The Drake had his hands full this past week, so we get a slightly abridged version of the “‘Take” this week focusing on the eagerly awaited new album from trip hop pioneers Portishead and genre jumping soul singer, Jamie Lidell. -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.29.08

I spent my weekend and Monday taking care of my two small boys, and since that’s usually the time I spend absorbing the new releases for the week (and pumping out the weekly Ear on TV bit) I find myself impossibly behind, so I’m going to keep commentary on this week’s haul short and semi-sweet. Highlights this week include the latest from Portishead, Jamie Lidell, Robert Forster, Santogold, Constantines, 65daysofstatic and the stateside release from Sweden’s Robyn, which took three years to cross the pond.

Playlist: New Releases 04.29.08

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Album: Portishead - Third

Since I didn’t get to hear this until release day, I don’t feel qualified to comment too much on it, other than to say it shocked the hell out of me, based on my prior experience with the Bristol trip-hop pioneers. Third is more than a departure, as other than Beth Gibbons’ voice, there’s little at all that’s recognizable from their prior releases of over a decade ago. Instead of trip-hop, it’s a (very) dissonant rock album, one that’s as hard to categorize as a latter day Scott Walker release (come to think of it, his releases also have decade long gaps). Musicians Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow have said that they wouldn’t fall back on any instruments or sounds that appeared on prior albums, and that alone pushes the album to a different place. But the pacing here is also new, with the opening track (“Silence”) seeming twice as fast as anything song prior. Opening single “Machine Gun” openly defies radio to play it, with it’s industrial staccato and dissonant atmospherics. Where Dummy and Portishead might’ve lied like place settings at a dinner party, it seems that Third is more content to throw said dinner plates into the hearth. It’s guaranteed to make many best of lists at year end, but for me it’s too early to say… such a dense and sinister sound demands more time, but after only two days in my ears, it already feels important. (NME, Village Voice, Pop Matters and many more know it to be true.)

Stream “Machine Gun” from band’s MySpace page

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Album: Jamie Lidell - Jim

Jamie Lidell’s switch from electro/raver to soul singer was one of the more radical style shifts in years, and his latest, Jim, perfectly captures the 60’s/70’s soul of Stax and Motown. His soulful voice evokes Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder and even Otis Redding at times, which would be just vocal calisthenics if it weren’t for the songwriting to back it up. From the opening handclaps of “Another Day” all the way to the feel good funk of “Hurricane,” Jim is the perfect tonic for those ears grown tired of the depressing guitar squall of indie rock (it happens). It’s certainly nothing groundbreaking about it (like Portishead’s Third,) but it sure feels gooooood.

Free album stream from AOL

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More on the radar this week:
Hayden - In Field & Town
Les Savy Fav - After The Balls Drop: 3 AM 1-1-08 NYC
Robert Forster - The Evangelist / “Pandanus” [mp3]
Santogold - Santogold
Constantines - Kensington Heights
Robyn - Robyn
65daysofstatic - The Distant And Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties
Langhorne Slim - Langhorne Slim / “Rebel Side of Heaven” [mp3]
Make Believe - Going to the Bone Church
Estelle - Shine / Free album stream from AOL
The Roots - Rising Down
Dizee Rascal - Maths + English / “Where’s Da G’s” [mp3]
South - You Are Here / Free album stream from AOL / “Better Things” [mp3]
Firewater - The Golden Hour
Boris - Smile
Madonna - Hard Candy
Awesome Color - Electric Aborigines
Bearsuit - Oh:io
Y-Love - This is Babylon
Lil Mama - VYP - Voice of the Young People / Free album stream from AOL
David Karsten Daniels - Fear of Flying
Nerf Herder - IV
Eli “Paperboy” Reed - Roll With You
Joy Division - The Best Of
REISSUE
Steve Earle - Copper Road

Sorry I’m a little late with these, but there has just been so much happening on the Internets lately, I haven’t been able to keep up with Drake’s voluminous output. Conspicuously absent from this week’s “Take” is the latest from Canada’s Tokyo Police Club, I guess they won’t be making “Drake’s Top 100+ Albums” of this year, (but perhaps FOTC will). -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.22.08

I’m a bit torn on whether this is a good week for releases… on the one hand, it’s right in my wheelhouse as far as soundtracks go (Flight of the Conchords, latest from Barry Adamson,) but I think on the whole it’s too early to tell. Other new releases this week come from Elbow, Tokyo Police Club, Chris Mills, Lyrics Born (poached in last week’s post,) Thalia Zedek Band, Billy Bragg The Night Marchers (John Reis of RFTC), Don Cavalli, a collection of mixtape odds and ends from Clipse, and the new single from Scarlett Johansson foray into music.

