The Weeknd "Life of the Party" Rap and R&B songs weren't always about ostentatious wealth and the hedonistic yet rigid mating rituals of "the club," but after more than a decade of these ideas being the center of popular music, it's easy to feel like it was ever thus. The Weeknd belongs to this tradition, but with two caveats: He writes about entering this world as an ambivalent outsider, and he presents even the elements he enjoys as sorta grotesque and soul-deadening. Everything we're used to hearing as glamorous and sexy gets turned into a horror [...]
Lindsey Buckingham "In Our Own Time" The character of Lindsey Buckingham's music has changed a lot as he's aged. His best-known work from the Seventies and Eighties was always a bit high-strung and angst-ridden; he pretty much specialized in writing bitter break-up songs. In recent years, though, that's all gone away in favor of a more serene tone. The angst is still there, but it's focused on issues of mortality and buried beneath gorgeous, cascading finger-picked guitar parts. "In Our Own Time," from this latest record Seeds We Sow , merges this approach with elements [...]
Cass McCombs "The Same Thing" "The Same Thing" sets up a lot of equivalences, with the logic that many seemingly opposite concepts and feelings are flip sides of the same coin. In the spirit of that, here's an idea: Though "The Same Thing" is rooted in rhythm and Sixties psychedelic pop and "County Line" (the excellent single from Cass McCombs' other 2011 album) is a delicate, nearly weightless 70s AM radio ballad, they feel remarkably similar. Both songs sprawl out, suggesting slow movement through a a vast, humbling space. They're both "road" songs, pieces [...]
The Flaming Lips "The Gash" (Live in 2011) Until I heard this live recording, I never noticed how much the keyboard part sounded like something John Lennon might have written – echoes of "Instant Karma" and "I Am the Walrus," for sure. The studio recording on The Soft Bulletin has an effective maximalist sound – drums that seem physically enormous, vocals multi-tracked into warbling choirs – but this rendition is pared down to the essential elements. To the band's credit, it still sounds rather epic. I think Wayne Coyne's vocals are more effective here, [...]
Big Troubles "Misery" It's so irrational, but I feel as though I should in some way apologizing for liking this so much, as if I should distrust myself a bit for maybe succumbing to some cheap Pavlovian trigger where I just hear alt-rock moves from the mid-90s and go "yes, thanks!" But you know what? In this case, yes, thanks. Every little bit of this song could easily be something I half-remembered from CMJ samplers or 120 Minutes , but it's all put together with great grace. There's a great emotional tension in [...]
Lil Wayne "Nightmares of the Bottom" I find Lil Wayne most entertaining when he's spilling random rhymes over a booming beat, but this introspective, gentle track suits him well. He's doing some soul-searching here, but I don't think he finds much – he doesn't dig too deep into his fears of losing what he has, and a lot of the lines are fairly boilerplate. There's more in the sound of his voice – a little resigned, a little bemused. He sounds friendly, like he's genuinely confiding with the listener. Even still, the twinkling piano figure carries [...]
Sandro Perri "Changes" The title and lyrics to this piece are very appropriate – the composition is constantly mutating and shifting, with new textures and tones coming with every turn. The first time I heard this, I was sucked in right away and found myself hanging on every note as the song unfolded, genuinely surprised by its progress. The wonderful thing about "Changes" is that the changes are never jarring, but feel entire organic and logical from moment to moment. It's like a macro view of your life – sometimes it doesn't seem like much is [...]
The Pharcyde "Otha Fish" SlimKid3's performance on "Otha Fish" is one of the best I've ever heard on a hip-hop record; virtuoso in its technique, original in its style, and overflowing with raw emotion and bitter wit. He delivers all three verses with a cadence that slips gracefully between rapping and singing, the intricate lines twisting and twirling around a fluid beat, but never winding itself too tight. The third verse is perfection, a stream of brilliant lines - "Now, if there ain't no mountain high enough, why ain't you climbin up?," "I slipped and I [...]
Eleanor Friedberger @ Webster Hall 8/22/2011 My Mistakes / Inn of the Seventh Ray / Heaven / "Never Be Happy Again" / Roosevelt Island / Glitter Gold Year / Early Earthquake / "That Was When I Knew" / Scenes from Bensonhurst / I Won't Fall Apart on You Tonight Eleanor Friedberger "Roosevelt Island" Eleanor Friedberger's solo debut Last Summer has been slowly becoming one of my favorite albums of the recent past – it's straight forward in its pleasures, but very subtle in its charms. [...]
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks "Forever 283 The past few Malkmus albums have been heavy on perspective and sage advice, but the songs on Mirror Traffic are more cranky and restless. He still drops a bit of wisdom here and there – "no one is your perfect fit, I do not believe in that shit" – but he quickly undermines his pragmatism by admitting that he's a contrary buzzkill who can't help but spoil any good time. "Forever 283 is a perky, upbeat number about being snarky and miserable, but it's not making that [...]
