New Releases Tuesday

Welcome to New Releases Tuesday on WERS. Every Tuesday we’ll take a look around the music scene and bring you updates on, you guessed it, the new albums coming out this week.

Purity Ring, Shrines – Take the recent dubstep craze, turn the volume down about ten pegs, add glitchy drums and some tinkling melodies, and layer under a vocalist with the snarl of the Knife and the sweetness of Feist, and something like Purity Ring emerges. Their undeniably catchy singles have been floating around on the internet for over a year now, and their debut album delivers on the promise those singles revealed. While they don’t push themselves much out of their comfort zone, that comfort zone is unique enough (and more than enjoyable enough) that it becomes more of a niche, and definitely a niche they can grow from.

The xx, “Chained” [single] – A pretty-much-perfect post-breakup duel for the indie crowd from their hotly anticipated second album. Back and forth vocals play off a deceptively simple, spare beat. It’s hushed, emotional, and beautiful, and if the album is anything like the single, there will be no sophomore slump for The xx.

Niki and the Dove, Instinct – Think of every big electro song that makes you pump your fist and sing along without shame: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” anything by ABBA, “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These,” etc. Niki and the Dove seems to have smashed all these songs together into their own singalong-inducing brand of synth pop. There are, weirdly, a lot of references to the mystical here, from both the strange synth beats and the lyrics about the supernatural. Think Fleetwood Mac meets Enya meets…I don’t know, but I want to dance to it.

By Ella Zander

If you liked this, check out:
New Releases Tuesday: August 7, 2012
The xx Live At The Wilbur