Playlist: New Releases 04.22.08

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Album: Flight of the Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords

This album seems to serve mostly as a reminder of how funny the HBO comedy series is, as it’s essentially a collection of songs mostly as they appeared on the first season. Fans of the act are familiar with many of the songs from their live acoustic act, and on television the transformation of these songs into full blown studio productions wasn’t jarring in that the banter before songs was also translated into a full blown fictional setting. Without that visual in your mind, I wonder how these songs would come off? It’s hard for me to separate the two, so I’m at a quandary how to judge the album on those merits — but then again, how many people are going to purchase the album that aren’t familiar with the visuals? Bottom line, if you loved the series, you’ll love this. If you didn’t, I doubt this will change your opinion. If you’re completely unaware, Netflix it already.

Full Album Stream from AOL
Download: “Ladies of the World” [mp3]

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Album: Barry Adamson - Back to the Cat

Barry Adamson’s post-punk pedigree (Magazine, Birthday Party, Bad Seeds) always throws people for a loop when paired with a solo career highlighted by soundtrack style compositions. His noir jazz-tinged spoken word work sounds at times like Leonard Cohen if he decided he wanted to compose for James Bond movies. Since his landmark debut, Moss Side Story, this Manchester born bassist has written soundtracks for films that don’t exist, inhabiting the space that the music to The Man With the Golden Arm helped create. Back to the Cat is another throwback to that, full of David Holmes grooves and Lynchian darkness (Adamson composed for Lynch’s Lost Highway. Song highlights include an Elvis turn for “Spend a Little Time,” the obvious single “Walk on Fire,” and the nod to Serge Gainsbourg in “Psycho_Sexual.” I’ve been anxiously anticipating this release since Adamson’s “Jazz Devil” made an appearance recently on Nip/Tuck, and I have to say I’m not at all disappointed.

Listen to album free at last.fm
Download: “Spend a Little Time” / “Walk on Fire” [mp3]

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More on the radar this week:
The Replacements Let It Be/Hootenanny/Stink/Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out the Trash (AOL Stream)
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Lyrics Born - Everywhere At Once / Free album stream from AOL
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell / Free album stream from AOL
Chris Mills - Living In The Aftermath
Billy Bragg - Mr. Love & Justice / “Nothin 2 Hide [mp3]
The Night Marchers (John Reis of RFTC) - See You In Magic / Free album stream from AOL / “Who’s Lady R U” [mp3]
Make Believe - Going to the Bone Church
Thalia Zedek Band - Liars and Prayers / “Lower Allston” [mp3]
Scarlett Johansson - Falling Down (Single) / Free album stream from AOL
Clipse - Re-Up Gang The Saga Continues
El Perro Del Mar - From The Valley To The Stars / “Glory to the World” [mp3]
Don Cavalli - Cryland
Sarandon - Kill Twee Pop! / “Welcome” “Mike’s Dollar” [mp3]
Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold - Standard Edition
Shelley Short - Water For The Day / “Swimming” [mp3]
Anna Ternheim - Halfway to Fivepoints / “To Be Gone” [mp3]
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight Of Heart
Sleepercar - West Texas
The Young Knives - Superabundance
The Cat Empire - So Many Nights / Free album stream from AOL
Cinematic Orchestra - Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Pyramids - Pyramids
Juno Reactor - Gods & Monsters
Jack Rose - Dr Ragtime & Pals / Self Titled
Spectrum Meets Cpt. Memphis - Indian Giver
Jukebox The Ghost - Let Live and Let Ghosts

I’m still on vacation (holiday if you will), so you’re getting the Drake more or less straight up this week. Please listen responsibly. -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.15.08

After last week’s riches, it’s hard not to feel a bit of a letdown. However, thanks to some early arrivals from The Black Angels, Lyrics Born and Make Believe along with the new releases from M83, Black Francis, The Child Ballads, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Kooks, it’s still a better than average week for releases.

