I like Belle and Sebastian. After hearing The Life Pursuit, my liking of them veered into “love” territory. With The Third Eye Centre, a collection of rarities, non-album tracks and remixes, they’ve kept that love alive. The first track, “I’m A Cuckoo,” remixed by the Avalanches, pulled me right in. I think it’s better than the original album cut from Dear Catastrophe Waitress, possessing a more whimsical and diverse feel. Tracks like “Heavin In The Afternoon” and “Meat and Potatoes” maintain the same piano bar feel that resonated with Write About Love, while “Stop, Look and Listen” maintains that ’70s folk-rock, Simon and Garfunkel-esque sound that made us fall for Belle and Sebastian from the very beginning. I like that. (Mark Lopez)
Julia Holter Loud City Song (Domino Records)
Julia Shammas Holter’s forthcoming full-length release, Loud City Song , is the first studio album from the Los Angeles-based artist. Cached in the outer space genre, the authentic, ecstatic beauty of Holter’s realm remains a mystery to many. … and that’s a damn shame. Never one to shy away from high-minded concepts—her debut album, Tragedy , was inspired by Euripides’ “Hippolytus” and the title of her second release, Ekstasis , originates from the Greek term for “outside of oneself”— Loud City Song uses Colette’s 1944 novella Gigi as a zoom lens to explore the City of Angels and its voyeuristic, celebrity-obsessed psychic landscape. Get outside. … inside on Aug. 20. (Samantha Anne Carrillo)
Dracula Lewis U$e Your Illu$ion$ (Hundebiss Records)
I’m a tad behind the curve on this one, but I’m not the only one. Released in mid-June, Dracula Lewis’ U$e Your Illu$ion$ is 11 tracks of hypnagogic, hallucinatory drone, pop, punk and industrial. My intermediate Google-fu only netted three English language reviews and a handful of others. Better (slightly) late than never, here’s the D.L. lowdown: Beyond several dreamy superficial factors—like being born in Transylvania, having a penchant for fur and unparalleled bone structure—Milanese artist Simone Trabucchi’s aural alter is the answer to my late-night living room dance party dreams; now I just need a bearskin rug and a smoke machine. (Samantha Anne Carrillo)
