Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson | Halestorm | Umi Copper | Oneohtrix Point Never | Ben Howard

If there’s a common theme amongst most of this week’s selections it is that 2009 appears to have been a pretty big year for nearly all of them in some form or another.

And that got me thinking about what I was doing in 2009. Nearly ten years ago, I would have been 25, not yet married to my wife (though already cohabiting) and my daughter would have very much been a sparkle in Mummy’s eye, so to speak.

Musically,  my albums of the year would have included Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Portico Quartet’s Isla and probably, if I’m honest, Passion Pit’s Manners… at least two of which I would absolutely still listen to now.

For this week’s featured artists, three of them were releasing debut mainstream records, while one was releasing his first EP.

The odd one out is Umi Copper who, from what you read, was starting in the music industry around that time but is only just releasing his first music now. His experimental, semi-ambient track Requiem is right in the middle of the mix this week, straddled by, on one side, the punk-rock attitude of Halestorm’s Uncomfortable and, on the other, the glitchy electro-noise of Oneohtrix Point Never’s Warning… poor Umi must feel like Switzerland in there!

Elsewhere, we’ve got beautiful melodies from Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson in the form of their new single Iguana Bird and fantastic lyrics and soundscapes from the ever-impressive Ben Howard as his song Nica Libres at Dusk rounds things out.

So, enjoy, won’t you. Click the song titles below to read the full reviews.

THIS WEEK’S TRACKLIST

The ‘Charm Offensive’
Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson: Iguana Bird

The ‘Military Coup’
Halestorm: Uncomfortable

The ‘Peaceful Protest’
Umi Copper: Requiem

‘Guerilla Warfare’
Oneohtrix Point Never: Warning

The ‘Quiet Riot’
Ben Howard: Nica Libres at Dusk

The Outro:
You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

For a full list of the current week’s Like This? Try These choices (updated weekly) click here.

If you like my choices (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter.

The silence is broken again next week when I’ll return with five more selections for your consideration. Until then, thank you for reading.