The Guggenheim Grotto
Happy The Man
UFO Music
Rarely can a modern band channel the energy and power of classics such as Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. The oft picked-on Panic! at the Disco showed us a horrible example of this last year by trying to be The Beatles. These Dublin song-slingers, however, present listeners with an updated take on the kind of music American rebels grew up with. “Fee Da Da Dee” showcases their indie-Irish take on classic folk to near perfection. The album falls short in that a lot of the tracks tend to sound the same, like they’ve caught the emo curse. Still, in a sea of countless indie bands all trying to do the same thing, The Guggenheim Grotto is a battleship. – CS

Mirah
(A)spera
K Records
(A)spera is Mirah’s first solo effort since 2004’s C’mon Miracle, and easily her most accomplished in terms of melody and production. With a pretty voice that rarely engages in acrobatics and a minimalist aesthetic, Mirah has to pay special attention to songwriting and pacing to guard against stale repetition. On “Education,” the album’s third track, she measures out a space for each word, singing two lines of equal length: “Love might just be an economy/ But I don’t believe in property,” without rushing so much as a syllable. Her attention to meter and commitment to slow pacing keeps things grounded as the album parades through disparate melodic styles. Meanwhile, Mirah’s lyrics are very interested in describing scenes of prosperity and over-contentment. Singing, for instance, “Over time we took to sleeping/ and let the weeds take over this place,” on “Gone are the Days,” and “We fed on these things without a worry/ never gave a thought to the coming of a winter storm” on “The Forest.” Whether Mirah is setting herself up as a prophet of coming iniquity, blindly running with a theme or doing something else entirely, isn’t really clear. – SC