ALBUM REVIEWS
“Wish You Were Here,” which may have put
Gold Motel
Summer House
(Good as Gold)
Gold Motel’s appropriately-titled debut
Summer House offers sunny So-Cal fare
that’s guaranteed to evoke warm weather
and short-shorts-and-lemonade memories,
even in the bleakness of winter. The 10-song
compilation, which features first single “Safe
In L.A.,” is the result of a collaboration be-
tween Chicago natives: lead vocalist Greta
Morgan from the Hush Sound, This Is Me
Smiling alums—guitarist and producer Dan
Duszynski, bassist Matt Minx, and drummer
Adam Kaltenhauser—plus Yearbooks’ guitar-
ist Eric Hehr.
Summer House brings straight-up pop
morsels with a retro ‘60s flavor, conveyed
by Morgan’s soulful vocal performances
where she often tips her hat to powerhouse
girl groups of the era like the Supremes and
Martha and the Vandellas. Opener “We’re
On The Run” shines with Bossa Nova verses
that dissolve into traditional power-pop cho-
ruses, while “Stealing The Moonlight” pays
homage to the sound honed by pop-prede-
cessor Ric Ocasek. While the low-key “Who
Will I Be Tonight?” and “Fireworks After Mid-
night” both offer glimpses into the psyche
of songwriter and lyricist Morgan, it’s “The
Cruel One” that stands out most as it runs
the gamut from simple piano tinkering to a
refrain of epic proportions. Overall, Sum-
mer House is a successful sunshiny effort
by seasoned collaborators who, no doubt,
have a very bright future ahead of them.
— Claire Ashton
The Concretes
WYWH
(Friendly Fire)
After a three-year silence, Sweden’s pop
indie delights the Concretes are back on
the scene with a new album cryptically en-
titled WYWH. For fans who missed hearing
the band’s catchy and always palatable pop
tunes during the hiatus, we can only hope
that WYWH stands for pining sentiments of
IMA Robot
Another Man’s Treasure
(Werewolf Heart)
Edward Sharpe’s Alex Ebert rebirths Ima Robot project for
new chapter in LA electro-pop. No major label. No attitude.
Just cutting and pasting to see what sticks. — Jamie Gadette
Ring functions like a soundtrack: A cohesive
pressure on the band to deliver new songs.
And deliver they do, with ten immediately
lovable tracks that fuse the Concretes’ sim-
ple melodies, heavy orchestration, wistful lyr-
ics, and the sweet and soft vocals of Lisa Mil-
berg. There’s a slow and slightly laid-back feel
to the album, but WYWH picks up groove
midway with the disco-infused “All Day” and
“What We’ve Become.” The ABBA-esque
“My Ways” takes listeners back to dance
floor in a flash and reminds us why we can’t
help but love pop bands from Stockholm.
On the rest of the album, you can ex-
pect to hear less guitar, more keyboards,
and more grooves and percussion, with
lyrics you won’t be able to get out of your
head. In short, WYWH could be likened to
a modern-day disco collection, worth bring-
ing the bell bottoms out for, even if it’s just
the special occasion of spinning this great
album. — Marisa Iacobucci
Glasser
Ring
(True Panther)
Solo experimentalist Cameron Mesirow,
who performs her boundary-defying sound-
scapes as alter-ego Glasser, has upped the
ante since the release of her self-produced
2009 debut EP Apply with an new effort
chock full of beat-heavy orchestral composi-
tions that easily rival sister avant-garde per-
formers Bjӧrk and My Brightest Diamond.
The progressive songwriter enlisted the help
of Ariel Rechtshaid, who produced We Are
Scientists’ album Barbara, to rearrange her
compositions in order to realize the epic-
consciousness of her new effort Ring. As a
result, the album incorporates elements of
trip-hop, tribal beats, synth samples, and lib-
eral instrumentation into an overall artistic
vision that still showcase Mesirow’s haunting
vocals.
While a great deal of Ring’s allure comes
from tracks that are strangely beyond their
time (like string-laden opener “Apply” and
quirky, horn-infused “Clamour”), the addition
of songs that resonate in current conscious-
ness provide a welcome balance, such as
first single “Home” (a track reminiscent of
Vampire Weekend’s “Horchata”). Overall,
Dolorean
The Unfazed
(Partisan)
A breakup album done right. What could have been an
easy-listening folk record about breakin’ up & movin’ on
goes beyond just sadness. — Dana Raidt
journey from beginning to end with songs
that guide you through different emotion-
ally charged and superbly crafted scenes
that seamlessly compose the whole.
— Claire Ashton
Liz Phair
Funstyle/Girlysound
(Rocket Science Ventures)
The first single from Liz Phair’s newest al-
bum, “Bollywood,” left a lot of fans and crit-
ics wondering if someone had hacked into
her website and posted the song as a hoax.
On the track, Phair rhymes, “portfolio” with
“dough you know,” and succeeds at giving the
impression that either (1) the joke is on us, or
(2) Phair has decided her career—up to this
point—has been a joke.
Either way, it is fitting that the first track
on Funstyle is titled “Smoke,” perhaps as
in, “up in.” But to write the two-album set
(coupled by her 1991 Girlysound cassettes)
off—easy as it would be—is lazy. “Satisfied”
brings back Phair’s characteristic pretty vo-
cals as she sings, “You’ve got the world at
your feet / With everything you need / Tell
me are you satisfied?” With this song, Liz,
yes I am. I am also satisfied with “Oh, Bangla-
desh,” a song sewn together with piano riffs
and melancholy guitar. Perhaps when not in
vendetta mode, the few respectable songs
on the album could have been released as
a solid EP. Unfortunately for those of us
on the business end of Phair’s musical dia-
tribe against the record industry, it was not.
— Amanda Stovall
Belle & Sebastian
Write About Love
(Matador)
These days, Scotland’s best pop export is
sounding more Belle than Sebastian. On
prior material, the expansive band only spo-
radically featured the lead chops of Sarah
Martin or former member Isobel Camp-
bell, both beautiful but shrinking violets on
vocals. It was ringleader Stuart Murdoch,
though, who took on the prominent role.