Modern Minstrels

New Music Recommendations

I updated my music recommendations for the week in the sidebar. I'm not sure if I'll always make an official entry when I update the recommendations, but I wanted to talk at length about a couple of them.

First up is the album Based on a True Story by The Starting Line. Let me just say: Wow! This album is so much more than I expected. I don't put it in quite the same class as Deja Entendu and Forget What You Know, but there's no denying this album his a huge leap from Say It Like You Mean It. You still get the fun poppy hooks and catchy choruses but there's also a lot more this time around. No longer is the lyrical content strictly songs about girls. The album's title is Based on a True Story and it seems to be just that. Lots of lyrics about being on the road, being in a band, and generally growing up. And Kenny has become quite a musician, as he is credited with Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Wurlitzer, Piano, Glockenspiel, Bongos, Synths, and Harpsichord. Very impressive. I loved the acoustic album they put out a couple years ago, so I was very happy to hear a new acoustic ballad in the form of the song Photography. This album is definitely going to be getting lots listens and is sure to make my Top 5 albums of the year.

The next album recommendation is Songs for Silverman by Ben Folds. The first time I listened to this album no one song really jumped out at me and it just sort of all blended together. After a few more listens though the album has really grown on me. I listened to it at least 3 full times at work today. The songs Bastard and Landed have started to stick out as a couple of my favorites. The entire album is pretty mellow and really just pleasant to listen to. I highly recommend it to everyone reading this.

Ben's going on tour soon with Rufus Wainwright and you can be sure I'll be at that show. Also, Nick pointed me to this interview with Ben by The Onion AV Club. If you like Ben Folds, you should definitely give that read. It talks about the weird area he falls into where he doesn't really get much if any radio play, and yet he sells out huge venues everywhere he plays.

Song recommendations for the week include Grazed Knees by Snow Patrol who I saw in concert last week. Sarah had mentioned this song to me as being one of her favorites, and I have to agree. It's definitely a sad song, and yet there's something uplifting about it at the end, sorting giving you hope that everything's going to be ok.

The next song is Gravity by Days Away from their just released album Mapping an Invisible World. This is another mellow song. I really like the way the song sounds during the lyrics "Hey you, over there, is gravity getting you down?".

The last song recommendation, We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs, I already posted about the other day.

Woo, so this post ended up a bit longer than expected. Anyways, enjoy the music!