Lucky Soul, "Whoa Billy!" (2010) find it on A Coming Of Age I was going to save this track for a summer mix that I was cooking up, but earlier this week, it totally rang the doorbell to my brain, set up in the Can't Get This Song Out Of My Head space and refused to leave. Not that I wanted to let it leave. It's the irresistible handclaps, the intoxicating blend of indiepop hooks and glam stomp and the glorious "woah"s that make me never [...]
Phosphorescent, "I Don't Care If There's Cursing" (2010) find it on Here's To Taking It Easy If Naive Harmonies had the equivalent of Pitchfork's "Best New Music", Phosphorescent's new album Here's To Taking It Easy would get that tag easily. It's a loose country-ish record that's punctuated with spots of absolute gorgeousness. It's not unlike Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Lie Down In The Light , which is probably why I like it so much. "I Don't Care If There's Cursing" has [...]
Phosphorescent, "I Don't Care If There's Cursing" (2010) find it on Here's To Taking It Easy If Naive Harmonies had the equivalent of Pitchfork's "Best New Music", Phosphorescent's new album Here's To Taking It Easy would get that tag easily. It's a loose country-ish record that's punctuated with spots of absolute gorgeousness. It's not unlike Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Lie Down In The Light , which is probably why I like it so much. "I Don't Care If There's Cursing" has [...]
Welcome to The National Day at Naive Harmonies! The band has already earned this week's Fine Tune Friday honors. Now it's time for bonus coverage; what follows is a review of their new album High Violet. It's easy to forget that, with the release this week of their new album High Violet , The National is now a band five full-length albums old. In today's era of instant gratification and blog hype, where trends come and go within the blink of an eye, their's has been a trajectory all too rare. Bands seldom [...]
The National, "Bloodbuzz Ohio" (2010) find it on High Violet The standard line in most reviews of High Violet has been about The National's position as chroniclers of the middle-class+ urban adult American existence. But the fascinating part of The National for me is that they have a sound that, honestly, is plodding, amelodic, and often overly serious, they ride this one sound over and over...and yet create something that's gorgeous and irresistible. Let me just go ahead and give them the title of [...]
Welcome to The National Day at Naive Harmonies! The band has already earned this week's Fine Tune Friday honors. Now it's time for bonus coverage; what follows is a review of their new album High Violet. It's easy to forget that, with the release this week of their new album High Violet , The National is now a band five full-length albums old. In today's era of instant gratification and blog hype, where trends come and go within the blink of an eye, their's has been a trajectory all too rare. Bands seldom [...]
The Black Keys, "Next Girl" (2010) find it on Brothers It takes an awful lot for me to find even a little time for something described even on the surface as "blues rock". But sometimes the ingredients come together and the expected resolutions of the chords and melodies give that wash of alls-right. "Next Girl" is exactly that song. There's no surprises here, just some awesomely greasy guitar wah, a churning, distorted organ, a heavy stomp, and most importantly, a chorus as killer as they come.
The Tallest Man On Earth, "You're Going Back" (2010) find it on The Wild Hunt It's easy to pick at the Tallest Man On Earth. The Dylan comparisons are as apt as they are lazy, though he's Dylan with Donovan lyrics. His voice is affected and a little grating and likely to put a lot of people off. The songwriting is strong and the melody is pretty irresistible, but much more than that, its appeal is in the joyous sound of a [...]
LCD Soundsystem, "Home" (2010) find it on This Is Happening The full album ( hear it here ) review first: it's not wall-to-wall brilliance, but there's at least four tracks that can be added to the already-thick James Murphy Is a Genius file. The sounds of the album is one of the most stunning production jobs I've heard...ever. It's a beautifully warm record, which is amazing when you realize that it sacrifices none of the energy and excitement that LCD Soundsystem and Sound of [...]
We've gotten walloped hard with the Spring stick here in DC, and the songs that I've obsessed over for the last few months that haven't quite made it to this blog find themselves winding their way into this mix, like so much stormwater draining into the Potomac, only sparkling clear instead of clogged with pollen and dog shit. There's some songs in here that were follow-up picks for Fine Tune Friday this year, as well as three tracks that escaped my notice when they were first released, but that I couldn't possibly love any more. Hit play [...]
