Some pretty good albums were released this summer, but if you were too busy interning, studying or lounging by the pool to notice, here is the best of what you missed from the last four months or so. Many of these bands are playing in Chicago in the near future, so if you like what you hear, head into the city and check them out.
Passion Pit, Manners
Boston-based electro-pop outfit Passion Pit is quickly becoming the MGMT of 2009, but unlike Oracular Spectacular, the non-singles on Manners don’t suck. Lead singer Michael Angelakos’s falsetto soars over poppy danceable electronic beats to push the album’s singles forward, but it’s on the songs that won’t get any radio time — like “Moth’s Wings” and “Little Secrets” — where Passion Pit really hits their stride. You can also expect to hear “Sleepyhead,” the bands biggest single, pounding into your eardrums this year at a few parties as the band is gaining more attention in the mainstream.
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
Veckatimest, the second full length from Grizzly Bear, may be the best album of the year so far. Grizzly Bear can sound like a college glee club trying to be a rock band at times, but those glee club harmonies sound damn good on songs like “Cheerleader” and “While You Wait For The Others.” Most of the time, though, the Brooklyn four piece just sounds classic. The bouncy “Two Weeks” is an old fashioned piano pounding pop song that you will be struggling to get out of your head for about the next week and a half (with a music video that kicks ass).
The Smith Westerns, The Smith Westerns
I wasn’t alive in 1960s, but Chicago teenagers The Smith Westerners can make me feel that way. Their warm, fuzzy garage-pop recalls a time before bloggers and iTunes, but the album hardly does justice to the band’s live performance. The vocals on the album are much more muffled and distorted and you miss out on the boyish charm that frontman Cullen Omori exudes on stage. At their core, the Smith Westerns are actually just a bunch of horny teenagers, and it shows in their music. They do have a little bit of class though, something that’s absent from much of contemporary music. “I wanna take you home,” the key line in the single “Be My Girl,” is a bit easier to swallow than when Lady Gaga sings “I want to take a ride on your disco stick.”
Mos Def, The Ecstatic
Hip-hop icon turned actor Mos Def stuffs good tunes, fresh rhymes and worldly vibes into his first solo release since 2006, and it seems like he is trying to expand the reach of rap music as well. Mos Def starts off the album with a cut from Malcom X’s 1964 speech at Oxford setting the tone for this cosmopolitan record. “No Hay Nada Mas” is rapped entirely in Spanish and many of the songs are injected with a bit Indian or Middle Eastern flavor. Mos Def really displays how versatile he is on The Ecstatic, but he also shows us that he still knows how to lay down a rhyme.
YACHT, See Mystery Lights
YACHT’s follow-up to 2007’s I Believe in You, Your Magic Is Real brings on Claire L. Evans as a permanent voice. And when her sweet and innocent vocals are draped over layers of bubbly synths on See Mystery Lights, it just makes you feel happy inside. The album is teeming with sunshine pop jams like “Psychic City (Voodoo City)” and “The Afterlife” which makes See Mystery Lights a perfect summer album. Unfortunately for those of you who missed it when it was released in early August, you might have to wait until next summer to blast it from stereo with the top rolled down.