Pretty Soon The Connection Is Made

Whoa. Neil Finn. Divebomber. You have our attention. Even my 11-year-old son asked if this tune was The Beatles because it's sounds like one of their "drunken stupor" songs. I'll give him credit for even knowing those tunes!


That is certainly one of the oddest tunes Finn has ever released, but I'm a bit in love with it after my first listen. Dizzy Heights is Finn's new solo album and it's out Feb 11, 2014. Pre-order on iTunes now and get two immediate downloads including Divebomber! Also check out his recent Morning Becomes Eclectic session here.

Official Site | Official Store | iTunes | Amazon

Just In Time

This new one kinda snuck out there.

Paul McCartney's new album - New - is out October 15. He just recently premiered the new single New, which you can preview below, here, or download via iTunes if you pre-order the new album! Sounds like a typical new, first single from a new McCartney album. I expect the new album to dig deeper, but at least the old man is still making new music!


New.

Official Site | iTunes | Amazon | More

Maybe Now And Never Again

They've re-released their debut album so why not a new one?! The House of Love will release She Paints Words in Red next March or April (probably) according to their Facebook page.

Glad these guys are still at it. 2005's Days Run Away was quite good.

Facebook | Wiki | iTunes | Amazon MP3

Turn My Head Into Sound

My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields revealed the band will finally release a new album later this year. It's only been 21 years since their last album, the mesmerizing Loveless, so, you know, no expectations. We've hard it before so, you know, no expectations.

But holy shit it would be awesome.

via NME News | iTunes | Amazon MP3

Yeah You

Roll down your windows and crank your stereo as high as it goes. Redd Kross is back after a 15-year hiatus!



They had me at sha-la-la. Good luck avoiding noise ordinance violations. Researching the Blues is out this week - a very welcome return.

Official Site | iTunes | Amazon MP3

I Just Want To Feel Everything

Fiona Apple returns with another mouthful of an album. June 19 sees the release of The Idler Wheel... with the first single Every Single Night debuting online today.
 

She's not for everybody but that's what makes it work. Here's more of what we know about the new album.

Chasing The Dream

It's no surprise that I adore new music that respectfully owes plenty to the old greats. There is a fine line (that takes a giant leap to cross) between banging out sound-alike tunes and creating something entirely fresh yet familiar, comfortable, and friendly. Very few cross that line as well as Jeff Litman.

Jeff smacked us hard over the head a few years back with his phenomenal debut Postscript. I heaped praise on it but remarked on the album's not-so-subtle backward nods. I've revisited Postscript countless times since and an interesting thing has happened. No longer do I hear the obvious influences first and Jeff later. Jeff's voice is deliberate and clear. I should have given him more credit.

The first great Too Poppy album of 2012 is Jeff Litman's Outside ... officially released today! Outside embodies balance in many ways. It's a bridge between the sounds of the past and present, thoughtful lyrics and catchy tunes, ballads and rockers, reverence and fresh blood. In an era of party tunes and singing competitions, we deserve a talent like Jeff Litman.

In every good way Outside takes me back to the renaissance of rock/pop in the 90s. First single Over and Over would fit it snugly with Michael Penn's oeurve. The title track is deliciously Jellyfishy and even features Jellyfisher Roger Joseph Manning Jr. on keyboards and backing vocals. Girl Down I-95 evokes sunny roadtrips soundtracked by Gin Blossoms and The Smithereens. Runaway irresistably sounds like Crowded House filtered through Soul Asylum.

What makes Outside break out from the pack though is its diversity that sounds like a carefully crafted and beloved mix-tape. Not content with mere hooks, Jeff fires up our emotions with throwbacks like Back To You that I'm convinced I've either heard on 70s AM radio when I was a kid or recently on a great Mike Viola album. Of course it's all Jeff, which is his genius. I don't name-drop flippantly. Jeff has earned these comparisons and frankly it's the fairest way to describe the album. Jon Brion. Elvis Costello. Wisely. Paul Westerberg. Jeff Litman. It works.

