Listening Assignments 3.26.07

1. American Analog Set - Choir Vandals - If this were a 2007 release instead of 2001, I'd have sworn it was a collaboration between Sufjan Stevens and Pinback. It's delicate and breathy, a really nice clean electric guitar riff played over plodding brushed snare hits. [from Know By Heart|buy]

2. Field Music - You're So Pretty... - The chorus in this one brings to mind a lot of really great stuff and is catchy as hell. Maybe if the Beatles and The Beach Boys formed an indie side-project, Field Music could have opened for them on tour and fit in perfectly. [from Field Music|buy]

3. Jeremy Warmsley - Dirty Blue Jeans - Immediate comparisons to Final Fantasy because of the violins, this is a playful, rollicking good time. Little stabs of jazz, even some reverse hip-hop sounding blips here and there. It bounces back and forth with the greatest of ease and ends up somewhere in the realm of another one of my favorites, Sondre Lerche. [from The Art of Fiction|buy]

4. Rosie Thomas (w/ Sufjan Stevens) - Much Farther to Go - This song is so beautiful it hurts. Hints of Shawn Colvin and Sufjan (obviously), and I'm pretty sure there are actual angels playing the strings. [from These Friends of Mine|buy]