New Music Tuesday - 09/13/2011 (Part 2)

See Part 1

The Drums - Portomento

The Drums were an early part of the surf rock-inspired wave (pun intended) of music a couple of years ago. Their songs were light and poppy, heck they even had songs about surfing. I got a sense, however, when I saw them at Bonnaroo, that their follow-up to The Drums would take them in a slightly different direction. It did, the album, while still featuring the lighter melodies, shows a lot of growth and maturity. They're starting to sound like The Smiths.
"Money"

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Girls is another band seeing a bit of growth and maturity in their sophomore albums. Their debut album seemed to draw inspiration a bit from surf rock, but also from everything else. The sophomore albums promises to be darker. I hope that the variety of influences is still present on this release.
"Vomit"

Kevin Devine - Between the Concrete and Clouds

I don't actually know that much about Kevin Devine as a solo artist. I know that he's worked with some of my favorite artists, like Manchester Orchestra. Listening to a couple of the songs from the new album, his sound seems simple and introspective, almost like an acoustic version of the music Manchester Orchestra makes. Granted, I can only find acoustic, live versions of the song, so I'm only presuming that the style holds to the studio recordings.
"I Used to Be Someone"

The Kooks - Junk of the Heart

I guess maturing the sound is the name of the game for this group of Tuesday's releases. The Kooks also started out with songs that were somewhat light-hearted and fun. They were never the top-ranking musicians, even among British indie rock, but I always loved their style, especially on their first album, Inside In/Inside Out. They calmed down a bit on their second album and even more-so on this third release. Comparatively, it has become a bit boring, but there's always a gem or two on their releases.
"Junk of the Heart (Happy)"

Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know

I don't even know where to begin with this one. This might be my own personal most anticipated release of the week, potentially of the season. Marling comes from the same London scene that gave us Mumford & Sons (she even dated Marcus Mumford for a spell). Though she also has a style that errs towards folk, she exercises a more traditional sound than some of her contemporaries. She's only 21, but sounds much wiser beyond her years. This is her third album and, with each release, her sound just grows exponentially.
"Sophia"