If you’re still listening to Ace of Base, Steve Winwood, or Shania Twain, then your music library needs a drastic renovation. It’s 2010. It’s time to get with the times. Despite a lot of the garbage bombarding radio airwaves, there is good music out there. Here, in no particular order, is a little list of five artists whose albums should be downloaded to your iPod immediately.
#1 Mumford & Sons
Don’t let the folk rock label fool you. Mumford & Sons can rock with the best of them. One listen to the song, “The Cave,” off of their debut album, “Sigh No More,” and you will see that this isn’t some band who got lucky and fell into a record deal. These boys can play. This multi-talented quartet combines literature-inspired lyrics with pounding energy that keeps you coming back for more. The creative instrumental arrangements on their songs, which include horns, mandolin, accordion, and string bass, pushes Mumford & Sons past genres and labels, and simply makes them one of the best new bands.
#2 Bombay Bicycle Club
Let me apologize ahead of time because you will not be able to get the song “Always Like This” out of your head for weeks. If this song was food, it would be delicious. Someone turned me onto the London-based indie rock band, Bombay Bicycle Club, and it didn’t take long for me to repeatedly play their music in my car. Their music is incredibly catchy and contagious, and the album, “I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose” will help you do just that.
#3 The Swell Season
The Swell Season is the coming together of Irish folk-rock musician, Glen Hansard, and Czech pianist and singer, Markéta Irglová. In 2007, the independent film, “Once,” introduced the duo to the world. Their debut album is sentimental, heart-breaking, and, I’ll be honest, somewhat depressing. That’s because their music is real and cuts past the fluff and glitter of celebrity to express real, true human emotion. The Swell Season makes beautiful music that only the most sensitive ears and hearts will be able to
truly appreciate.
#4 Beirut
More orchestra than band, Beirut is an explosion of instruments that are coordinated perfectly by lead-singer and leader, Zach Condon, a native of Santa Fe, N.M. The rhythms of the world, particularly of Eastern Europe, heavily influence Condon’s music. This fusion of sounds, influences, and instruments makes Beirut sound like a crazy experiment that you would never think could work, but actually works perfectly. This is best exemplified in the band’s second album, “The Flying Club Cup.”
#5 Beach House
This band surprised me. I had never heard of them. Then I got to see them live and it was pretty much love at first sight, or listen. Beach House is a rock duo that hails from Maryland and consists of lead-singer, Victoria Legrand, and guitarist, Alex Scally. I discovered this band just in time because the band is quickly climbing in popularity, with the release of their latest effort, “Teen Dream,” which includes the powerful song, “Zebra.”
Now there’s no excuse for that Savage Garden album you still keep in your car. Come out of your cave. Y2K has passed and we made it through OK. You can now join us in 2010. No, we don’t have flying cars or shiny space suits, but there is powerful, new music to listen to.
