10 songs I’ve been playing on repeat
Also could be titled: Sorry to all my friends to whom I keep playing these songs! As the days become shorter the songs I listen to become more electronic.
Songs are in order best for a mix tape.
Cold Cave – Life Magazine
The best thing that happened at FYFest this year was being introduced to Cold Cave and their understated performance. Their self-released debut is one of those albums that slipped by me in 2009. “Life Magazine” plays like an updated Looper song gone girly and with more kick. The intro alone is worth price of admission.
Download via The Fader: – Life Magazine
Deerhunter – Helicopter
Best use of a mandolin in a modern pop song since Tori Amos. Add sunshine guitar fuzz, reverb percussion and the sounds of Mario collecting coins to betray the underlying sadness of the lyrics: “No one cares for me” and “Now they are through with me”. Oh boy. The song and video are uncomfortably intimate and clearly stands out on Halcyon Digest.
Owen Pallett – Don’t Stop
Having seen Pallett perform this song last Friday just proved to me the magic this man can do on stage with a loop pedal and a violin. Having heard this song on “A Swedish Love Story” I thought the instrument was purposely distressed, but in fact, the discordance comes from how he plays the strings — the quick flutter of his fingers over the bowed string. He plays them this way or through a filter (I’m not sure) to a point where it begins to sound like horns or synths.
Thanks to skuldhotohori for uploading the Echoplex set:
Sufjan Stevens – I Want to Be Well
Those familiar with Stevens probably know the hype around him being a good Christian boy. Those who don’t care revel in all his works including “Seven Swans” which probably has the most direct and ornately performed references to his spirituality. This backstory leads to the the lyric on the second to last song: “I’m not fucking around” which he sings with full conviction over a chorus of “I want to be well / I want to be well.” Its a lyric that normally would not surprise but here it becomes poignent and — perhaps — transcendent in its duality.
This song has fast become my favorite and feels like the pivot point for the whole album and in a way represents the climax of the story that’s told within it. I expect this album to top many people’s top 10 lists for the year and the wake that it will leave behind of those who agree or not.
hollAnd – I Can See Bottom
I first became aware of Trevor Kampmann as a sometimes producer for some Teenbeat acts such as Robert Schipul adding synthy lightning to a typically jangle-guitar lineup. His albums have songs that are hit or miss but there are singles that are both too short and too glorious to put down. This opening track to his 2010 release seems to have Mark Robinson‘s fingerprints all over it.
Parenthetical Girls – Young Throats
Download: – Young Throats
Memory Tapes – Bicycle
There are alot of backwards references in music this year that I hear to New Order and none are so strong as the guitar line at the end of “Bicycle”. It’s an extension and an exploration of a sound that was a brief stop for the band in the 80s, I say lets celebrate Dayve Hawk for not just lifting but creating something new and interesting that also is nostalgic.
Download via NME: – Bicycle
Silje Nes – Rewind
A short number that starts with a quiet set of DIY glass-playing until its overcome with random noise samples and guitar discordia. Before it gets too spaced out it loops into an hook-laden pop moment, Nes’s goosebump summoning vocals, and then it’s over. Repeat.
Silje Nes – Silver > Blue
If you don’t repeat, you are consumed by this awe-and-jaw-slacking cover of Thurston Moore‘s “Silver > Blue.” The cover is the sun in which all the other songs rotate, the gravity of it has led me to think that Nes is a No-waver in Folk-Electronica disguise. All the elements are there, rhythmic and muffled lyrics, noise-pop, guitar feedback, and a subtle attention to detail. “Rewind” and this track feel more like a pair that belong together.
Juana Molina – Los Hongos de Marosa
Molina is a songsmith who builds rhythms with her voice and the instruments that accompany it. “Los Hongos de Marosa” is a classic cacophony that is built up in layers that you can spend hours sifting through to discover new gems within it. My favorite is this unpredictable toy-like keyboard line that bounces all over the second half of the song — once it’s established other instruments and vocal arrangements chase it down in melodies that pay tribute to it.
Video from kneoTV helps with the imagery:
