Congratulations – MGMT – I was pretty obsessed with the Soulwax remix of “Kids” last year. It didn’t hold but it was a pleasant enough week or so. This song is cuter, less unweildy and less rifled with speculation then “Time To Pretend”, it quietly assumes itself on your playlist and stays there: no more, nothing hidden, but pleasant with a breathy sincerity somewhat out of step with the big time exceptions being held to this band. SONG OF THE WEEK
Not MySelf Tonight – Christina Aguilera – This is it? Years and years for this warmed over Madonna? Plus, didn’t she once have the best lungs in the biz? Why would she tweak that voice??? Terrible. The album better be a helluva lot better than this.
Your Petty Pretty Things – The Get Up Kids – Remember when these guys were good? No, really, between the first and the world conquering second album they were a real right live band. Emo, yeah, but emo without the wimpiness. It’s been awhile in the wilderness but this has a pretty solid clangy guitar hook which they do well by.
There’s No Other me (feat. Joss Stone) – Jeff Beck – My new fave quote in the world and you can use it for every occasion: did it ever cross Jeff beck’s mind NOT TO RECORD this tasty and tedious blues riff? Did it ever cross Joss Stone’s mind not to sing it?
Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Expectation – Natalie Merchant – Sartre once spent 700 pages trying to prove there wasn’t a God but if he had only had this song, all he’d have to do would have been to play. I know I’ve said things are bad in the past, and sure I bought it with the knodledge it would be highly goofable. But you must, must hear this song. It is like getting suffocated in a field of daisys. I think that flute must belong to Beelzebub. I think the lyric is a poem by Charles Causley (of course he was, that’s why he thinks he can uses Hardy rhyhms though he was born in 1917) which Merchant sent to an all too typical faux English folk tune, thou“Leave Your Sleep is the most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined. Nearly seven years ago I set out to create a piece of work I hoped could capture the universal experience of childhood through poetry and music. ”. The mind truly boggles.
gh you can’t really whistle it. Did it ever cross Natalies mind not to put it to… etc. This is what Natalie has to say about it: “
I’m No Good (For Ya Baby) – Laura Bell Bundy – Nathan Chapman, one of the guys behind Taylor Swift, is also behind the Broadway Musical actress. Proof it takes more than talent, it takes intangibles. Well, they got away with it on “Giddy On Up” earlier this year but this song is up to nothing much.
I Used To Love Here (Again) – Murs and 9th Wonder – There is a whole world of artistically viable hip hop that I only hear in flits and starts. Murs, when he isn’t fronting punk rock bands in Florida, heads three different posses and 9th Wonder is a producer who has worked with all the big names. This song, off their new collab Fornever, is dark, haunting, with a wonderful track -all angula guitar and, er, what is that? Takes awhile but not fornever to kick in.
Laredo – Band Of Horses – Love the guitar, fuzzy and sweet. But the vocals not so much.
Something Good Can Work – Two Door Cinema Club – Irish myspace phenom are catchy enough
The Wild Hunt – The Tallest Man On Earth – There are two kindsa people on this planet. Those who can take this folkies voice and those who can’t. I’m among the latter.