Two sentence reviews of new albums I listened to in August. Behind the jump: Lost in the Trees, Arcade Fire, The Goodnight Loving, Frontier Ruckus, Dax Riggs, the Dead Brothers.

Griffin House — The Learner: House’s follow-up to 2008’s stellar Flying Upside Down is a bit of a let-down; he starts and finishes strong, but loses the pace in the middle of the album, with the bizarre and offensive “She Likes Girls” (the only track on the album I didn’t keep, because I can’t imagine how he thought that song was a good idea in any universe) and the overwrought, overly long “Never Hide” dragging the pace down particularly. Not a bad album by any means — the catchy “Just Another Guy” should be a pop country radio hit, and “Rule The World” is a darkly gorgeous ballad — but not nearly as good as I know House is capable of, either.

Lost In The Trees — All Alone In An Empty House: this was one of my (belatedly in early 2009) favorite albums of 2008, so the press for it this summer has caused feelings of intense cognitive dissonance (and ragey emails to t. saying things like “WALK AROUND THE LAKE IS NOT A NEW SONG GOD DAMN IT”) and territoriality (but they’re mine), and to be perfectly honest I still prefer the original Trekky recordings to the Anti- re-release because they’re what I’m used to, BUT: if this isn’t one of your favorite albums of 2010, you’re stupid, and I’m not talking to you anymore. Ari Picker and his chamber folk orchestra are brilliant and wonderful and they deserve every single bit of fame and fortune they can get. They tour heavily, so if you go see them, tell Ari and the band that I said hi.

Arcade Fire — The Suburbs: I like this more than Neon Bible but less than Funeral, and I think on the whole, quality-wise, it’s there in the middle as well. More cheerful-guitars-and-keys and less lushly orchestrated than their first two, it’s still very distinctly Win Butler and company, and that’s worth keeping. I think this is one that’ll grow on me slowly and then surprise me with how gorgeous it is at a later date.

The Goodnight Loving — The Goodnight Loving Supper Club: multi-voiced harmonies and clanking, buzzing, jangling instrumention, Milwaukee’s The Goodnight Loving fit somewhere between the Band and later Beatles, only unlike other bands reaching for that fusion (*cough cough cough the Young Veins cough*), they manage it well, finding a sound all their own. If you like Dr. Dog, you’ll probably really dig these guys. Props to Muzzle of Bees for turning me on to them.

Frontier Ruckus — Deadmalls & Nightmares: okay, so this album is kind of like if somebody smushed my top 2 albums of 2009 together, fusing Ha Ha Tonka’s sharp, sad, raw-voiced, concept album Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South together with the horns, piano, and drumming of Lucero’s 1372 Overton Park, and then both those albums went to Vegas together for a slightly sleazy weekend. Unlike Novel Sounds, however, I’m not going to be (nearly) solitary in having this near the top of my best of 2010 list; they’re already gaining quick-rolling blog praise and press, and it’s all deserved.

Dax Riggs — Say Goodnight To The World: swampy, distorted guitar-heavy rock and roll, full of surprisingly catchy hooks and sharp lyrics. I didn’t expect to like this album as much as I did, because I didn’t just like it, I loved it. Sometime I will make a playlist that’s full of Dexateens and Black Keys and Verbena and Dax Riggs and certain Black Crowes albums, and it will be a good playlist for doing dirty things. Um.

The Dead Brothers — 5th Sin-phonie: for something artist-described as “blackgrass”, I was expecting more crashing metal guitars and less tradition, but this sounds like Leonard Cohen made a bluegrass album. Spine-tinglingly creepy in places, it’s definitely the Southern Gothic with an emphasis on Gothic side of modern traditional music.