May 20, 2009
Every few weeks, Amazon.com lets us select one recent release from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget.
Onetime BTW the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart made a big splash this year with their self-titled full-length debut, an easy-to-like collection of jangly, fuzzy late '80s/early '90s-style indie pop. As we've mentioned, from the album art down to the melodies and layers of pretty noise, it's clear they like the Pastels, Black Tambourine, etc. That's a good thing. As anyone who's hummed The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 10 tracks after just one listen can attest.
Continue reading Stereogum X Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #11: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart...
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Tags: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
latest by Daniel
April 29, 2009
Every few weeks, Amazon.com lets us select one recent release from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget.
People kept asking us what happened to our Amazon Friendly Deals. Finally they're back by popular demand, starting with one of last year's best, perhaps below-too-many-radars albums, Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. It's the third collection by Grouper, aka Portland-based conjurer Liz Harris. Dragging's her first to inspire Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion. More importantly (yes), it's also her first step in a quietly majestic new direction.
Continue reading Stereogum X Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #10: Grouper's Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill...
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Tags: Grouper
latest by d
January 5, 2009
Every week, Amazon.com lets us select one recent release from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget.
While they landed album of the year at Decibel and were more often relegated to the lower ends of lists in indie publications (Pitchfork gave them an Honorable Mention), Torche's second full length Meanderthal was one of the best albums of 2008 in any genre. It's just that people need to lighten up about metal -- even the poppier stuff -- because like country (or, in books, romance and sci-fi), it's often pushed into its own separate genre-relegated realm. Anyhow, Torche: We mentioned being blown away by the heavy stoner goodness of the band a couple CMJ's ago and then the Steve Brooks-fronted Miami/Atlanta crew released the superb, Kurt Ballou-produced Meanderthal, a mix of math angles, Melvins-esque sludge, and full-on turbo-powered pop hookery. Call us blown away doubly.
Continue reading Stereogum X Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #9: Torche's Meanderthal...
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Tags: Torche
latest by Scott
December 31, 2008
Every week, Amazon.com lets us select one recent release from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget.
We like just about everything Gang Gang Dance has done, though before this year, 2005's God's Money made us rave the most. The EP teasers that came in its wake were exciting, but they did ultimately feel like teasers, and not a jump to something else equally transcendent. Enter their excellent new album Saint Dymphna. It's not as sprawling as some of GGD's earlier work (which often reminded of some giant rhythmic centipede or a kind of real-time collage), Lizzi Bougatsos's vocal parts are often more obviously catchy or contained and less free-range, and there's more variation between tracks (as well as guest rapper Tinchy Stryder, which makes sense, considering we've often though of keyboardist/remixer/etc. Brian DeGraw as some kinda avant Timbaland), but it works separately (there are true pop nuggets) and as a twisting-turning/percussive/spaced-out whole. The record builds from what they were doing in the past and then clarifies and tightens. Meaning: Dymphna should satisfy fans of the old and draw in people who'd been looking for more easily recognizable song structures in the past.
Continue reading Stereogum X Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #8: Gang Gang Dance's Saint Dymphna...
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Tags: Gang Gang Dance
latest by J Smith
December 22, 2008
Every week, Amazon.com lets us select one album from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). At Amazon's request, going forward we're going to feature recent releases instead of old albums you probably already own. Hopefully you'll be able to add these newer must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget. Today's deal: Department Of Eagles' In Ear Park.
It's easy to paint Department Of Eagles' In Ear Park as an alternate-lineup Grizzly Bear album: the record takes production cues from GB bassist Chris Taylor, who joins drummer Chris Bear in support of principle players Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus's sophomore set. So, fair enough -- that's 3/4 of Bear right there. But what emerges, hazily, over Park's 11 songs is the distinct vision of a songwriting partnership that predates its blog-beloved counterpart. Rossen and Nicolaus have been working together since releasing 2003's Whitey On The Moon UK LP (later renamed The Cold Nose), spending the next four years sporadically assembling what would become one of 2008's finest albums.
Continue reading Stereogum x Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #7: Department Of Eagles' In Ear Park...
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Tags: Department Of Eagles | Grizzly Bear
latest by Ear Park
December 15, 2008
Every week, Amazon.com lets us select one album from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). At Amazon's request, going forward we're going to feature recent releases instead of old albums you probably already own. Hopefully you'll be able to add these newer must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget. Today's deal: Beach House's Devotion.
Devotion is the perfect name for Beach House's sophomore album: The collection has a reverence and dreamy flow that never drifts too much its volume or tone, maintaining a constant soundtrack for your next seance. It's a tapestry of hushed melodies and nighttime instrumentation; severing a bit of that takes away from the cumulative effect. For such an understated record, it's actually a huge accomplishment: On it, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand grew up as songwriters, turning in a collection that we might not have thought possible based on their 2006 self-titled debut. It was good, but not like this.
Continue reading Stereogum x Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #6: Beach House's Devotion...
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Tags: Beach House
latest by matthew
December 8, 2008
Every week, Amazon.com is letting us select one album from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget. Today's deal: Boards Of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children.
Scottish brothers Michael and Marcus Sandison have been releasing cut-and-paste collages since the late '80s, but 1998's Music Has The Right To Children (Warp) was their first proper studio LP. Ten years later, it remains one of the greatest IDM efforts of the modern era and an inspiration for ambitious electronica artists and Radiohead alike. The elusive duo's name is inspired by documentaries from the National Film Board of Canada, and even if you're not aware of that oeuvre, the sounds collected on Music will be familiar to anyone who's watched a '70s educational filmstrip in elementary school. Warped, warm synths and electric pianos mingle with found sounds and echoing kids' voices, forging a trippy tribute to childhood wonder. Off-kilter beats and samples appear incongruously with the analog sounds, a la labelmate Aphex Twin, ensuring that we're never in Muzak territory. Every track is transportive and psychedelic, and while BoC have remained vital throughout their career, we most frequently return to the ambient soundscapes of their debut. This week you can pick it up at Amazon MP3 for $3.99 down from the regular price of $9.99.
Help us make great albums available at low prices by suggesting future Friendly Deal selections in the comments.
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Tags: Boards Of Canada
latest by L
December 1, 2008
Here's the next installment in a series that brings you classic indie rock albums at hugely discounted prices. Every week, Amazon.com is letting us select one album from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you'll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget. Today's deal: Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam.
Animal Collective's eighth (seven studio, one live) album Strawberry Jam is the most recent title in our series of Amazon selections. That said, a lot has happened -- post-Strawberry jams, Water Curses, the impending Merriweather Post Pavilion, apologies from Grizzly Bear -- since we first heard "Peacebone" thru "Derek." When going back through A.C.'s output, it's difficult labeling a true "best album" because they've managed to shape-shift for so long. You could see Sung Tongs as the crossover, but Strawberry Jam is where they found a way to deepen their sound, making it more accessible (a la Panda Bear's Person Pitch), but just as adventurous as their earlier, more free-form work. For starters, the nine songs' food, firework, Al Green, and magi-centered lyrics -- don't forget that mildewed rice -- are easier to parse than past chirps and chants, the syllables even less stuttered than those on the lovely Feels. It also goes down easiest from start to finish.
Continue reading Stereogum x Amazon MP3 Friendly Deals #4: Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam...
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Tags: Animal Collective
latest by porter
