new favorite songs: dr. dog, fever ray, empire of the sun, fleet foxes

2009 is still so young and new, and so much good music has been released already (Animal Collective, Fever Ray, Beirut, etc) and there are so many new albums and bands on the horizon (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Neko Case, Dan Deacon, etc). But for some reason, a lot of the music I’ve been listening to lately are holdovers from 2008.

It’s taken a while for me to get into Dr. Dog (mostly due to my aversion to their name.) But after Karson shared their most recent album, I’m suddenly in love with them. Every time I hear The Old Days, I get excited and happy:

Karin from my favorite Swedish brother/sister act The Knife has struck out on her own as Fever Ray and her new album is pristine, scary and beautiful. When I Grow Up sounds like it should be played in a Korean restaurant on Venus (where I’d love to be eating):

Luke Steele from our favorite Australian psych pop band The Sleepy Jackson has started a new project dubbed Empire of the Sun. Their debut album—drawing heavily from 80s pop (Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson) has become a family favorite—Half Mast is of the songs Elliot sings along to the most:

After swooning over Fleet Foxes debut LP, we went back and listened to their earliest EPs. One song I cannot stop listening to is Anyone Who’s Anyone off their eponymous first EP. Nothing needs to be said about these guys anymore: