I've got a real soft spot for the motorik-tinged indie rock machinations of San Francisco's The Dodos. I loved 2011's No Color record even when many friends claimed to be a lesser album of diminishing returns - hey, if a song like 'Don't Try And Hide It' doesn't get you in the left ventricle, then it ain't beating. 2013 sees the band release their fifth album, Carrier, through Polyvinyl Records and it's just as emotive, as rollicking, as fervent, as deceptively amorphous. It also has the pensive weight of Christopher Reimer hanging over it - the Women guitarist and Dodos touring musician tragically passing away last year still reverberates. Carrier then becomes possibly one of the most poignant odes to a fallen friend that has been committed to tape for a long time. Most of Meric Long's lyrics were written before music was thought of - a process he had never approached before - and the result is eleven songs that simultaneously fly by, weigh down and lift up, a maelstrom of conflict and weary hope. The vinyl has a warm timbre that adds even more gravitas to these songs.
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