Playlist: New Releases 04.15.08

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Album: The Black Angels - Directions to See a Ghost

The latest from Austin’s The Black Angels isn’t actually due in stores for another month, but through the ingenuity of Drake fave label Light in the Attic Records, you can go to participating stores and buy a pre-sale card for $12.99, which gives you a unique online code to download tracks from LITA. Then, once May 13th arrives, you can go back to the store and pick up your deluxe embossed CD digipak release, with bonus CD EP of 4 unreleased tracks. It’s a brilliant move on LITA’s part, even knowing that this is The Black Angels last release on the label (they’ve since signed on with Interscope imprint Suretone). Because the virtual purchase also also buys you the CD, Directions to See a Ghost should get a corresponding spike on Billboard it’s first week. Still won’t be top 40, mind you, but it’s bound to get LITA a heatseeker notice, which is a good way for the Angels to leave the label that gave them their start. Enough about the delivery of Directions — how does it sound? Is saying it’s Passover pt. 2 a bad thing? It might be pure laziness on my part, but if you liked their debut, you’re going to like this one as well. The hypnotic Velvet Underground-meets-13th Floor Elevators sound is still on full display, should be enough to go on. If the one-two punch of openers “You On The Run” and “Doves” doesn’t grab you, then try “Mission District,” which effortlessly transports you to the Bay Area’s pyschedelic past.

Full Album Stream

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Album: Lyrics Born - Everywhere At Once

Listening to the Bay Area’s Lyrics Born won’t get you any street cred, but who needs the street when planning a party. LB’s funk grooves and good time party rap aren’t the kind of joints that speak of a hard-knock life, but the good natured funk grooves are too infectious to worry about being ‘authentic.’ He’s no Young MC, though, as LB’s got a full band behind him now, recalling some of the Gap Band grooves along with party beats not unlike those that Afrika Bambaataa employed during his heyday. Hot tracks like “Don’t Change,” “Hott 2 Deff” and “I Like It, I Love It” will make many mixes in the coming summer, each proof in their own way that there’s no shame in loving a little LB.

Full Album Stream from AOL

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Album: M83 - Saturdays=Youth

Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez (aka M83) gives up some of the My Bloody Valentine layered guitars for an ode to 80’s synth acts like Cocteau Twins and early Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (who fittingly enough, this week see the reissue of their great 1983 album Dazzle Ships). The lush 80’s soundscapes explore the themes of youth, so you have to forgive the lyrics at times, which sometimes seem like the scratchings from a Pee-Chee. “Kim & Jessie” is pure 80’s brilliance, capturing young lovers who have a secret hiding place, and “Graveyard Girl” is a deliberate nod in the direction of the John Hughes’ film Pretty in Pink, even name dropping Molly Ringwald. Too bad this album wasn’t done two years ago, as it would’ve been perfect for Sofia Coppola’s re-imagined Marie Antoinette, with it’s rich new wave textures. It’s an album that hits a bullseye on the target it’s aiming for, but I can’t help feeling that in a month or so I won’t be as drawn to it’s charms, unlike, say, Pretty in Pink.

Free AOL Album Stream

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More on the radar this week:
Make Believe - Going to the Bone Church (in Rhapsody a week early)
Black Francis - Svn Fngers
The Child Ballads - Cheekbone Hollows (Pop. 1/2 Life) / “Cheekbone Hollows” [mp3]
The Kooks - Konk / Free album stream from AOL
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - My Bloody Underground
Joseph Arthur - Crazy Rain / “Nothin 2 Hide [mp3]
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead / Free album stream from AOL
Tristan Prettyman - Hello / Free album stream from AOL
James McMurtry - Just Us Kids
Jordan Zevon - Insides Out / Free album stream from AOL
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
The Autumns - Fake Noise from a Box of Toys / “Boys” “Killer in Drag” [mp3]
The Plastic Constellations - We Appreciate You / “Stay That Way” [mp3]
Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 & 4: Air & Earth
The Gossip - Live In Liverpool / “Yr Mangled Heart (Live)” [mp3]
Reissues
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) - Dazzle Ships

This week Drake steps up his (already considerable) game with unprecedented back to back ‘Takes’ covering the latest releases from Nick Cave, Man Man, Wye Oak, The Breeders, The Long Blondes, Jason Anderson, and more. -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.04.08 (Part 1)

