New Music Reviews - 6/21/2011 - Jill Scott, Bon Iver, and Chad Valley

Bon Iver Bon Iver - The four-person indie folk band fronted by singer/songwriter Justin Vernon releases its sophomore album.  Their 2008 debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, was certified Gold in both Australia and the UK while reaching as high as number four on the American Indie charts.  In May, iTunes made a serious boo-boo and made this album available for purchase/download over a month early so there have been copies of the album floating around cyberspace for a while now.  For those of you that haven't heard it yet, let's find out how the album sounds.

The first thing you notice, similar to the Gorillaz album released earlier this year, is that all the tracks of the album are named after cities or other physical locations.  The first song is "Perth" which has non-standard (for an indie song) military-esque snare drum work over thick electric guitars and Vernon's gruff vocal style that builds as the song moves along. "Minnesota, WI" follows and it does a better job of drawing you in with subtle, melodic backing music over a subdued vocal track. 

"Wash." is a sweeter, piano driven indie folk song with an extremely slow tempo that does a good job of providing a subdued atmosphere especially once the string instruments are introduced.  "Calgary" is a song with a sweet, melodic tune that beguile the ominous lyrics ("Open ears and open eyes/ Wake up to your starboard bride/ Who goes in and then stays inside/ Oh the demons come, they can subside").

This eponymous release is a more mature album from Bon Iver without veering from the style of music that they exhibited on their premier release.  There's growth from their first album but if you weren't a fan of the band the first time around, there's nothing radically new or different to draw in new fans.  The music works great accompanying a moody or rainy day but it seems out of place being released just before summer.

Score: 6/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Calgary" [sample it below]

Jill Scott The Light Of The Sun - The R&B singer/songwriter/poet extraordinaire finds time away from acting in Tyler Perry movies and HBO television series to release a fourth studio album.  If that's Jill on the cover of the album, it looks like she lost some serious weight too!  You go, girl!  After a nasty legal battle with her old label, Ms. Scott releases this album through Warner Bros. In what seems like a somewhat bitter move, her old label will be releasing a disc of early, unreleased Jill Scott tracks later this summer which includes her already-available-on-Youtube cover of the Bill Withers classic "Lovely Day." 

This 15-track release has a handful of guest musicians lending some assistance on a few individual tracks with Eve and Doug E. Fresh being the two best known names.  After the somewhat monotonous "Blessed" opens the disc, the first single off the album, "So In Love," follows and is a throwback to old school jams with a classic R&B melody behind a smooth Scott vocal track although the poetry she used to bring to her lyrics are somewhat lacking.  "Shame" featuring Eve at last brings some fun to the album with its quick tempo and rocking vocal duet between the two divas.

After the slow beginning to the album, it starts to really pick up with "All Cried Out Redux" featuring Doug E. Fresh.  Fresh' role is really minor on the track but the fun vocal rhythm, featuring a little scat even, plus the backing music add a festive carnival-feeling interlude to the disc.  That segues into "Le Boom Vent Suite" which is a sweeping 9-minute track that is a fun aural journey that takes you through many moods over the length of the track and features the sing-song vocals that helps make Scott's best tracks so memorable. 

There's a lot of good music on The Light Of The Sun but it does take a few tracks before you really get into the meat and potatoes of the album.  The originality that helped differentiate her early albums takes a while to take exhibit itself on this release although once it does start to shine through it shines through brightly.  The ballads have a very subtle and gentle feel ("So Gone (What My Mind Says)" and "Making You Wait") that gives them a quiet beauty to add potency to the message of each track.  It's not Scott's most consistent release to date but the best tracks from this album will rank among her all-time greats.  

Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Le Boom Vent Suite" [sample a Jill Scott narrated preview below] and "All Cried Out Redux"

Chad Valley Equatorial Ultravox EP - For my readers in the UK, don't confuse this release with the popular toy brand with the same name.  Instead this is the solo project of Jonquil's frontman Hugo Manuel giving us an EP of chillwave/psy-pop grooves.  For an EP, it's actually a pretty decent length release with 7-tracks lasting for nearly thirty minutes.  Heavy synthesizers and digital sounds are dominant over most of the ambient-style tracks with subdued vocals present on over half the tracks.  The music does an adequate job of transporting you to a different world although there is nothing overly original about the world he is taking you to especially with bands like Animal Collective and Panda Bear already taking the lead in this genre.  The opener "Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel?)" is a perfect example; it has a lovely melody with a catchy hook that you will find enchanting while listening to it but you'll be hard pressed to remember it or be able to describe it a day after listening to it. 

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel?)" [sample it below]