Barsuk Records – Unsung Sundays https://unsungsundays.com What you should be listening to. Thu, 24 Mar 2016 02:34:40 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.1 Chris Staples: American Soft https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/chris-staples-american-soft/ Sun, 24 May 2015 12:04:53 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=581 American Soft is exactly the sort of laid-back, quiet Americana that works because it’s raw, un-produced and fragile.

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]]> American Soft is a brilliant folk record. This thing takes you on a journey. Staples bring a ton of melancholy into the record, but there’s also a lot of introspective depth in the record. On Dark Side of the Moon, when Chris analyzes the length of his life and what really matters, the record grabs you and it doesn’t let you go.

And none of this should be surprising: Staples has a huge variety of sounds, and a lot of range as a musician. Having fronted indie rock band Twothirtyeight and started Discover America, as well as his solo career, he has a great sense of songwriting and understands what’s appropriate for what genre.

Not to mention the fact that he’s been touring with Father John Misty and Telekinesis when he’s got some spare time, and fits the whole “Canadian folk singer” vibe by working as a carpenter in between gigs (this is all according to Paste Magazine, so don’t quote me on it).

What it all adds up to is a record that feels like something you’ve heard before, but one that also feels like home. Like the best folk, American Soft sounds like Staples is singing songs we’ve known for generations and giving them a voice for the first time.

American Soft is highly recommended listening.

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]]> Yellow Ostrich: Cosmos https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/yellow-ostrich-cosmos/ Sun, 23 Mar 2014 12:01:26 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=872 On Yellow Ostrich’s third album, the band has fully grown into the experimental art rock band they always wanted to be. Cosmos holds up to repeated listens and deep scrutiny.

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]]> Cosmos often reminds me of OK Computer, in the sense that it feels unsatisfied with pursuing rock music for the sake of making just another rock record. Based on title alone, Cosmos seems aware that it’s more interested in the expansion of Yellow Ostrich’s vocabulary than it is in playing it safe.

In the post-Radiohead world, these guys are going to blend in just fine. Terrors is awesome, with a killer chorus, and Shades busts out a riff not unlike some of the stuff Radiohead would have been doing a few records back. I love My Moons, which has a great backbeat and a super catchy chorus.

Cosmos is one of those rare albums that has zero filler. Every track is great, so I want to write about all of them. Instead, I’m picking just one: How Do You Do It, which has the amazing opening lines:

How do you start when you know it’s gonna end? How do you wait if you never plan ahead? How do you laugh when you see what makes you cry? How do you sleep at night when you know you’re going to die? How do you do it?

Those are some fully loaded questions. Lyrically, they feel like questions Yellow Ostrich is interested in asking because they know everything ends. What sort of music do you make if, one day, you know it’s going to end? It seems clear, based on *Cosmos&, that Yellow Ostrich is planing to leave their mark.

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