One great album is rare and fleeting. Two great albums are the works of a master.

Jeff Litman - Outside (official site (cheap!) / iTunes / Amazon MP3)

Download first single Over and Over here

Class Divide

Joseph Arthur is one of our generation's lesser-heard voices that most-deservedly needs a wider audience. Joe must agree. He's offering his new double album Redemption City as a FREE download. Free. As in ... free.

Here.
 

Against Strong Odds

Remember Counting Crows? Revisit August and Everything After for one of the best albums of the 90s. Seriously. It holds up beautifully.

Now ... they're back, they're independent, and they're embracing the web. Their new album Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a typical mid-career jaunt into the world of covers. Call it lazy. Call it reverent. But check out the tracklist and keep an open mind. Teenage Fanclub, Travis, and Big Star? Too Poppy is paying attention.

Underwater Sunshine is out April 10 but will be readily available across the web until then for your streaming pleasure.

Official site

Nothing To Prove

Natalie Portman promised me The Shins would change my life. They haven't. After that adorable overstatement in Garden State, very few tunes would have the power to live up to that hype. Nonetheless The Shins caught on in a big way for a few years in the aughts but never really wowed me.

Fast forward to 2012 and bang, Simple Song achieves what no Shins' song has achieved before ... it wows me. I suppose it's no great departure from their previous tunage and maybe I was turned off from the hype in the first place. Maybe I respected James Mercer's Broken Bells tangent enough to perk up. I should go back and spend quality time with what has come before. In the meantime, Simple Song will be in heavy rotation while I anxiously await their fourth album Port of Morrow out next month.

Pre-order the album and get Simple Song instantly - the magic of the Interwebs.

How Can I Say No?

Still some life to World Party? I'll believe it when I touch it with my own two hands.

Arkeology is a (so far) mythical 5-disc box-set by World Party allegedly being released April 10. The official World Party site says, "New Songs, Live Recordings, Cover Versions, Lots of Pictures and The Amazing Any-Year Diary." No doubt I'm intrigued, but we've heard grand and not-so-grand announcements from the genius Karl Wallinger only to ultimately be disappointed. I recognize he's had health issues and he really owes us nothing (Goodbye Jumbo completes me), but please make this happen - whatever it really is.

More here.

This New Peace I Can Feel It Now

I'll be the first to admit that I've been uninspired this year. Hell, look at Too Poppy and it's too obvious. I don't know if it's a down year with music or if I'm simply out of it. I go through phases and after a strong five+ years of intensely casual obsession I was due.

But when I hear Nada Surf is releasing a new album - boom. Instant inspiration. In the age of digital distribution and the mainstreaming of "indie" music, bands that have stuck it out for the long haul deserve our continued support and admiration. Nada Surf is just such a band.

The stars are indifferent to astronomy is the name of the new album not just another of my non-sequiturs. Evidently Nada Surf will "transport you to a new and wonderful place in a beguiling rush of beats, chords, hooks and words" ten times over on the new album. That's what they all say, but Nada Surf has set the precedent over and over. The new album is out not soon enough January 24 and they are touring in 2012. Inspired.

Download When I Was Young free!

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Although It's Been Said Many Times Many Ways

It's that time! Time for completely irrelevant and unnecessary holiday albums to celebrate Baby Jesus®. Yes, Beibster, I'm talking to you.

It Girl® Zooey Deschanel's She & Him jumps in with A Very She & Him Christmas. Let's get to it - one minute I love Zooey D. and thinks she's pure delight yet the next minute I want to stick a hot fireplace poker into my ears at the sound of her. It's an odd relationship complicated by extreme cuteness and that voice. That voice. That voice she overuses in superfluous singing moments in her movies and that voice that gets a bit old over the course of an entire album. That voice that transcends time and melds so well with M. Ward's incredible music. I said it's complicated.

