On the Couch

Summer is over. Labor Day has come and past and I can finally put all of my bright colors and white back in the wardrobe and bust out the black! I want to go over some of my favorite albums of the summer and some new releases that were disappointments. For me, this summer didn’t have any major new albums that stole my heart. I was listening to a lot of the albums that came out last summer. Mainly The Thermals, Stars, and The Dead Weather.

On The Couch covered many of the big exciting new albums of the summer of 2011. This is an important post because the album of the summer is a big achievement. Picking an album of a summer isn’t easy. It cannot just reflect an album that you listen to a lot. It has to be an album that you listened to enough and had a connection with, to cause an association between the album and the summer it came out in. You can’t go and pick an album from 1979 and claim it to be the album of the summer of 2011, it has to be new! Those are the rules. The list below is of all the potential albums that could have been albums of the summer of 2011. On The Couch has some album reviews and tracks to all of these albums up on the blog. Just type in the name of the album or artists and search through the couch cushions.

In no particular order:
Junior Boys: It’s All True
Typhoon: A New House
Alkaline Trio: Damnesia
Stars: The Bedroom Demos
We Became Actors: Something Major
Taking Back Sunday: Taking Back Sunday
Arctic Monkeys: Suck It And See
Raveonettes: Raven in The Grave
Death Cab For Cutie: Codes and Keys
David Bazan: Strange Negotiations
The Get Up Kids: There Are Rules
British Sea Power: Valhalla Dance Hall

With an impressive list like this you would think that this summer was rocking awesome. There are a lot of big indie rock names up there, but unfortunately the bigger than name the bigger the disappointment. Both Death Cab For Cutie and Taking Back Sunday had major much hyped releases and both fell flat. Total disappointments and I suggest that you should either steer clear altogether or give the album a good once through and move on to other things. It’s good to hear utter rubbish so when you get the opportunity to listen to a good album its twice as good.

There are a couple of albums i found myself constantly engaged in. First, was the new Stars demo tapes. They are truly surprising and just mind blowingly awesome. I am still listening to “Barricade” and “The Night Starts Here” with my jaw dropped.

Second, are the Arctic Monkeys: Suck It and See. This new album is full rock solid tracks and wonderful sexual innuendo. Suck It And See is also a perfect album to rock out too while driving.

Finally, the album that I have been listening to almost non-stop since its release in late march Valhalla Dancehall by British Sea Power. This album has wonderful lyrics and complex melodies that just keep me listening over and over again. I can’t get enough. Valhalla Dancehall is so compelling that it actually got me to go to the British Sea Power online store and doll out some cash monies to buy a British Tea Power mug. I’m a big fan of tea. Their manager, Roy Wilkinson, actually came out with a book this summer called Do It For Your Mum. Chronicling “the peculiar forces at work behind this most  unusual family affair.”

All but two of the albums on the list are pretty good. Check’em out. I’ll leave you with some select tracks off these new releases.

British Sea Power – Georgie Ray

Arctic Monkeys - Reckless Serenade

Stars – The Night Starts Here

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