The Airportline: Observations

With connections to the regenerated London folk scene, or more than connections, they were Laura Marlins former band, Mumford and Sons released their debut album Sigh No More in 2009. With connections to Airportline favorites, and best Album of 2009 winners, Noah And The Whale, this orchestra brings another batch of excellent London based folk music. This special branch of folksters that have no problems with bluegrass, Irish folk tunes, pure storytelling and enjoy mixing it with a beautifully and earnest sounding modern folk that with great ease comes and fills the void that so many of us needed to fill after Fleet Foxes ordered beards on all popular musicians.

What comes out is earnest, and not seldom grand modern folk with a fantastically organic instrumentation. It is not surprising to learn that the producer also was behind the shifts when of the best albums of the 2000s, Arcade Fire’s 2004 magical and still unbelievably and impressive Funeral, was recorded. Sure, Mumford and Sons does not bring that kind of new tone as Arcade Fire did, or the same kind of daring drama and darkness of the latest Noah And The Whale output. But they do hit your heart in the same way as melodramatic British movies do, and if I were an atheist I would maybe even call this album a bit religious at times. Just listen to the pompous bluegrass soul chorus in Roll Away Your Stone or the thunderous chorus of standout The Cave (see above), a song that in its own would make me go and buy leather boots and move to the Amazons where I would listen to Bob Dylan and play some banjo.

Its not the new direction or the heroic risks that make Mumford and Sons such a terrific band, it’s the perfect touch they have on what works, like they made a country version of the surprisingly impressive 2009 Deportees album Under The Pavement The Beach, and even though they are not paving any new roads, Mumford and Sons know how to use the twists and turns on that familiar gravel road that so many folksters before them have walked down. They have undeniable potential and with some more bold reaches these guys can make something truly spectacular, the trumpet in Winter Winds tells me they already have. But then again, I was always weak for trumpets.

I usually spend the first months of each year trying to catch up with the year before. Yesterday a friend of mine suggested Local Natives (A band for you Fleet Foxes fans out there, just played in Amsterdam without me realizing it) and for the past few days I've been deep down the melancholic songwriting of Cass McCombs, a traveling man who've lived everywhere in the US it seems, and now holds it down in Baltimore (where Beach House, who has created the best album this year so far, is also from). I like Cass McCombs for his dreaminess, his romantic shimmer and contained country influences. He is not doing something terribly unique, but there is something that moves me with this music, maybe it is the sounds of fleetingness, or moving, changing locations that is reflected in the music, and in me. This song reminds me of a music festival and makes me want to go to the US and drink beer from a plastic cup and stare into the sun.

So you woke up this morning and wondered if there are any new super groups around to listen to. Well yes, there is. Turns out that the singers of two of Airportlines favourite pop bands (Shout Out Louds and Peter Bjorn and John (in Amsterdam this coming Monday)) have teamed up with a The Concretes member and a The Plan member (also two magnificent bands) to create Tutankamon. PSL recorded the men this past week. Its a great recording that shows of Adam's great new Taliban beard. The music is quite beardy as well, swirling around the same quarters of the american old school sound made popular by fellow beard rockers Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes. This is more poppy though and frankly, very very good. The Swedish pop-music obsessed blog It's a Trap gives their debut singe out for free over here. A good way to start your morning according to Airportline.

Note to self:

When time is present, take a closer look at Ottawa outfit The Acorn that The Concretes singer Lisa Millberg recently blogged about. After two listens to The Flood Pt. 1 you thought that it sounded like Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend and a sunset over Angola. And for those readers who felt offended by Fabolous raplyrics about dicks, you will love the all around playful hippie feel in this one.

Now I need to tape a head set, burn cds, read a report from China, have a skype meeting concerning a report from China, and then go and print some things.