Anyway, it sounds as if that voice is perfect for Xmas melancholic classics like I'll Be Home for Christmas and The Christmas Song. We heard hints of it in Elf, but here you get a full 12-song set. I'll keep it on shuffle with Bing Crosby so I don't get overwhelmed, but if you like your Christmas with a bit of gee-golly-I'm-cool hipness, She & Him is for you.

iTunes | Amazon MP3

Someone Tell Me Why

I'm convinced that Guided By Voices is one of the only bands that could actually release the rare and elusive perfect pop album. The problem -if it is one- is that they have the knack for creating unfinished masterpieces not unlike McCartney in the mid-70s. Macca used to stick three unfinished tunes together to make a medley pretending to be one song. GbV however happily releases their one minute gems as stand-alones. So I was a bit bummed hearing they had called it a day, but after touring together again we should've seen this coming...

GbV's "classic" lineup is releasing a brand new LP likely full of 21 brilliant half-songs called Let's Go Eat the Factory on 1/1/12. Paste has the tracklist. Get ready to relish in the fleeting perfection.

Closer To Your Side

Fifteen years is a long time to wait. Henceforth every passage of time totaling 15 years shall be known as Mockingbird Time thanks to The Jayhawks. The new album released today is the first in that time to feature founding members Mark and Gary - truly the heart and soul of the band. Personally I'm partial to the pop joy of Smile, but that album seriously offended many Jayhawks fans.

From initial listens Mockingbird Time will heal all wounds for those damaged by Gary's audacious foray into memorable hooks and melodies. The nerve.

iTunes
Amazon MP3

Preview (via Rolling Stone)

All The Good That We Do

Unbelievably it's been over a decade since Julian Lennon released his pleasant, Beatley Photograph Smile. Prolific he's not. So it's good news that you can now pre-order his next release called Everything Changes (not to be confused with one of my favorites Change Everything by Del Amitri). No official artwork or previews are out quite yet,

Hey, Jude's new album comes out 10/4 via import for us dirty Americans (his native UK friends get it on 9/26).

Tracklist (according to Amazon.co.uk)

1. Everything Changes
2. Lookin' for Luv
3. Hold On
4. Touch the Sky
5. Invisible
6. Just for You
7. Always
8. Disconnected
9. Never Let You Go
10. Guess It Was Me
11. Don't Wake me Up
12. Beautiful

Check out the rough mix of the title track here. Very nice.

I'm Blinded by the Lights

Björk's videos rarely disappoint. When it's directed by Michel Gondry, director of one of my all-time fave flicks Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you know it's special. Crystalline is her newest single from the upcoming Biophilia.



Not typical Too Poppy fare I know, but a man's gotta stretch and I've always had a soft spot for Björk.

As always, Björk is pushing the boundaries with the release of her new album Biophilia. In fact, it's being called the first app album. Yep, you can download the app (which is actually pretty cool and trippy itself) and then download individual tracks that are complete with multimedia accoutrements like games and video. The app is definitely worth checking out. Biophilia is out 9/27. Read more here.

App Download
Crystalline Single via iTunes

Imaginary Airport Breeze

Adam Schleslinger has been busy. First the announcement that his "side project" Ivy is releasing a new album and now we're only a couple weeks away from  Fountains of Wayne's new album Sky Full of Holes! The album is out 8/2 and plenty of pre-order options are available, but you can now download the single Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart. Preview it below. The new Richie and Ruben is also available for download.

Personally I'm glad it sounds a bit like they're getting away from those novelty tunes.

Take Me For a Ride

It's been over six years since their excellent last album In the Clear, so it's exciting news that Ivy is finally releasing a new one called All Hours on 9/20. Check out the first single Distant Lights below or download via iTunes. Love that voice.


DISTANT LIGHTS (New Single) - All Hours by TheBandIVY

Late Nights with the Power Pop

Matthew Sweet's new album Modern Art now has art! And song titles!

Oh, Oldendaze
Ivory Tower
She Walks the Night
When Love Let's Go I'm Falling
Ladyfingers
A Little Death
Late Nights with the Power Pop
Baltimore
My Ass is Grass
December Dark
Modern Art
Sleeping

September 13!