There have been some obvious voids in the music world that are now being filled.  First was Jamie T.’s outstanding comeback (Carry On The Grudge) after a four-year hiatus.  We now have news that Modest Mouse will release their first album since 2007 when they release Strangers to Ourselves on March 3rd (via Epic Records).

Today Modest Mouse released the first single from the new album, Lampshades on Fire.  You can check it out below.  Speaking of Jamie T., while Lampshades on Fire harkens back to great Modest Mouse songs of yore, we hadn’t previously drawn the (now-obvious) comparison to Jamie T., but we hear it in spades on Lampshades on Fire.

Come to think of it, a tour in 2015 combining Modest Mouse and Jamie T. would be a fantastic gift to the music world, and would garner Jamie T. some much-needed, much-deserved attention in the United States.  What say you fellas?  Lampshades on Fire is on sale now at the usual outlets.

Lampshades on Fire will be made available as an instant download to those who pre-order Strangers to Ourselves on iTunes or Amazon.

You may be leaving for an airport soon.  This Sunday or another day soon.  To help put matters in perspective, check out Aussie/Brooklyn duo Luluc’s song/video Small Window below.  Luluc (Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett) has been picking up Best of 2014 accolades from around the globe for its Aaron Dessner-produced album Passerby (on SubPop) and the songs thereon, and not least for Small Window (lyrics at very bottom).  Check it out below in all its melancholy, pastoral beauty.   Comparisons to the underrated Kate Wolf are not incorrect, along with Iron & Wine (an original SubPop find), Hem and Claudia Schmidt.  We love Dessner’s (standard) deft production on the album (check out the horns on Tangled Heart below).

If you don’t trust us, none other than The National’s Matt Berninger is quoted as saying: “I’ve played Passerby on repeat; for months it was the only album I wanted to listen to.”

After Small Windows check out the recently released official video for song Tangled Heart followed by their Tiny Desk Concert on NPR.

Small Window:

“Flying over Chicago, bare trees lie in the white snow
Daylight fades and lines of cars flash
Across the night in red and gold
What a view from my small window
What a view from my small window

On the way another new home
Looking out on the streets I’ve come to know
And different faces but they’ll remind me of
Those I love far from here

Gristle water in a blue dream
Stretching further than I can see
I try and try to swim all the way
But must learn to use my body well
You wake me with your gentle caring voice
For all I long or found, oh, I rejoice”

This year Danish band Iceage released their third album, the critically-acclaimed, Plowing Into The Field Of Love.  Our favorite song from the album is The Lord’s Favorite.  Check out the great song and unsettling video below.  The song’s lyrics follow.  We’ll have more about these Danes later.

“One hundred year old [Euro] wine;
I do believe in heaven and I do believe it’s time.”

Indeed.

The Lord’s Favorite:

“You are probably the only one, though it is hard to admit
That can save me
And I never liked to ask for a helping hand
But I do now

I look into your eyes
This hard, bewildered stare
Part of me wants to hurt you
Tear in your hair
But I don’t do that now

A naive, open wounded exchange of stories that transforms us
Here
But I think I am the only one breathing on this planet
Tonight

The cheap sweat smothered makeup
Makes her face look as if dissolving
Yet full of grace
Here in the darkness now

One hundred year old wine
I do believe in heaven and I do believe its time
Yes its time now
Five inch white high heels
I do believe in heaven and I do believe its real
And its okay now

Vast scarlet leisure
Immense blood pressure
Scatterbrained love lecture
Come here and be gorgeous for me now

After all I think it’s evident that I am god’s favorite one
And now is the time I should have whatever I desire

I look into your eyes
Staring back at mine
Part of me wants to hurt you
Tear in your hair
But I don’t do that now

One hundred year old wine
I do believe in heaven and I do believe its time
Faceless company
It don’t matter much to me
Five inch white high heels
I do believe in heaven and I do believe its real
Dreamlike mirage haze
I’m positively god’s favorite one

Favorite one
Favorite one
Favorite one
I do believe I’m the lord’s favorite one”

The world lost one its best (soul-baring) artists this year when the great songwriter Jason Molina went AWOL-into-the-next-world.  Thankfully, many continue to carry the torch for Molina and all of his various fronts (Songs: Ohia; Magnolia Electric Co.).  Included in this worthwhile effort are his label Secretly Canadian, but also the Avett Brothers and a murder of others.  Most recently, Secretly Canadian released the superb Deluxe Edition of Didn’t It Rain.  If you don’t own it, then Merry Christmas to yourself.

Adding to the host of homilies for Molina, Strand of Oaks also paid perfect homage to Molina this year with the song JM off of their 2014 album Heal.  We love everything about it, including the lyrics and the Neil Young/Built to Spill guitar razing.

We’ll admit to being somewhat ambivalent about Strand of Oaks (Tim Showalter) until recently.  But with the album Heal and a recent stream of captivating cover song releases, we’ve been completely won over by the artist.  You can go HERE to read the back-story on Heal, but as the Jamaicans say: “Dem dat knows it feels it.”  And with Heal, we all definitely feel it.  Without getting too maudlin and specific, when we listen to Heal (and, specifically, JM) it’s as if the words were written on our souls.  Lived through this and that, and out the other end.  Oh that it were so for JM.  The crow has in fact lost its wings.

Check JM out below (the song’s lyrics follow the song), and while you’re at it, go HERE to see our post about and listen again to one of our favorite re-releases of the year in Molina’s Journey On: Singles Collected, including the sweetest of songs, Soul.  Desolation row has never sounded so good.  Hammer down, heaven bound, dearly departed.

