The Horn – Midlake
Around five listens in and I have to concur with Nessing -easy listening it aint. But I am not sure if I am not hearing more Fairport Convention thanLeague Of Gentlemen. Prog yeah but rustic prog, with the vocal almost a theologic chant against rationalism. It rolls but not like the sea, like the wind in the lush green grass. Problem is I hate lush green grass…
Satisfy – Vedera
Itunes free single of the week and I don’t wanna damn her prematurely, but Kristen May’s soft rock sounds ready made for the next Lilith and instead Ke$ha is gonna be going!!
Blah Blah Blah (feat 3OH!3)
Yup, that’s electronic warped tour 2008 boys, and this is a nagging that tugs at your ear like you don’t know whether to slap it or kiss it. Could be a real big single, folks, I’m telling you.
Santa Ana Winds – Cold War Kids
The drums on the chorus here are really something, drummer Matt Aveiro is doing triple fills in 4/4, riding the song relentlessly and they sound like Radiohead but a different Radiohead, not quite an earlier one, but if you put a Thom Yorke vocal on top you could just about imagine it. And there is something about the marshall repetition of chords: like it is a March or something. Great song, in case
Fallin’ For You – Colbie Calliat
This is LA pop as opposed to its harder nosed East Coast twins. It is sludge pop, very pasteurized, very distilled, very doctored. It’s like a Playboy bunny in her thirties: everything has been fixed. Not bad, not good, just overdone.
The Sun Is Down (Cornelius Mix) -Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
By the time of Life With the Lions, I had stopped hating Yoko and by the time of Fly I actively liked her. So forty years on, how does the Plastic Ono Band sound? They sound old fashioned but sexy -Ono’s half-speak over becomes a moan and the background vocals are already moans. The synths tinkle like its 1975. And the drum machine is an obdurant but not quite obdurant enough, prolly because her son Sean is there and, the always faintly incestuous relationship of the two is hard to hide from in lines like “The sun is down in the secret garden”.
Wake Up It’s Africa Calling – Youssou N’Dour
Blew me away when I caught him live a coupla years ago, this West African superstar mixes Senegalese – Caribbean heavy on the beats music with hip hop production and African-American rap on the choruses (and is that Dido singing background?). It’s really good plus if you ever get the chance, and in NYC you often get the chance, so listen to Senegelese music do yourself a favour. Trust me, it aint Vampire weekend folks.