Idioteque – Amanda Palmer – Helen Bach (who I am gonna rename Alias from now on), recommended this last week. Yet one more Radiohead cover better than the original. Plus, honest, Amanda is way cuter than Thom. It is real good and what makes it truly awesome is how that uekele is so damn dark. It reminds me a little of New York band from the 80s (Glenn Branca used to produced em) who used toy instruments. It is compelling and distracting at the same time.
Up All Night – Drake and Nicki Minaj – His voice has a scratchy whinge which is memorable without being good. Minaj blows him away.
Magic – Emii – And now the deluge… It starts off like a blueprint Lady Gagaism but morphs into a hard rock song. Emii told us she is a music junkie, and that is this.
She Loves You – The Gaslight Anthem – What fatheads. If it was a great song, which it ain’t, it would suffer in comparison. Instead, it is an Irish shanty sung by the boss. If the lyric was better it might be alright.
Love Like Woe – The Ready Set – Either the adjective woe is so obvious it despoils the very air, or else the adjective is so smart you only feel like you can’t throw a brick without hitting someone who has used it. The song is proforma but addictive enough.
I Should Have Known It – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Well played but generic blues. It’s the chinese food of songs -half an hour after you’ve heard it, you’ve forgotten it exists.
We Belong Together – Randy newman – Van Morrison for kids.
What We Do – Devo – The other song I heard from the album was pretty good but this is unbelievably irritating. Let’s call it an aberration and move on.
Cry When You Get Older – Robyn – What is it with Scandinavians and melody? The lyric may klutz but the the tunes are unbelievable from Sondre Leche to Robyn and back. From her new album, which I wlll be buying more of, a klutzy synth and an 80s drum machine fuzzies out in an addictive pop mini masterpiece. SONG OF THE WEEK.
I Don’t Bite – We Are Scientists – This is Apples In Stereo meets… uh, meets We Are Scientists. I was just discussing this, and it doesn’t have much to do with anything but, if I could go back to the day I was born and change my name I would change it to Sven because a)you are take somebody named Sven too seriously and I don’t wanna be taken too serious and b) it’s a lot better than blanket.
Yertabero – Juanes – This is the modern face of, no, not salsa, but Latin American pop. A hugely addictive builds from handclaps but doesn’t even begin to threaten the track because Juanes is smooth, fast and deadly and the electic guitars are filled with promise but promise of what???