Thursday, October 12, 2006

album reviews: Jeremy Enigk, Billy Bragg

Jeremy Enigk's World Waits album is probably the most beautiful sounding CD I've heard this year. That's right, I called it beautiful.

Coming a full ten years after his last solo album Return Of The Frog Queen, this album is full of lush orchestration, perfectly placed strings, and terribly interesting lyrics carried on pop melodies which remain compelling all the way through.

World Waits is leap-years different than Enigk's work with Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft, but also reminds me of how great that stuff was too.

Jeremy Enigk - "Been Here Before" mp3 buy
Jeremy Enigk - "River to Sea" mp3 buy

Billy Bragg's Volume 2 completes Yep Roc's smart reissuing of his solo albums. This set contains reissues of Workers Playtime, Don't Try This At Home, William Bloke, and England, Half English, along with five (!!) discs of bonus material.

Most interesting about this set is that it allows the listener to follow Bragg's musical transition from stark "one man with guitar" recordings to the leader of a full band...and in that context, it's fun to hear his alternative radio near-misses "Sexuality" and "You Woke Up My Neighborhood" again after Volume 1's stripped sparseness.

...and as with the first set, these albums will be available individually as well.

Billy Bragg - ""Qualifications" mp3 buy

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