Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts (2008, Earthology)

Cloud Cult have long been an In(High)Fidelity favorite, and, with their latest album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes), our love for all things Cloud Cult has been affirmed once again. It is a fantastic album and you should buy it.
You should buy it because of the great music, however, you should also buy it because Cloud Cult are a band that stand for something beyond their music.
Despite repeated offers from record labels to sign the band, Cloud Cult determinedly self-release all of their albums so that they are able to maintain complete artistic control over both the sound of their albums and the manner in which they are distributed. Cloud Cult work diligently to ensure that their releases leave no carbon footprint on our hastily perishing planet. The packaging they use is made entirely of recycled materials and the band tour in an eco-friendly van.
I have written much of Cloud Cult here on In(High)Fidelity and for good reason. If you have limited funds to put toward music purchases, why not put them towards a band that actually gives a shit about something real. Visit www.cloudcult.com now, to purchase the album directly from the band, before it is officially released in April.

Check Out: www.cloudcult.com

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar, 2008)

When I discover an album such as For Emma, Forever Ago, I immediately despair. I despair because I know my talent with words could never do justice to the beauty of the sound I hear.
For the past two weeks, I have been staring blankly at my computer screen, quietly becoming overwhelmed with the task of imploring you - the reader - to listen to an album of which you may have otherwise never heard. Is it enough to tell you that I have listened to this album repeatedly for weeks now, reveling in its quiet fragility; allowing the warmth of songs such as Flume, and, my current favorite, Skinny Love, to wash over me time and time again.
In trying to describe this album, the best I have been able to come up with is as follows: It is an album that makes me happy and sad at the same time; it is beautiful and fragile; it is a bit like the sound in my head when I try to think of how my heart truly sounds.
I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone but myself, or if, indeed, it makes any sense at all. I do know, however, that For Emma, Forever Ago is one of those special albums that appears at the very time you need it most. J'aime Bon Iver.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/boniver

Key Tracks: Flume, Skinny Love, The Wolves (Act I and II), Re:Stacks