JM:

“I was an Indiana kid, getting no one in my bed I had your sweet tunes to play I was staring at the map, feeling fire in my head I had your sweet tunes to play I was mean to my dad, cause I was mean to myself I had your sweet tunes to play Stealing smokes in my car, with the window way down I had your sweet tunes to play Your sweet tunes to play I was sitting in the bath, cleaning off the ash I had your sweet tunes to play And I hated all my friends, and wouldn’t let them in I had your sweet tunes to play On a long desert train, with a knife in my bag I had your sweet tunes to play Under the Market Street Bridge, burning one in my hand I had your sweet tunes to play Your sweet tunes to play Now its hard to hear you sing, the crow has lost his wings I got your sweet tunes to play I’m getting older everyday, still living the same mistakes I got your sweet tunes to play Either get out or stay in, I won’t let these dark times win We got your sweet tunes to play Your sweet tunes to play.”

We’ll be honest (for once). We had unfortunately forgotten about Adult Jazz.  No, not that Kenny G sleep-inducing musical-pablum.  No, we refer to the Leeds’ band of smarty-pants-lads by that name, and their debut album, Gist Is.  Our lamenesia was overcome recently by the band’s appearances on many Best of 2014 lists.  Their complex, atmosphere-laden album is filled with lofty topics ranging from religion to lust.  Sonically the band is full of fits and starts, and falls somewhere between Alt-J, Dirty Projectors and Noah and the Whale.  Not a bad place to be in our books.  To get a feel for the band, check out their official video for one of our favorite tracks off theirs, Springful, along with Shabazz Palace’s inventive, otherworldly remix thereof.

The R&B/Old Soul field has been tilled and planted, and is seemingly full-up with legitimate throwback talents such as Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, and newcomers such as Sam Smith and host of hundreds.  In short, the genre is at risk of over-saturation.  So one has to ask:  is there room for another R&B artist in the form of Scottish hear-throb Paolo Nutini?

Nutini is appearing on a lot of Best of 2014 Album (Caustic Love) and Song (Scream–Funk My Life Up; Fashion) lists.  We’ve slowly come ’round to him and particularly like the take below of one of our favorites of his, Let Me Down Easy.  Check it out and let us know what you think.  Is Nutini a legit artist here to stay or mid-pack fodder that’ll go away?  We’re giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.  Listen in below.

Given yesterday’s ode to Christmas from the bountiful Bahamas, it seems apropos to follow with this fantastic song and video from one of the Best New (to us anyway) Artists of the year and best acts we heard at this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Parker Millsap.  Before HSB we had heard word of Millsap from reliable sources and knew something was up when The Porch meadow at HSB was filled with a rapt audience prior to his set.  Turns out it was for very justified reasons.  Millsap (with superb bandmates Michael Rose on bass and fiddler Daniel Foulks) totally tore the trees off the park.

Millsap (no relation to Ronnie) is from tiny Purcell, Oklahoma and has taken the music world by storm with his great story-telling songs, gifted voice (at times similar to, but better than Jack White, if you can imagine), and spry guitar-playing.  Millsap’s eponymous debut album was released early this year and garnered him resounding critical acclaim.  His debut album and songs, the wisdom in which belie his young age, are now being featured prominently on the Best of 2014 lists.

To get a feel for Millsap, first check out his official video (his first) for Truck Stop Gospel, which is making many of the Best Video and Best Songs lists.  We love everything about it.  Though he has other songs to the contrary on the subject, we were relieved to see that this version doesn’t feature the deceitful, double-talking preacher trope.  There’s something for everybody in the video (aficionados will note the ESV and Message translations).  Afterwards watch vignettes of Millsap and his fantastic backers live, including Truck Stop Gospel performed at the Opry, the mind-blowing You Gotta Move, and the older, heart-rending Homeless and confessional Palisade (hang in especially for Foulks’ song-closing violin on this one).

Keep an eye and ear on this lad.  We expect HUGE things from him in the future.

It’s that time of year.  Leave it to the great Canadian Bahamas to cover one of our favorite Christmas songs, The Band’s Christmas Must Be Tonight, which was best featured on The Band’s last studio album, Islands.  Afie Jurvanen is one of the greats, and he, band and backing vocal-angels give a glistening reading of the song below.  After, listen to the Robbie Robertson-penned original, with the dynamic Rick Danko convincingly delivering and former Anglican-church organist Garth Hudson augmenting so well from behind the organ keys.  Sublime.  The song’s lyrics follow the videos.

“Come down to the manger, see the little stranger
Wrapped in swaddling. Lo! the Prince of Peace
Wheels start turning, torches start burning
And the old wise men journey from the East

CHORUS:
How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy
Son of a carpenter, Mary carried the light
This must be Christmas, must be tonight

A shepherd on a hillside, where over my flock I bide
On a cold winter night a band of angels sing
In a dream I heard a voice saying “fear not, come rejoice
It’s the end of the beginning, praise the new born king”

I saw it with my own eyes, written up in the skies
But why a simple herdsman such as I
And then it came to pass, he was born at last
Right below the star that shines on high”

We led today with British sister-group The Staves (see below), but would be remiss to not add on Swedish sister-duo First Aid Kit whose recent songs and album (Stay Gold) have rightfully and repeatedly been appearing on the Best of 2014 lists.  We have loved this duo for years, but this year they took their recorded game to another level with Stay Gold.  It’s a little-bit folky and a little-bit country, and hits all of our alt-country sweet spots while managing to be everything to most other people.  First Aid Kit have added to their plethora of breath-taking live performances of late.   Check out below their recent performances on Ellen (last Friday), on Conan (earlier this month), and KEXP.  And if you don’t own Stay Gold, the time is now.