Monday Music – 31 August 2010

Posts still sporadic – still getting my act together.  Bear with me.  Here’s my favourite songs this week:

Museum of Bellas Artes – Who Do You Love? (mp3)
Signed to Force Majeure and due at White Heat in a few weeks, this Stockholm trio have put in an early bid for cover of the year via this reprise of The Sapphires’ little-known Motown song from 1964.  Relentless beats, glossy synths and moreish vocals combine to prove summer’s not through with us yet…

Still Corners – Endless Summer (mp3)
…as does this effort from the hotly-tipped Londoners.  Sounding like a witches’ spell for the senses, this is whimsical hallucination-pop designed for empty stares into deep blue skies.

Zola Jesus – Sea Talk (mp3)
Just climb up to a rooftop, stretch your arms out wide, feel the wind, and fly fly fly away…

Freelance Whales – Hannah (mp3)
The FWs specialise in pretty lines about trivial episodes, sung in glorious, folky euphoria.  For example: “Hannah takes the stairs ’cause she can’t tell that it’s a wiiiiiiiiinding spiral-case”.  Magic.

Small Black – Photojournalist (mp3)
I rarely remember my dreams, my journey to that world, but the little scraps I do retain are much like this slice of haunted pop: groggy, discomforting, lonely, and full of subverted, out-of-focus voices prior to a sudden, bereft, awakening.

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Dansette Junior

Come back summer, we miss you.  Without your warming rays and muggy days, we’re trapped inside, cold and fretful, as yearnful as the soaring dance/dubstep of Kentish Town trio Dansette Junior.  It’s great stuff – but can’t we save it for September?

Dansette Junior – Paranoid (Blame Remix) (mp3)

Monday Music – 23 August 2010

Hey all – sorry about the silence, my last post ought to explain it.  On with the show…

Sexion D’Assaut – Désolé (mp3)
On this popped in H&M.  Out came my Shazam app.  Did it work?  Did it fuck – the bastard just ‘searched’ for ages, then finally admitted its miserable, pathetic failure.  I swore a lot (hard to believe, I know), sulked, and then typed in a guessed translation of the only lyric I remembered.  And Safari came up trumps where Shazam failed.  Well done Safari.  Go fuck yourself Shazam.  I give you one task…

Keep Shelly in Athens – Cremona Memories (mp3)
Who’s Shelly?  Why does she have to stay in Athens?  Where’s Cremona?  What happened there?  I guess maybe we add our own plot using this alluring soundtrack.

The xx – Heart Skipped A Beat (mp3)
I love The xx more with each listen.  Yes they’re a bit sexy, and yes they’re minimal and all that, but it’s the simple, impossible catchiness of those riffs and vocals that has me gasping.  It doesn’t really matter which song, although this one’s particularly good.

Chad Van Gaalen – Tmnt Mask (mp3)
The lyrics of this have really resonated with me in recent days – sitting by the river, escaping my mind, clarity – we all need a bit of that from time to time.

Isbells – Reunite (mp3)
This may have a whiff of Dawson’s Creek-esque sincerity, but it’s also prettily subdued and perfect for staring out of windows, cheek-to-pane, as the autumnal winds make soggy brown leaves dance in the air.

David’s Lyre

A song to suit the suddenly chill winds and changing seasons: choruses you can sing along to with fists-clenched, a post-thunderstorm freshness and escapist lyrics.  More info here, and a song for a quieter day below.

David’s Lyre – Heartbeat (mp3)

Monday Music – 9 August 2010

My five favourite songs of the past week are:

Hard Mix – Memories (mp3)
Filled with distorted samples, Hard Mix’s latest is so groggy and beautiful it could take any pain away.

Laguna Meth – Sugar Shack (mp3)
Two years ago I heard this sweet pop ditty, loved it and tipped Laguna Meth for glory.  Then I lost it, and Laguna Meth didn’t get glory (not because I lost it) (at least I don’t think so) (imagine if it was).  Anyway now I’ve found it again, I love it and I tip Laguna Meth’s imminent second album for glory.

Salem – King Night (mp3)
Heal thy wounds, man, heal thoust with some killer dubstep.  This is so intensely epic it single-handedly put lines on my forehead and decreased my hairline by three inches.

Still Corners - Endless Summer (mp3)
A glassy dreampop song expressly designed for a movie scene where the vulnerable lead character (delete as appropriate): swallows a load of sleeping pills / jumps off a bridge / drives into the sea / leaves the school disco alone.

Future Islands - Tin Man (mp3)
Future Islands’ singer Sam suddenly sounds like Cat Stevens’ estranged older brother, an illicit, disgraced drunk with a gravelly voice and grudging temperament.  It makes for a great, atypical rock.