SOUND BITES

(Continued - Read Part 1 of this article here.) There are lots of reasons artists have given for serial releases, and it usually has something to do with the fans; they couldn't wait for the whole thing to be finished, they didn't want it all shoved down their throats at once, there was demand for the other half of those songs from the internet... I'm a fan of all three of the bands I mentioned in the first part of this post, but I'm also not stupid. I don't like to wait an extra year and a half for you to complete your vision, but I'll do it. You have the right as an artist to ration your artistic vision, but I don't recall thinking I'd have enjoyed double albums by Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins more had they been separated and released periodically over time. And, I might be interested enough in your band to seek out songs that didn't make the cut, but I don't necessarily feel great about them being packaged together and sold to me...

Ah, the double album. The ultimate artistic statement. When your vision absolutely, positively cannot be confined to the restraints of a single platter. Over the years, we've seen countless artists try to tiptoe down this slippery slope, and only a few have made it to the bottom without grass stains on the ass of their jeans. The double album's meaning has been warped and twisted so many times in the last half century that it's often confusing when trying to determine what counts as a double album or not. When the compact disc raised the maximum length on one disc, many double albums technically became single albums; likewise, many single albums recorded since are so long that they would have undoubtedly been doubles in the original vinyl age. With the albums on this list, though, it's not necessary to bicker over the rules. These albums aren't like the others.

Stream Matt Mays' Coyote here, courtesy Exclaim! When Matt Mays dissolved his backing band El Torpedo shortly after the release of 2008's Terminal Romance , I admit I was a little bummed. That's because, after three albums of meandering roots rock and half-baked concepts that showed potential, Terminal Romance finally lived up to that potential. The opening notes of Coyote , Mays' first album in the four years since, is unassuming and slight, with Mays singing sullenly over a distorted piano line. Then, with what I assume would be a smirk, Indio kicks in with a feel good riff and we're off and running. If there's one thing that becomes clear about Coyote early on, it's that Mays isn't content to simply rock out. There are odd interludes and passages throughout the album that deviate from your standard roots rock rules and brings to mind the adventurous spirit Mays showed with When The Angels Make Contact . Ain't That the Truth boasts a si...

While the month likely belongs to Bloc Party's excellent new album Four , there are a couple more notable releases coming in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to the wonder of the interwebs, we've got streams of those too.

Stream Bloc Party's Four in its entirety here. A lot of uncertainty has surrounded Bloc Party in their eight or so years of existence. Leading up to the recording of Four , it was widely rumoured that they were finished, with the members recording with various side projects and Kele Okereke embarking on a solo career singing dance-oriented songs like the ones that, by 2008's Intimacy , had begun to usurp the powerful angular blasts that had propelled Bloc Party's breakthrough debut Silent Alarm .

Well, that was nice, wasn't it? Late July to early August usually signify the "dog days" of summer, and the music industry suffers from them with the rest of us. Now, though, it's time to start hyping up the fall release schedule, which is filling up fast. Buckle in, kids; business, as they say, is about to pick up.

Okay, so I'm a week late on this one, as it was released on August 4, 1992. In my defense, everybody else was late on it too; it took about a year to catch on, finally gaining momentum off the (very) slow building success of Hey Jealousy . It's a brilliantly written pop/rock song that almost didn't click with a grunge-crazed public. But, once it did, it was huge . The sad back story that will always haunt this band, of course, is the suicide of Doug Hopkins, whose songwriting is the not-so-secret weapon on New Miserable Experience . Behind all of the sugary sweet pop riffs and jangling melodies were horror stories of alcoholism, unrequited love and crushed dreams. The truly sad irony is, his dismissal from the band due to his own alcoholism eventually led to him taking his own life just as the tortured stories he was integral to creating began to gain traction with the masses.

With their sophomore album Babel seven weeks away, Mumford & Sons have finally released the (presumably) first single from it in the form of a placeholder video for I Will Wait . For those who aren't hip to the lingo I just made up, a placeholder video is a video a band posts to whet their fans' insatiable appetites whilst putting together a proper video. You know, those "official lyric videos" and the like. In Mumford & Sons' case, they just let the camera roll en route to Red Rocks: As for that song? It's undeniably Mumford in that's it's dripping with the old-timey charm that made Sigh No More such a massive and unexpected platinum smash. My primary concern is that it lacks a bit of the hunger, that fire that was ever-present on their debut. It's hard to replicate that fire once you've sold a million records (especially in this day and age), so it's not really a shock. But, just compare the chorus of I Will Wait to, sa...

The latest British buzz band to get way too much praise way too soon is ∆ (aka alt-J; don't bother unless you have a Mac, I had to copy and paste it from Windows Character Map). Having just released their debut album An Awesome Wave at home in late May, ∆ has already had critical accolades lauded upon them and seen fans arrive in droves, foaming at the mouth. It's the same kind of overwhelming build-up that can only be manufactured by the Brits, and usually leads to the casual listener being underwhelmed.

What has nine arms and sucks? That's the joke Def Leppard has been the butt of for the better part of the last quarter century. It's born from equal parts jealousy and reaction to most of their post- Hysteria output. Released 25 years ago today, Hysteria was not simply the peak of Def Leppard's career; it defined an age of slick, excessive rock by being the slickest and most excessive of them all.