Music Reviews

Alt-J spends a lot of time explaining their name. If you type alt and j on a Mac keyboard, you'll get a triangle. But what does that have to do with slick indie pop? Well nothing, but apparently it has a deeper meaning for the band. The symbol is used in math to mean slow change, which they decided best represents their new sound after dropping their original name, the Films. It's all conceptual nonsense for a band whose music is far from conceptual.

Maybe it's the summertime that's making me fall in love with this folk record, but the new release "Acedia" by Black Walls has been making me press repeat over and over again. The moody singer-songwriter Ken Reaume is able to pull off an 808 in a folk record like it's no big deal.

Sweet Lights marks the first full length LP for Shai Halperin under the Sweet Lights name. This is a beautifully produced, if not an occasionally eerie, 11-track success. The Pink Floyd and Beatles influences are put on display throughout the album, their aesthetic invoked imaginatively, which could seem like simply an homage to them if not for the fact that Halperin takes control and makes the sound his own. Vocally, Halperin almost seems to plead to be heard, his delicate voice sliding through the music where at any moment, with no notice, it could get lost without a trace.