I will freely admit that when I heard a single track from Freelance Whales I audibly groaned “oh no, not another derivative, sappy, knock off no talent hack like Owl City.” Thankfully I was wrong in assuming that this band was going to become as simple pop attention whore with a laptop. Their debut album, Weathervanes (which is out already as a download) (amazon) (itunes) is a solid trip through musical adventures akin to mashing together Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens. That really is the best way to describe their sound. Listen for yourself.
mp3 : Freelance Whales – Generator First Floor
mp3 : Freelance Whales – Broken Horse
I know I’m a scant few weeks from proclaiming my best albums of 2009, but I’m not sure I can imagine a future where this album doesn’t make it onto the best of 2010. It would have to be a mighty fine year in music to knock this to number eleven or below. (note : yes the album has been out as an mp3 download for awhile but I usually count an album’s release year as the year it was first published in a physical format. And yes, I acknowledge the physical format is dead or dying, but that’s an easy way to keep everything level across the board for now).
+ more Freelance Whales @ twf hype elbows site myspace amazonmp3 itunes
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I’m seeing Freelance Whales at the Borderline in London on Monday – *VERY* excited!
And the album’s not out here in the UK until next month, so aside from the three tracks I’ve heard, I’m going into it completely cold.
I love this album as well, I got it last week and I must say, this album makes me happy when I listen to it. I love the way Generator 1st floor crescendos. I plan on seeing them in Orlando, in March. It should be a very good show.
it’s a great album, even though some of the vocal work starts to blur the edge between truly great music and generic pop.
i would love to see them live, but unfortunately i live in the armpit of america and it’s rather unlikely we ever get solid talent through our great city. (all that aside, i am getting to see We Were Promised Jetpacks next month)
Nice find, Billy!
Just awesome!
A lot of thanks
Billy, meant to say – Freelance Whales were incredible live! I got one of their songs on video – thought you might like a look:
http://sparkymalarkey.blogspot.com/2010/02/of-whales-and-tweets.html