Music & More

When music discovery is your life, finding a great new band or artist is big; last week came down huge, with three great finds that I can't wait to tell you about. The first one is Cariad Harmon, an amazing singer-songwriter who this week released her new self-titled second album. This is the first video from the album, "Like You". The bigtakeover.com compares her to Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones, and Cat Power. Mark Kemp of Rolling Stone uses Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones as touchstones in describing her music. There is a good reason for these accolades, she is a gifted singer-songwriter with a superb voice that betrays her British origins in the sweetest way. Her music has a bit of folk, a bit of rock, a bit of pop, and a bit of country seasoned with dashes of blues, jazz, and soul. It is a mighty listenable sound produced by Oli Rockberger, Chris Abell, and Matt Pierson. I have long held that songwriting is the key to great music, and the creation of a son...

I just listened to Rumer's new album, Into Colour, on the Guardian's exclusive album stream in advance of its UK release. She had me at track one - "Dangerous". Into Colour is released in the UK on November 10th; to date there is no information about a U.S. release. Rumer could be the musical child of Burt Bacharach and Karen Carpenter. Into Colour is a luxurious collection of original songs that blend the best of sixties pop into modern songcraft and the result is a beautiful listening experience. This album fully realizes the potential Rumer displayed on her first two albums; every track is a winner. I could seriously listen to this all day long. Betty Clarke wrote about the new album in The Guardian (the following is a reprint): "Taking in the eight-strong string section to her right and four-piece horns to her left, Rumer shakes her head in disbelief. “Can you believe this band?” she asks. “Dreams come true.” Yet not so long ago, this situat...