Nick Thorburn of Islands is involved in so many side projects that I almost let his newest one, Human Highway, slip under my radar. Thankfully, I happened upon it this week and was instantly hooked. Working with Jim Guthrie, Thorburn's Human Highway project is much more mellow than anything Islands have ever recorded. Their debut album, Moody Motorcycle, due out on August 19th, recalls the '50s doo wop era, full of fresh sounding pop melodies and intricate folk. But as capable as the duo are at pumping up the bubblegum ("The Sound," "Moody Motorcycle"), they're also quite adept at scaling back their sound. Some of the best songs on Moody Motorcycle are the laid-back ones, like "Sleep Talking," "What World," and "Get Lost." One intriguing fact I discovered when reading about this record is that their song, "My Beach," was written at Hotel Congress in Tucson, a venue I spent a great deal of my college years seeing bands at. Small world, I suppose, anyway. If you've always wished that Islands would sound more like Simon & Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers, than this is definitely the right album for you.
DOWNLOAD: Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle [Suicide Squeeze]
Recommended Tracks: "The Sound," "What World," "Moody Motorcycle," "My Beach," "Pretty Hair."
14 comments:
Quaint sound that put a smile on my face, thanks Anna
: )
you should write a top X albums of the decade now, so that we can all compare in 2-3 years to see how things have aged.
also, do you think it's possible that perhaps the greatest album of said decade has not yet been released? will something beyond amazing and game-shattering drop between now and december '09?
decent album. there are definitely some great songs on here. would be better if it was just thorburn and an acoustic guitar (and definitely no guthrie on the cover---yikes).
i think its pretty shitty of
nick to have such an obvious
"emulation" project after he
completely bashed vampire weekend
in an interview where he said that they were "blatantly ripping paul simon off".
so in this project, does
thorburn think he is being
innovative? or is he living
his own critique?
meh.
meh album.
any word on the new faint
album and any sort of leakage?
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! Thanks Anna!
Would have been better if it was Jim Guthrie. Dude's solo album is about a billion times better than anything Nick Thorburn ever did.
Link busted. Missed out. :-(
jim guthrie is epic.
faint faint faint faint faint...
jim guthrie is epicly working the horrific child predator look.
Conor Oberst??
anna heres the new conor oberst, i love your blog just like always thought you would like this
conor oberst - solo album
http://www.mediafire.com/?txhmm9lmsq3
Anyone have a link that is still good? Every link I find for this album is down, and I'd really like to hear it.
I think this may be the best album "I wasn't already anticipating" (new find) that you've posted all year. Really good stuff. I think better than anything but a select few Islands tracks.
Oh, and what's with the semi-monthly frequency of posts lately? Perhaps I'm being greedy, but, as Chris Farley once said, "Lay off me... I'm starving."
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