If some were worried that 2008 wasn’t going to have the same share of great albums we’ve seen in recent years, a slew of this week’s releases should alleviate most (if not all) of those concerns. Last week I poached Foals great debut on Sub Pop and yesterday I wrote about Tapes n’ Tapes’ sophomore release, which is fortunate, since I probably wouldn’t even be able to get to either this week with all the rest of the riches that dropped. To wit, we have the latest from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Man Man, The Breeders, Clinic, The Long Blondes, Jason Anderson, Cloud Cult, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Richard Swift, Neva Dinova, Peter Moren, The Duke Spirit, Robots in Disguise, full-length debuts from Wye Oak, New Bloods, The Old Haunts, and new EPs from Spoon and the much hyped Fleet Foxes. In fact, there’s so much good music, I’m breaking up this post into two parts, one today and a continuation tomorrow.

Playlist: New Releases 04.08.08

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Album: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

If the garage rock of Nick Cave’s Grinderman project last year served as a cathartic exercise, then Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is a refinement of that midlife Christ-kick. Cave hands the guitar back to Mick Harvey and mans the organ, hammering out an album that infuses some of Grinderman’s noise and bravado into songs that often recall the power of ’97’s The Boatman’s Call. At age 50, Cave is now releasing some of his most vital work, and he seems to be having more fun while doing it, taking himself a little less seriously. In the stomping title track and opener “Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!” Cave re-imagines Lazarus (calling him ‘Larry’) crossing America before ending up “back in the streets of New York, in a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave.” Meanwhile, with “We Call Upon the Author,” Cave eschews Bukowski (”a jerk!”) preferring the works of John Berryman (”the best!”) but still calling upon the author to explain his suicide. Prolix, of which I often suffer, provides another humorous take. “I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix.” And then there’s the line “our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets.” Colin Meloy’s thesaurus just got green with envy. It’s not all fun and diction, though, as Cave still has time for one of his patented murder ballads in achingly beautiful “Jesus on the Moon.” The album ends with eight minutes of Cave saying ‘c’est la vie’ to the unstoppable force of time with “More News From Nowhere.” “Don’t it make you feel so sad, don’t the blood rush to your feet, to think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete? Technology and women and little children too. Don’t it make you feel blue?” As long as it’s backed by the Bad Seeds, it don’t feel so bad at all.

Full Album Stream from AOL

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Album: Man Man - Rabbit Habits

When Philadelphia’s Man Man released Six Demon Bag back in 2006, it was if someone had blended all my Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa albums as into one delectable shake. But both live and lyrically, the songs took on more than just a rehash of music’s marginalized past. Rabbit Habits, whose title comes from the practice of rabbits eating their young, doesn’t stray too much from their Waits/Zappa/Beefheart junkyard ethos, but this time around, there’s an underlying darkness amidst all the vaudevillian tomfoolery. Frontman Honus ruthlessly hunts down the title character in “The Ballad of Butter Beans,” and then calls out a vacuous lover in “Poor Jackie.” “I don’t see what everybody sees in your sexy body. All I see is a shallow grave, trapped inside a pretty face.” “Whalebones” brings it’s own dark heartache, with the line “but she holds him like an infant, though it breaks her in half to know he’ll wake like a man — sold on cold indifference.” All this lies underneath tremendously fun (re: great live) songs, full of crazy instrumentation. Pitchfork TV launched yesterday, and the first video time-waster you should check out is the behind the scenes look at Man Man recording this album, recording falling junk, dogs in the bathtub, and of course fireworks (“Mysteries of the Universe Unraveled.”) All in all it’s a great rock album, even though there’s nary a guitar in the mix.

Full Album Stream from AOL

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Album: Wye Oak - If Children

This album is already destined for my Best of the Year (That’s Really Rrom a Previous Year) list, as it was originally self-released last summer by the duo from Baltimore. If Children is a great debut, one that relies quite a bit on the shoegaze of the nineties, along with the dreamy folk pop of Yo La Tengo, but without sounding entirely derivative. Jenn Wasner’s vocals are a bit like a laid back Kim Deal, dry and double-tracked, but lyrically a bit more like Jenny Lewis, smarter than you give what you’re hearing credit for. The duo easily move from the controlled feedback of first single “Warning” into the gentle acoustic pop of “Regret,” a nice demonstration that the band isn’t reliant on the shoegaze angle. Meanwhile, “I Don’t Feel Young” is a joyous number, where Phil Spector’s wall of sound meets Crosby Stills and Nash, by way of lots of distortion, of course. It’s an album that I’ve had on repeat all week now, and only through the incredible depth of today’s haul will it (temporarily) slip out of rotation.

