Rack And Opinion: Release Date 02.06.07

We're just getting back into the groove with bloggamafying after our crazy week last week, so forgive the absence of yesterday's Free Range Music installment. We'll be posting album streams with our list of this week's most interesting releases below as a way to try to kill two birds with one stone. Definitely hit the links, because there are a few really jazzy records out this week. Perhaps the biggest surprise for us is the Peter, Bjorn & John record Writer's Block. The advance single was admittedly a toe-tapper, but we were feeling a little fatigued with the recent parade of Swedish pop. Then we listened to the record and found it to have a lot more depth than we had assumed. We'd dare say that the boxy production gives the proceedings a curiously spooky vibe, especially toward the end of the record.

A perhaps bigger release this week is the sophomore set from Brit post-punkers Bloc Party. Unsurprisingly, A Weekend In The City trafficks in bombast, but in a reasonable manner. Our impression of the record as we streamed it was that the music is willfully disjointed in places. The production sounds like later, slicker Nine Inch Nails. And "Uniform" [link to a stream in the item below] is a great jam, perhaps the best on the record. You may recall it made a very favorable impression on us when the band broke it out during their Boston appearance last July [review here]. We feel like our comment about the song having a similar vibe to The Cure's Pornography was particularly prescient, considering the ambitious production found on A Weekend In The City. Anyway, those two records are among our picks of the best of the week, all of which are listed below. Hyperlinks go to relevant commercial opportunities with the fine folks over at Newbury Comics. And don't forget to hit those album streams we're linking.

Apples In Stereo -- New Magnetic Wonder -- Simian [stream it!]
Bloc Party -- A Weekend In The City -- Vice [stream it!]
Lifetime -- Lifetime -- Decaydence [stream it!]
Yoko Ono -- Yes, I'm A Witch -- Astralwerks [stream it!]
Peter, Bjorn & John -- Writer's Block -- Almost Gold [stream it!]