Review: Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown

The Followill boys, Caleb, Jared, Nathan and Matthew (consisting of three brothers and a cousin) have released their newest album, Come Around Sundown. This marks the fifth studio album released by the Kings of Leon and aims to take their music in a bit of a different direction from their previous album. If you don't already know (and how could you not?) Kings of Leon has risen to great fame in the United States with their previous release Only by the Night (2008), more specifically with the song Use Somebody, which was pretty much inescapable in 2009....but of course, us Americans never gave them the widespread recognition they deserved up until now.

Kings of Leon - Radioactive

Kings of Leon - Pyro

Kings of Leon - The Immortals

Read the full review after the jump!

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Review: Florence + the Machine

Florence + the Machine (named for British singer Florence Welch and her backing band) have achieved great success in the U.K. with the release of the album Lungs in July of 2009. It seems that the States are a bit behind when it came to discovering this great talent. She's only recently gained noteriety in the States with her single Dog Days are Over. She recently performed this song on the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and gave a stellar performance looking like a fairy goddess all the while (check it out below).

Florence has a voice that is well beyond her 24 years, invoking the vocal sounds of Chrissie Hynde and Beth Orton while creating dramatic songs that would please fans of Kate Bush. She has the sort of vocal prowess that makes you stop and listen. The first U.K. single to be released off of Lungs was the controversial, yet inherently catchy song Kiss with a Fist. The song itself is a melding of pop/punk/indie music with Florence's own clever twist. Upon first hearing this song, I could have sworn it was Kate Nash. With lyrics like A kick to the teeth is good for some / a kiss with a fist is better than none, she had the critics wondering if this was a song condoning domestic abuse. She later clarified that the song is actually all figurative. To be honest, this song feels a bit out of place because it varies quite drastically with the style of the other tracks.

The entire album is fantastic but some of my favorite tracks are Drumming, Howl, and of course Dog Days are Over. With some of her music being used for television shows and most recently the song Heavy in Your Arms appearing on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack, we should expect more great things to come for Florence + the Machine. She already has her second album slated for 2011.


Posted by SarahPlain&Tall.

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This Week's Album You Can't Live Without

I can't live without music in general therefore there are so many albums that I would classify as ones I Can't Live Without.  One that immediately comes to mind would have to be Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan. This is the quintessential, melancholy, rainy day album.  However to me, it defines a period in my life where I struggled with the fact that I was painfully shy and introverted. This was the first album that I ever bought that effected me profoundly on such a deep level.

I remember when I first heard the song Possession on the radio- I couldn't believe how pure and honest her voice was. Beyond Possession, the whole album really spoke to me. There was one song in particular on that album titled Elsewhere that was the definition of my life. There is a verse, The quiet child awaits that day when she can break free of the mold that clings like desperation. That quiet child was (and still is for the most part) ME. I can recall sitting in my room for hours with that album playing on my Aiwa Boombox and trying to learn every song on my flute. I wanted to be able to sing like her, with the tonality that she had and the ease of which she could switch from a chest voice to a falsetto....I still wish I could sing like that....but I thought that if I couldn't do that, I would sing through my flute. 

As embarrassing as this all is, I really feel it was the first album that shaped my current taste in music.  To this day, when I put on that album, I completely become that same person that I was....sitting in my room, in my McLachlan-esque world. Oh, and if you want to hear some insane vocal range, listen to Fear below....amazing!




Posted by SarahFreakin'

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