In our Moving Units column, Mike Ramirez at Fort Lauderdale's Radio-Active Records
graciously keeps us up-to-date and comments on the current releases
flying out of his store each week.
About 156,000 people legally purchased the Arcade Fire's third album, The Suburbs, in its first week of release. Suspicions abound that there will be even more people who proclaim this album the finest of the year -- many of whom have yet to listen to it all the way through. While County Grind has never been a huge booster (or hater) of the band, it's worth noting that an annoying sequel title like "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" does nothing to deter the enjoyable qualities of said track. If there's anyone among the Arcade Fire naysayers who kept wishing the band was going to put out something more Blondie-esque, the wait is over.
Radio-Active Records' Top 5 Releases for August 3-9
1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge)
2. Wavves - King of the Beach (Fat Possum)
3. Best Coast - Crazy for You (Mexican Summer)
4. Madlib - Medicine Show #7: High Jazz (Stones Throw)
5. Onra - Long Distance (All City)
Which albums will we be talking about next week?
"Keep your eyes peeled for next week's overwhelming menu. New releases include Iron Maiden's The Final Frontier (EMI), the Drums' self-titled album (Moshi Moshi/Island), Exile's AM/FM (Traffic), Skream's Outside the Box (Tempa/Forced Exposure), Ray Lamontagne's God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise (RCA), David Gray's Foundling (Downtown), BXI's Boris & Ian Astbury (Southern Lord), Filter's The Trouble With Angels (Rocket Science), Superchunk's Majesty Shredding (Merge), Darker My Love's Alive as You Are (Dangerbird), Gary Numan's 78/79 Box Set (Vinyl 180), and more."