Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Summer of Fear

The summer of 2007 was like that episode of Seinfeld, where everyone decides to do the opposite of what they're supposed to do," explains Robinson. "So instead of going home to your girlfriend or whatever at night, you'd just stay at the bar and let someone inappropriate take you home. It was a bad joke at first, like a terrible '90s movie unfolding before our eyes." Summer of Fear is the culmination of years spent in eight-track studios, cypher-fueled jam sessions, and dicey club dates that often ended in fist fights and broken glass. Not to mention a revolving door of collaborators that helped Robinson work out the kinks in his skewed pop hooks and melancholic melodies, including the Grizzly Bear members (drummer Christopher Bear, multi-instrumentalist/producer Chris Taylor) who worked on Robinson's self-titled solo disc several winters ago-the winter before the fear set in. As acclaimed as Robinson's debut was when it finally received a proper pressing in 2008, the effort was meant to be a glorified demo. Summer of Fear is what happened six months later, as life alternated between darkness and light, and spare bedroom songs blossomed into speaker-popping arrangements of sweeping strings, honking horns, and chords that cut so deeply they're bound to leave a mark. TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone-a close friend since the pair met en route to a Grizzly Bear show in 2005-helped bottle Robinson's bruised hymns last winter, ramping up the tension in such standout tracks as "Death by Dust," "Summer of Fear pt. 2," "The Sound," and the 11-and-a-half haunting minutes of "More Than a Mess".

1) Shake a Shot
2) Always An Anchor
3) The Sound
4) Hard Row
5) Trap Door
6) The 100th of March
7) Summer of Fear Pt. 1
8) Death By Dust
9) Summer of Fear Pt. 2
10) Losing 4 Winners
11) More Than a Mess
12) Boat
13) [CD-ROM Track] [Multimedia]