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Hello again everyone! The first day of spring was on Friday, and soon the warmth will flow over you like so many ladybugs over Chopin’s long, tapering fingers. Enjoy these words, reader, for The Internet is a fickle place and they may not last forever! As always, if you have anything you would like to say about the article, there is a little box at the bottom of the page where your words can reside happily. If there’s something you would like to say to me personally, send an electronic mail to my electronic mail address, which is yaschuk@twowordheap.com, and once it has arrived via the Electronic Pony Express, I will send an electronic mail in response!

1. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love

   This album gets better with every listen. It is definitely one that should be listened to as an album, rather than as singles, the way everyone in the world has apparently learned how to listen to music. Once you commit to this nearly-an-hour-long piece of work, you will not regret it. Full of amazing folk storytelling and fucking killer prog-rock riffs, this will probably be on many year-end best-of lists.

2. Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster…

   This Welsh pop group has the most infectious melodies that have ever been imported across the Atlantic. Keyboards and glockenspiels, a nasal Welsh boy and a pretty girl makes this first full-length something to pay attention to. This band also released a brilliant second album only eight months after this one, which is a testament to what very well could be a long career ahead of them. Sporting not only super-cute music-making abilities, but also fairly witty and complex lyrics, this is a disc that begs to be listened to over and over again.

3. Colin Meloy – Colin Meloy Sings Live!

   This man is responsible for much of The Decemberists’ catalogue. Hearing him perform stripped-down versions of Decemberists tunes, among others, is somewhat magical at times. His banter about campfires and sitting under the stars with your burro, makes this album a real treat to listen to.

4. Nick Drake -Way To Blue

   One of the most amazing writer/voices in music history. Nearly forgotten in his lifetime, since his death he has received quite a large following. Very soft-spoken, yet his finger-picking is quite enviable, this is a great overview of his work. If you enjoy this, his other three albums, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon, are each classics in themselves.

5. Gogol Bordello – Super Taranta!

   For the best moustache in punk today, go no further than Eugene Hütz. He is the man behind this fantastic, incredibly intense group. Heavily influenced by gypsy music from Ukraine, this album is bright fucking green, and should make you want to dance until your red boots and large blue pants fall right off.

6. Talking Heads – True Stories

   What more can be said about this band? They’ve been on a majority of these 7in7′s, and are quite possibly one of the greatest bands to come out of anywhere. This album has the song that Thom Yorke named his band after (Radiohead, if you didn’t know), which has to tell you something about its impact.

7. Tim Barry – Rivanna Junction AND Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free^[1]
   1. Tim Barry

      Former lead singer for punk rock band Avail, this album is a collection of folky alt-country tunes for lonely hearts. It seems a lot of the 90′s punk generation are making these types of records. From Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, to Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, these albums are usually pretty good, but much different from the music they used to make.

   2. Akron/Family

      I have only heard rumours of this band’s prestige before I had heard this. Complicated, somewhat weird folk, but entirely amazing music. It’s an album you can feel the first time you listen to it, but it takes subsequent hearings to really get to the heart of it. When this comes out, surely music people are going to be talking.

Until next time, etc. etc.

1. a tie, which was a 3-way tie, but I’m keeping it short [↩]

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