Noah and the Whale was great in their first album. Their subsequent ones I liked less.. apparently the lead singer/writer was dating a female member of the band (cello I think) and they broke up. Their second and third albums were much more slow and depressing, and missed the sound she added. (This story is from memory so I may not have all the facts correct.). I'm pretty sure the band broke up recently.
Yes, they broke up, but one guy wrote the songs anyway. The band has an effect and I would rather he were more first-album-ish but I'll be at least trying whatever he does next (after his one solo single).
Belle and Sebastian's latest album (Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance) is quite good. I also saw them live at Radio City when they toured it. I also recently saw Stephin Merritt at City Winery performing with his celloist from Magnetic Fields, playing mostly Magnetic Fields songs with a few from other ventures. He was great, and really funny in person.
I am a big Merritt fan, though the last really good album was i, some years ago. Not counting the Gothic Archies one because that was all earlier material. Well what am I saying, I liked a fair amount of Peach Blossom Fan, but it didn't get a normal release (there are bits of it on Showtunes). Anyway the latest Future Bible Heroes album was a very mild return to form, but the MF album before that could have been called Andrew in Drag and 14 Other Songs.
I was disappointed by the latest B&S album. My faves from them are Dear Catastrophe Waitress and the debut.
Unfortunately, I haven't found much new music I really like lately. I've been looking into The Smiths. I still have a couple of their albums to pick up, but I liked their first one more than the later ones I tried.
I feel like, a best-of and you're there.
For random interesting that you may not have heard of, look up Spacehog, album Resident Alien. Another great album is Underachievers Please Try Harder by Camera Obscura.
The best Camera Obscura album is Let's Get Out of This Country, you heard it here.
I do not know this Spacehog of which you speak. So, excellent, I will check them out.
On a line between B&S and Merritt, I recommend Divine Comedy. The early stuff, with Promenade as a high point, is more extremely chamber pop; he had a weak period around the turn of the century but got better; a good more recent album is Bang Goes the Knighthood.
As a random obscure thing, I recommend Ed's Redeeming Qualities, a weird folk band. In particular the album Big Grapefruit Clean-up Job.
