Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

Jared & The Mill: Western Expansion (Self-released)US: 17 Sep 2013UK: 17 Sep 2013 All signs indicate the nouveau folk renaissance isn’t losing steam anytime soon, with new bands joining in the fray at an exponential level. Of course, the inherent challenge of any upcoming group is to assert their individuality and present what it is about them that warrants more attention than is received by the rest, and this is especially true in a lucrative and popular genre. Now, on first listen of the group’s debut LP, Western Expansion, the comparisons to trendsetters Mumford & Sons is almost a requisite — the abundance of the banjo, the earnest vocals, the rollicking melodies and jaunty rhythms. The adventure begins with “Breathe Me In”, itself starting with a cold open, Jared Kolesar singing in near a capella, supported only by harmony vocals and sparse minor piano notes. A stylistic shift occurs with subsequent track “Returning Half”, wherein a western guitar arises in a dirty, electric sweep. Western Expansion Rating:

The 50 Best Albums of 2016 The Montclair, N.J. group Pinegrove have two logos: one, a small box intersected with an identical box, is favored among their legions of young and tattooed fans, as evidenced in an endless stream of RTs on the band’s page. The other is an ampersand. This summer, when Pitchfork interviewed the band’s frontman, Evan Stephens Hall—a 27-year-old of highly enthusiastic, bookish charisma—he said he’d thought about publishing a pamphlet on Pinegrove iconography. On Cardinal, Hall’s plainspoken lyrics belie this epistemological headiness, but you can feel the compassion in their raw alt-country arrangements, in phrases that reach and erupt. Listen: Pinegrove: “Old Friends”