Stream the album from Merge Records
Download: “Warning” [mp3]

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More on the radar this week:
The Breeders - Mountain Battles / Free album stream from AOL (more tomorrow)
Jason Anderson - The Hopeful and the Unafraid / Free album stream from AOL (more tomorrow)
Foals - Antidotes / Free album stream from AOL (Reviewed last week)
Clinic - Do It! / Free album stream from AOL (more tomorrow)
The Long Blondes - Couples / Free album stream from AOL
Tapes ‘n Tapes - Walk it Off / Free album stream from AOL
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP
Old Haunts - Poisonous Times / “Volatile” [mp3]
Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing / Free album stream from AOL / “Glue Girls,” “Think I Wanna Die” [mp3]
New Bloods - The Secret Life / “Oh, Deadly Nightshade” [mp3]
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours / Free album stream from AOL
Richard Swift - Richard Swift As Onasis
Jim Noir - Jim Noir (Free AOL Stream - Not in Rhapsody)
Neva Dinova - You May Already Be Dreaming / Free album stream from AOL / “Knee High Boogie Blues” [mp3]
Peter Moren - The Last Tycoon / Free album stream from AOL
The Duke Spirit - Neptune
Robots in Disguise - We’re In The Music Biz
Ike Reilly - Poison The Hit Parade
Boredoms - Super Roots 1
Spoon - Don’t You Evah
The Wombats - The Wombats EP
Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind
Finest Dearest - Finest Dearest
Marie Digby - Unfold
Eric Avery - Help Wanted / Free album stream from AOL
Meat Meat Manifesto - Autoimmune
The Green Owl Comp: A Benefit For The Energy Action Coalition
Reissues
Dark Meat - Universal Indians [Expanded]
The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2 (w/ Bonus Disc)

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.04.08 (Part 2) Continued After The Jump

“(A Supersized) Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.08.08″ continued after the jump

Drake digs the new releases from After The Jump alums Foals, and new metal warriors The Sword, while he gives REM’s “Accelerate” a best thing you’ve done for me lately award. -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 04.01.08

Last week, we were spoiled by getting The Black Keys new one last week, so this week we poach from next week’s bin, as the debut album from much hyped UK dance-punk act Foals hits Rhapsody a week early. Beyond that, there’s plenty here, including a new release from the (sort of) revitalized R.E.M., along with new ones from Sun Kill Moon, Colour Revolt, Los Campesinos! and my fave metal band The Sword. Add to that some great compilations like a Willie Nelson box set and a collection of rarities from Apples in Stereo, and you’d think that would be enough — but we’re also blessed with live albums from The Rolling Stones (soundtrack to the Scorcese film Shine a Light,) Muse and The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy. Listing all this even has me wondering whether I’m pulling some April fools day prank, but it’s all here, enit.

Playlist: New Releases 04.01.08

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Album: Foals - Antidotes

Sub Pop scores once again, landing the debut from this young Oxford band, in Rhapsody a week early. It’s a debut that many across the pond are calling the best you’ll hear all year, and there’s a lot of merit to that hubris. Comparisons to the dance punk of Rapture and (early) Bloc Party are bound to come, but there’s both more dance and math-rock than both those bands, and less pop to be sure. The first singles, “Cassius” and “Balloons,” get the feet moving, but they also hit on a more visceral sense. There’s also some mood-shifting here as well, and the beauty of “Electric Boom” sort of serves as the heart of the album, an album that will be talked a lot of about, I’m sure. For the UK release, Foals left off their previous hit singles (“Hummer” and “Mathletics,”) as neither fit the sound that producer Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) achieve for them here, but both make it on the Sub Pop release as bonus tracks.

Download: “Balloons”
Video: “Cassius”

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Album: The Sword - Gods Of The Earth

When this Austin band’s debut Age of Winters came out in 2006, it pushed me to do a piece on the New Heavy, recent metal that even indie rockers can get down with. Their seemingly sincere D&D-inspired lyrics (think Neil Peart) delve deep into geek territory, and with Gods of the Earth, they go even deeper. “Mother Maiden and Crone” references the Triple Goddess, “To Take The Black” is about George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic “A Game of Thrones”, and “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” is the title of a Conan the Barbarian story. I say just roll your ten-si