, so be on the lookout for that as well.
Bon Iver had one of my favorite albums of the year last year that I pretty much still listen to almost every week, and his new Blood Bank EP is his follow up. This is a bit in a new direction as it doesn’t have the same “cabin in Wisconsin” feel as the album did, but the awesome songwriting and soulful vocals are here in spades. He even gets his inner-Kanye on with “Woods” throwing in an a-capella number using the famous pitch modulator. “Babies” has some cool piano pieces in there, and “Blood Bank” kicks it off into a new, more full band direction with awesome results. It sounds a little more along the lines of how his live show was as compared to the isolated feel of the first album, but I love it so far.
On Noble Beast so far it may not have the instantly catchy hooks that I remember from Armchair Apocrypha
Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP at myspace
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast at NPR
10:31 am on January 20th, 2009
[...] Well I had already alluded to some of the new album streamin going on a few weeks ago, but now release day is here for some pretty big releases and streams are up and streaming so you can decide where to place your hard-earned dollars. Spinner has quite a few up, and here is the list: [...]