Complete with a new, de-cheesified name, here’s the weekly collection of five songs that’ve made me happy in the past seven days:
Cults – Go Outside
Cults started making blogwaves last week after posting three songs on their Bandcamp page. DI Pitchfork duly investigated, and found out they were a boy-girl NYC duo. They might not have a MySpace page, but the pair sure can make a great tune. Go Outside combines a glockenspiel jingle that sounds like one of those tacky musical Christmas cards, hippy-sounding female vocals, a sample of cult leader Jim Jones speaking, a tropical feel and lyrics advocating the benefits of the great outdoors, and fuses them together into a euphoric pop classic. Re. benefits of great outdoors: in these increasingly temperate times, SOIWT couldn’t agree more.
Kisses – Bermuda
Continuing the meteorological (so had to spell-check that) theme, a week ago this alt-disco anthem would have been far too cheery and full-throttle for the famously unprecedented Famouse Ice Agge suffered by Englande in 2009-10. But now that balmier climes have returned, daffodils are dancing in the morning breeze, cheeks are de-rouged and sneezes are again invisible, LA-based Kisses‘ Bermuda is timely. Jesse Kivel’s (he of the much slower Princeton) rich brogue perfectly complements synthtastic disco loops and measured guitars to create a toe-tapper whose disposition is easily as sunny as the island after which it’s named. More meteorology, note.
MGMT – Flash Delirium
Once upon a time there was a duo called MGMT. They made an insanely danceable electro-pop, were the darlings of blogs everywhere and paved the synth highway for thousands of impersonators. They then disappeared, before magically reappearing on the curiously-slanted Bestival main stage in 2009. There they played a few new songs which sounded consideradly broodier and more substantial. And now the two heroes are back with second-album-first-single Flash Delirium. It’s trippy, multi-sectioned, chaotic and, depending on your take, awful or brilliant. Ever down with the (in-joke alert) Kids, SOIWT says gives it two thumbs up.
The Chord And The Fawn – Love, Sex, And Rock & Roll
SOIWT thought songs this classy-sounding disappeared with Billie Holiday. An elegant lullaby from Minneapolis duo The Chord And The Fawn, Love, Sex, And Rock & Roll has a jazz vibe, has tapping drums, has pleasingly forlorn woodwind and has the thistliest ukelele, and yet has but one reason for it’s fabulousness and one alone: Dani Lewis‘ diamond-clear voice. As she tells the story of an abdicated lover via bouncy rhyming couplets, you feel the simultaneous urge to cry and inelegantly play backing vocalist at every thrilling crest.
Dengue Fever – Sober Driver
Last week’s top 5 sucked up to the sultry jazz stylings of Morningbell, and this week’s musical slut is similarly smitten with LA’s Dengue Fever. Sober Driver features clips from what sounds faintly like a Blaxploitation movie but probably isn’t, a rubbery guitar clearly up to skullduggery, and boy-girl vocals in the sense that a soft porn-sounding sexpot occasionally lets a abashed male sing too. Just when you think things can’t possibly get better, a saxophone starts playing. Stay tuned for more jizz by neo-jazz next week…
MP3s available to download via the song titles.
[...] – Resolution Of One (mp3) Friends with the unarguably majestic Cults, Guards have produced one of my favourite things: a song that blunders along murmurously for a [...]