Yes Or No; Tight Knit

A couple of weeks ago Christine and I did a show where we took random CDs off of the shelves of the radio library and played them on air without ever listening to them in advance (you should check out the archive on bsrlive.com if you wish to listen.) It was actually a huge success, at least in terms of the expansion of my musical horizons. We tried to pick really obscure stuff that we'd never even heard of before, and most of it turned out to be really good (and I mean really.)

One of the tracks we played was "Say Fiesta" by Francois Virot, off of the album Yes Or No. We both loved the song so much on the first listen that I had no choice but to snatch the CD and rip it to my computer, and now, weeks later, listen to it in full. Let me say that I definitely was not disappointed, and the song I liked so much from our show is actually one of the weaker tracks on the album (which says a whole lot.) Virot's voice reminds me a whole lot of both Avey Tare and Zach Schwartz of Rogue Wave, especially when he sings the word "scared." The music itself is very humble and simple folk-pop (though it's technically classified as "freak-folk" due to the vocals) and the songs are both catchy and endearing. My favorites are the opener "Not The One," "Island," and closer "Yes Sun" but all of the tracks are solid.

Another surprisingly solid album is the new one from Vetiver, Tight Knit. This one didn't strike me as much on the first listen as Virot did, but after several all of the subtleties finally began to emerge. The title could just as easily apply to the way the tightly packaged music begins to unravel as you explore deeper as it does to the subject matter. Tight Knit sees Andy Cabic pushing the Banhart-inspired freak-folk into a more Beatlesque realm of psychedelic folk/pop, though it sounds even more relaxed and pleasant than that. Tracks like "Sister" and "More Of This" are more upbeat and fun while closer "At Forest Edge" is mellow and beautiful. Give it a chance and let it wrap around your cerebral cortex for a bit; it may just become one of your favorite albums of 2009 (so far.)