1. Harlem’s modus operandi is the same kind of garage rock we’ve been hearing for the last 40 years, but you have to admit that it’s so catchy that you may not care about that. We certainly don’t. We’re gonna throw this song into our Nuggets box set.
2. Speaking of retro revivals, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are in the market for a mainstream breakthrough already. After Jones showed up with Michael Buble on “SNL” back in January, it’s clear that her band’s pitch-perfect ’60s soul-pop could succeed well beyond the old-school funk collectors that made up her early audience.
3. Back around ’79 or ’80, before R.E.M. became massive stars, Peter Buck was big into fellow Athens, Ga. band The Method Actors, who he says he saw play 100 times in their short history. The post-punk band, which never got famous but were lynchpins for their scene, just had much of their nervy material re-released on compilation “This is Still it.” We can understand why Buck saw them so much.
4. A couple of years ago,High Places sounded nothing like this. There was no undercurrent of darkness in their sound. In fact, one could claim it had almost a twee sensibility. But not here. “On Giving Up” instead relies heavily on dark tones and somber lyrics to propel itself. We’ll let you decide if the change was a good one.
5. Laura Marling is more talented than we are already, and she’s only 20. We want to know why the world thinks that’s fair. “Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)” feels delicate, like she’s in the same room as you trying to cheer you up. It worked for us.