Thundercat "Walkin'" While I don't necessarily mind Thundercat in instrumental mode, there is just no question that he's at his best when he's working in vocal pop mode. "Walkin'," my favorite track from The Golden Age of the Apocalypse , is an impeccable approximation of ultra-slick 70s mellow funk glamor, with elements that recall the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and several other greats of the era. It's a spot-on replica of a distinct yet slippery vibe, but it's not merely a genre exercise – there's a genuine emotional spark here. The incredibly sweet [...]
Beyoncé @ Roseland Ballroom 8/16/2011 I Wanna Be Where You Are - No No No (Parts 1 and 2) - Bugaboo - Bills Bills Bills - Say My Name - Independent Women - Bootylicious - Survivor - 03 Bonnie and Clyde / Crazy in Love / Irreplaceable / Single Ladies / 1+1 / I Care / I Miss You / The Best Thing I Never Had / Party / Rather Die Young / Love on Top / Countdown / End of Time / Run the World (Girls) / I Was Here [...]
The Rapture "It Takes Time To Be A Man" I do not know the provenance of the piano and bass part that is cut and looped through this composition – it could be a sample, it could be original – but the sound is warm and calming, in part because of the fact that it's DJ'd, produced, recontextualized. I can't remember a time when this sort of sound wasn't being reworked. I'm more attached to this sound in artistic quotation marks than in its original context. (This doesn't have to be entirely about post-hip-hop music, by [...]
Sonic Youth @ Williamsburg Waterfront 8/12/2011 Brave Men Run (In My Family) / Death Valley 69 / Cotton Crown / Kill Yr Idols / Eric's Trip / Sacred Trickster / Calming the Snake / Starfield Road / I Love Her All the Time / Ghost Bitch / Tom Violence / What We Know / Drunken Butterfly // Flower / Sugar Kane /// Psychic Hearts //// Inhuman I have seen Sonic Youth play at least once per year every year since 1995, with the exception of 1999 and 2001. As a result, [...]
TV on the Radio "You" Dan Savage is fond of saying that every relationship you have fails until one doesn't. In a way, that's the thematic core of this song: Tunde Adebimpe is singing about a failed love, giving it something of a post-mortem while lamenting "you're the only one I ever loved." The chorus is more bittersweet, as each line looking back on what they had together is proceeded by the phrase "constantly wrong." That's often how it seems in retrospect, like you have the answer now and can't imagine why it wasn't obvious back [...]
Kanye West and Jay-Z "Gotta Have It" One of the most interesting things for me about Watch the Throne is listening to Jay-Z, the most imperious rapper in hip-hop, essentially bend to the artistic whims of Kanye West, the genre's most ambitious auteur of the past half decade. The record is clearly the product of West's distinct vision, with Jay-Z doing his professional, precise Jay-Z thing. But part of his professionalism extends to adapting to his surroundings, which means that on some tracks, he makes some effort to be revealing and emotionally direct, because [...]
Cymbals Eat Guitars "The Current" "The Current" is rather epic for a song that barely cracks the two minute mark. For the first minute and a half, the song is all forward momentum and delicate gesture, with subtle rhythms and instrumental harmonies that recall Sonic Youth in Daydream Nation mode and Radiohead's fixation with atmospheric arpeggios on In Rainbows. Once the song cycles through all its twist and turns, Joseph D'Agostino sings a brief passage that comes out sounding like a sci-fi prayer. He relaxes his mind by imagining a multiverse full of infinite alternate versions [...]
Neon Indian "Fallout" Neon Indian's first album trafficked mainly in blunted nostalgia, with fairly slight but sometimes mesmerizing tunes filtered through self-conscious faux-cassette aesthetics. "Fallout," the first song released from his second album Era Extraña is far more mature and resonant in a way that doesn't seem as though it could be a happy accident. There's still a haziness to the sound, but the atmosphere is secondary to the music, which touches on the epic, melodramatic romance of a particular strain of 80s radio hit. "Fallout" has some distant echoes of tunes like Berlin's [...]
Rewards featuring Solange Knowles "Equal Dreams" I like that Solange is carving out this interesting little niche for herself as this boho R&B singer who turns up on all sorts of arty little records. This is one of her more interesting one-off collaborations – she's a little bit outside of her usual comfort zone, but makes the most of being the warmest element in a cool DFA 123 disco track. There's actually very little in her vocal performance that comes off as particularly R&B – there's a trace, but it's filtered through an icy Euro vibe. [...]
Shabazz Palaces "A Treatease Dedicated to the Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)" If you want to cut straight to the emotional center of this song, advance to 0:38 for the "oooooo weee" at the start of a new verse. You only hear that digitally processed swoon once in the piece, but it sets the tone for the lovestruck banter through the rest of the track. The song perfectly captures the feeling of trying to balance a desire to come off cool and suave with this geeky, enthusiastic urge to just ask [...]
Fluxblog Is So Hot Right Now
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
