I’m into randomness lately, I’ve been using shuffle mode on my ipod a lot. Here’s the first 10 songs to come up in shuffle mode, this time around – it’s as good an indication of the music I’ve been listening to this week as anything else.
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Pants Yell! – “Your Feelings Don’t Show”
How appropriate, a track from my favorite new CD, Pants Yell!’s Recent Drama (Asaurus). This one’s a sullen but at the same time kind of joyous pop song where the singer’s running into a past love and wondering what’s going on insider her head.
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Jib Kidder – “Y’all Want That Drell”
A strange sort of slowed-down krunk song, mixed with a music-box lullaby. From the Bro Zone compilation (States Rights), already a classic (to me at least).
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Beat Happening – “You Turn Me On”
“Turn me on dead man,” Calvin Johnson sings in his naturally sinister yet naturally playful voice, surf-rock guitars echoing the same demeanor.
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The Lucksmiths – “The Year of Driving Languorously”
A classic road-trip song also filled with sadness, as it depicts a growing distance between two people, even as they’re in the same car.
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Architecture in Helsinki – “Need to Shout”
Like the Lucksmiths, Architecture in Helsinki is a fantastic Australian pop group. “Need to Shout” is from their dynamic, truly exciting second album In Case We Die.
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P:ano – “Trouble Ahead”
Another of today’s brightest pop groups (Canadians this time), making music that’s happy and sad, simple but rich, fanciful yet universal. This is off their excellent mini-album Ghost Pirates Without Heads (Mint).
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Phil Ochs – “Cross My Heart (demo version)”
“Cross my heart / and I hope to live”. A portrait of despair and a statement of struggle against it.
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Teenage Fanclub – “Star Sign”
I love the melody of this one, and the way the song sounds hazy and dreamy on the surface but is really quite driving and rocking.
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The Beatles – “Love Me Do”
What to say…I love the simple repetition of this song, the way it feels like a circle that could go on forever.
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Ghostface Killah – “Columbus Exchange/Crack Spot”
Ending things up with my other favorite album released this month, Fishscale (Def Jam). “Crack Spot”’s a trifle in the context of the album, but still a great example of the classic soul sound that Ghostface loves, of his storytelling skills, of the raw energy that this album (his best, and the best hip-hop album so far this year) is infused with.