Cults, "Most Wanted" (2010) find it on the free download of the Cults 7" In a lot of ways, "Most Wanted" is a perfect pop song. A fantastic piano riff, a simple bassline, punctuating noisy guitar, and quiet, ambient snips of conversation score a near-perfect, meandering melody. The song could stroll along like that and be great, but the addition of some organ, glittering synth and male vocals in the last verse raise it up to greatness and demand repeat listens. Which is exactly what a 3:00 minute pop song should [...]
Cults, "Most Wanted" (2010) find it on the free download of the Cults 7" In a lot of ways, "Most Wanted" is a perfect pop song. A fantastic piano riff, a simple bassline, punctuating noisy guitar, and quiet, ambient snips of conversation score a near-perfect, meandering melody. The song could stroll along like that and be great, but the addition of some organ, glittering synth and male vocals in the last verse raise it up to greatness and demand repeat listens. Which is exactly what a 3:00 minute pop song should [...]
Gorillaz, "To Binge" (2010) find it on Plastic Beach I'm going to eat my words re: Gorillaz, but I'll just have a half order, please. When I first heard the new Gorillaz album, it was on shuffle, and just about every song made me reach for the ol' iPod, thinking what the fuck is this shit?! It turns out that only half of it is a mess, but Jesus... what a mess. The other half? This is [...]
Gorillaz, "To Binge" (2010) find it on Plastic Beach I'm going to eat my words re: Gorillaz, but I'll just have a half order, please. When I first heard the new Gorillaz album, it was on shuffle, and just about every song made me reach for the ol' iPod, thinking what the fuck is this shit?! It turns out that only half of it is a mess, but Jesus... what a mess. The other half? This is [...]
STACKS HQ is still very much buzzing from Wilco's performance last week at the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland. If you're a fan of the band and have the opportunity, this current tour is the ideal time to catch them. The band has been performing extended sets, averaging 3 hours in length and featuring songs from each of their nine albums (including seven studio albums and their two collaborative efforts on the Woody Guthrie project). The highlights of last week's show are two many to enumerate, but it was a particular thrill to hear so many selections from [...]
I have always been late to the game on hip-hop luminaries, call it an error of my youth. This track is an example of what got me into the genre. Simple beat, amazing sample, and flawless verses. Not a second wasted. Pick the album up here . Method Man, Ghostface Killa, Raekwon, "Our Dreams" (2010)
Free Energy, "Bang Pop" (2010) find it on Stuck On Nothing Listen, Fine Tune Friday never claimed to be first on the scene. There's plenty of other bloggers out there giving you the very first taste of something, but Fridays here are devoted to one thing and one thing only: the new song that most often got caught in my head this week, period. On to it...any discussion of Free Energy has to start with the usual keywords/touch points: 70's radio rock, [...]
Janelle Monáe, "Tightrope (featuring Big Boi)" (2010) find it on the "Tightrope" single It was one of those weeks where two songs were fighting it out for my Best Song This Week love. The runner up was appropriate for the rainy day that DC's having: a grey song that explodes into a shoutout middle with some excellent guitar. But it was too appropriate, so it's "Tightrope", which has been a constant earworm for the last month or so. The titular tightrope could as well refer to [...]
There was much rejoicing around these parts this week with the announcement of the long-awaited return of Scotland's Teenage Fanclub. Merge will be releasing the bands' eighth proper album, entitled Shadows , their first since 2005's stellar Man-Made . Check the details here and while you're at it grab an mp3 of a new track, "Baby Lee" . A tour of the States is expected to follow this autumn. In the wake of last week's sadness , this comes as an especially apropos pick-me-up. If you're a fan of Teenage Fanclub, you're [...]
More new stuff from JoyOrb. His new EP is floating around. The London, grime/dub/bass (whatever) sound has not always done it for me, but...this guy is quite the beat-artist. I would post off the new EP, his label is sensitive. If you are into electronic anything, check him out. Also, in the spirit of my co-bloggers weekly diligence Monday's are now BRKYN CLLN days on Naive Harmonies. Brooklyn Calling (most weeks) Joy Orbison, 'BRKYN CLLN' (2009)
Naive Harmonies
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
New Remix: Jonquil - Run (RxGibbs Remix)
