Summer is a great time for new releases, so we here at LNWF figured you’d like to know what we’ve been rocking out to as the heat increases, while our tolerance for it slowly dwindles. A Storm of Light will rock you senselessly, but slowly. Tokyo Police Club will bring some pop into your life. Finally, My Morning Jacket get all kind of freaky on their new album. Read about our three picks after the jump.

A Storm of Light - And We Wept the Black Ocean Within

It’s not shocking that to learn that Brooklyn based A Storm of Light call Neurosis’s Neurot label their home. Heavy and mostly moving at a glacial pace, A Storm of Light may not grab you initially, but I kept finding myself coming back for more of the band’s gloomy metal day after day. The album kicks off with “Adrift (The Albatross I)” mixing in calming ocean waves with ominous piano and menacing moans that fade in and out, but then moves into exceedingly heavy territory. It’s rife with a tense undercurrent that perks up your ears. Every drum hit is exact and calculating, while vocalist Josh Graham (of Blood and Time, Red Sparowes, and Battle of Mice) painfully recounts tales of loss and depression over droning guitars that eerily ring out. My only problem with this album is that at points, the only speed A Storm of Light seem to run at is head bangingly slow, which is certainly fine, but it would be interesting to hear what this group full of metal heavyweights (ASL features members of Tombs, Swans, Red Sparowes and Satanized) can do when they try to branch out from moving at a slower pace. When things get heavy though (and trust me, they will), they get really freakin’ heavy, by building up into a cacophony of noise that would make any headbanger proud. The eight minute long “Mass” features Graham at his most emotional, as he belts out “I could have saved them” as the rest of the band builds up a dark and uneasy backdrop that will have you on edge and wondering when you can finally come down. Any faults are ultimately forgiven by the time the epic 10 minute finisher “Iron Heart” comes on; slowly building, only to explode halfway through, like a giant wave coming out of nowhere in a calm ocean. Patience is a virtue, and A Storm of Light may test yours throughout their hour long debut, but don’t be surprised to find yourself coming back again and again.

Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell

Most people thought it would never happen, but the young pop-rockers of Tokyo Police Club finally put out a full length. Their initial EP, A Lesson in Crime, was a refreshing blast of energetic songs that somehow revolved mostly around robots and shouting their band name over and over. A little over a year or so later and we have Elephant Shell, which sounds like a band that has definitely matured over a short amount of time without sacrificing the great qualities that made them so damn appealing in the first place. Lyrically they’ve grown up, touching on topics that draw on their past year of personal change and how going from playing garages to festival stages all over the world really impacts you. “Graves” packs the punchy synth the group is known for and steers the song through it’s brief, two minute and thirty six second course. “Juno,” a strong contender for one of my favorite songs so far this year, is quick and simple, but has crunchy drums that kick in at just the right moments while lead singer Dave Monks laments a relationship gone awry, as guitars swirl and a sobering piano moves into the forefront. It’s nice to see that Elephant Shell is a step in the right direction for a group who came out of nowhere, and could have easily faded back into it.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

Right now, there is probably no other album from 2008 that I am enjoying as much. My Morning Jacket have set themselves apart from any other rock band around and Evil Urges certainly has the band straying from their previously rootsy upcoming, but you can tell they sound comfortable in their new skin. The breezy “Sec Walkin” has its gorgeous high-pitched harmonies that backup lyrics of “Left leg. Right leg. One leg at a time…I keep on walkin’” which make you want to follow MMJ wherever the hell they are going, regardless of long it takes them to get there. Funk, americana, folk, country rock and any other genre you can think of are mish-mashed together to form an album that is sonically all over the place, but something that we should have seen coming after 2005’s more experimental Z. I could rant and rave about how much I enjoy this album, but “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2,” with it’s shimmering guitar and bouncy omnichord sums up my thoughts on how this album makes me feel: “This feeling is wonderful…Don’t you ever turn it off.”

Tags: My Morning Jacket, News, Review, a storm of light, tokyo police club //