March Radness > this month we've received gifts from the music gods in the likes of long-awaited releases from The Strokes, Toro y Moi and Lupe Fiasco, among others. Just what did we do to deserve a triple shot of new music on the last Tuesday of March? It's Madness!
Panic! at the Disco Vices & Virtues > Panic! dropped their first album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out in 2005 and it was a gem and then some. Three long years later they released Pretty. Odd. which they disappointedly took into a different direction. Their sophomore album wasn't awful but it just wasn't what I or seemingly anyone else wanted or expected after such a fun breakthrough debut.
Today their third studio album Vices & Virtues makes it's way into music's March Madness and it's apparent that Sin City's own have taken their sound back in the right direction of mostly faster tempos, funky electro keyboard and neo-punk guitar riffs. You'll hear the familiar alternative disco shit in a lot of the front half's tracks like 'Let's Kill Tonight' and 'Hurricane' as well as their first single 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa'.
The Sounds Something to Die For > it's been a minute since any output from this quintet as well but the sexy Swedish Maja and company are back with more new rave electro and have taken more of a dance approach to this sound. A handful of tracks on this release, namely the intro 'It's So Easy' and 'Dance With the Devil', have a house vibe to them while the others embed the famous progressive indie theme we know and love. The album sounds like Ultra Records rented Maja for their latest Ultra.Dance compilation but told their DJ to keep the strings and drums. I instantly loved a lot of the tracks including the aforementioned as well as 'Yeah Yeah Yeah' and the title track 'Something to Die For'. This shit will make you move for sure.
YELLE Safari Disco Club > and finally, keeping on with the electro-disco theme of today's all-star releases is YELLE, another electro-pop band led by a sexy European chick. This Euro sexpot, however, is from France and sings only in her native tongue but like Maja she knows just how perfectly work those pipes into an entire album laced with superb synthetic sounds. Remember her 'Je Veux Te Voir' indie club anthem from back in the day? You can expect the same type of foreign, funky energy for 11 tracks. Nearly every track is disco-worthy, party-appropriate and auto-proper.
Get all this shit immediately, s'il vous plait. :j Marc
