New Music; AKA: Completely Overwhelmed

Life has been busy as of late, and so have some of the best bands that are out there. I literally can't keep up with all the music that's been released recently, and I'm experiencing some anxiety over making sure all these albums get a fair shake. Thought I'd share some very vague first impressions from this carnival of musical awesomeness:

• The National High Violet - Probably my frontrunner for album of the year at this point. Great album, and it gets better with every single listen. In other words, it's the balls.

• Gorillaz Plastic Beach - You might recall me expressing my boredom with this album back in early March. You've probably also seen this thing get nearly universal acclaim everywhere else. Well, there's an easy explanation for that: I'm an idiot, and I got a hold of the fake leak with a bunch of remixes of b-sides, etc. Forgive me. This thing is legit.

• Medications Completely Removed - It's a little more poppy than you might expect, but it's probably the best thing yet from the guys who used to be in Faraquet.

• Minus the Bear Omni - I think this is a pretty solid bunch of songs, but it's definitely not what you expect (or maybe want) from a MTB album. The synth/guitar-shredding ratio is just way out of whack. Not sure what they were shooting for here, but I'm not giving up on it yet.

• Band of Horses Infinite Arms - I'll go ahead and say it. I was about 90% sure this album was going to totally suck. And you know what, I think I was absolutely wrong. These guys are definitely in a different place than they were back in 2006, but aren't we all? Besides, I'm a sucker for those Beach Boys-ish harmonies and Ben Bridwell's voice.

• Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record - I think the consensus on this one is that nobody knows what the crap is going on with BSS. But, at the same time, nobody ever really knows what's going on with these guys, and that's kinda what makes them awesome. I'm reserving judgement until a later date.

• Jonsi Go - This has been out for a few weeks, but I haven't had a chance to say much about it. So here you go: It's really friggin' good. Get it. The end.

• The New Pornographers Together - Just got a hold of this, but it sounds like it's right on par with everything else these guys have done, which is saying a lot.

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Coming Soon: Medications' "Completely Removed"

One of the best bands no one ever talked about, Faraquet, disbanded a few years ago and then mostly re-banded (?) a few years after that to form Medications. For the most part, Medications has sounded like Faraquet with a different name over the course of their two releases. That may change with the release of their second full length, Completely Removed, or so it seems based off the only track to be leaked thus far, "Long Day". Obviously this is a small sample size, and the track sounds great, but it sounds like some of the edge has gone from previous Medications and Faraquet releases. Ironic that this possible transformation might have been triggered by the departure of the bands bassist, who happens to be the only guy that wasn't also in Faraquet. No matter what, you can pretty much count on Removed totally dominating, so hopefully April 20th will quit being so pokey and get here.

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