I slacked on album reviews this month — I had very important baseball things to attend to, yo — but here’s a grab bag of stuff I acquired and listened to this month.

Sea Bear — We Built A Fire: Icelandic indie pop; this album sparkles in a way that really fits my mental picture of Iceland, actually, and it’s breathtakingly lovely, all horns and keyboards and drums that kick you in the chest in exactly the right way. Also, they should tour with Sea Wolf and British Sea Power, mostly for my own amusement.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Various Artists — Preservation: oof, yeah, this doesn’t even really need a review: it’s great. Amazing musicianship, some weird and sublime pairings of other artists with the Pres Hall Jazz Band, and a couple of performances that stick out of “great” as “incredible”.

She & Him — Volume Two: sometimes a girl just wants some candy-coated girl-fronted pop music, and sometimes I listen to my Phil Spector box set when I crave that sound, and sometimes I listen to She & Him. I keep waiting for their albums to give me that sound but with an M.Ward-ish twist, and so far they haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them in the right mood, either.

Drink Up Buttercup — Born And Thrown On A Hook: downloaded on a whim, this is lo-fi indie psych-pop; a little out there and drone-y for my usual tastes, but occasionally it ramps up in joyful jangly hollering and harmonizing that I really dig, there’s creepy choral singing and organ lines, and the guitar work is great. Recommended for people who’ve liked: Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast.

Brandon Clark & the American Standard — Honestly EP: enough that’s catchy in this one that I’ll try to catch them live if they make it up to the NC from Atlanta, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for any future full-lengths, just to see how they grow up. Clark is a good songwriter and “It’s You” is a stunner.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves — Come and Get It: amazing new soul that sounds perfectly vintage, sung by a skinny white boy from Massachusetts; an admirable major label follow-up to his excellent 2008 debut, and if he doesn’t get attention with this record, then the world is just stupid.

Elsewhere: everyone should go downloaded this live Micah Schnabel set that ninebullets.net dug up; it’s a great mix of stuff from Micah’s solo album and his Two Cow stuff, and the rough voiced a cappella version of “Swingset Assassin” gave me goosebumps.