Vampire Weekend and the National both have released new material (and fun videos) this week leading up to their new albums Modern Vampires of the City and Trouble Will Find Me (I’m sure by the titles, you can figure out which is which.) Both are solid releases. Both are typical to each band’s general aesthetic. Vampire Weekend steer a bit from their tried-and-true formula with “Ya Hey” (get it, yahweh, like first single “Diane Young”… dying young…) with some vocal modifications that after a few listens actually become very catchy – which, *spoiler alert*, also feature prominently on the new album.
Anyways, enjoy the new videos above and this week’s playlist for some summery electro-pop to guide you into the weekend.
Spring/summer might just be here. It looks like we have finally turned the corner to consistently long warm sunny days; so what’s better than a new playlist to celebrate? Well, a lot – but check out this week’s rotation after the jump.
Sometimes I’m lazy, sometimes other people just put things into better words – either way, here is a good wite-up on the new track from everyone’s favorite Icelandic post-rockers, Sigur Rós (above) that came out this week.
Sigur Rós opened and closed their Coachella sets with a booming orchestral din that sounded as hard and harsh as just about anything Godspeed You! Black Emperor has done — a blaring confirmation of their January Reddit AMA promise that their forthcoming seventh album. Kveikur is due June 18 on XL Recordings, and we’ve gotten a chance to preview a couple of songs: the lurching “Brennistein” and the apocalyptic titular track. But following that heavier fare, we’re now offered a little respite in “Ísjaki,” which comes with the lyric video above. While the song is certainly intense in its own way, its true strength comes not from bombast but from the inventive percussion and Jónsi’s beautiful birdcall. Ghostly as the new song is — and as creepy as the critters in the clip are — the song itself offers some real uplift, testifying to the broad dynamism we should expect to hear when Kveikur drops.
Aaaannndddd with that, check out this week’s playlist after the jump.
Is it real or is it fake? I have asked that question dozens of times this week…Well, it doesn’t matter anymore because Daft Punk have finally released their newest song “Get Lucky!” After much speculation, fakes, and SNL ads, Daft Punk have shared their latest single, which will be on Random Access Memories, due out May 21st. I have to say the song is extremely catchy with its disco-laden grooves and Pharrell’s silky choruses. “Get Lucky” only makes my appetite for new Daft Punk even greater.
Well, it’s a rainy, dreary day and I guess that fits with the releases from two of my favorite artists this week. With new album Trouble Will Find Me due out in late May, the National debuted two tracks “Demons” and “Don’t Swallow the Cap.” Both songs deliver the same deep-voiced, heavy, often ambiguous lyrics and serious, yet sensitive tones Matt Berniger & co. have blessed us with over the past 14 years. Of the two though, I particularly enjoy “Demons’” heavily layered production. Driven by echoing guitar work, a slight synth-line, fractured drums, and building strings the National create an intensely orchestrated angst-driven, yet slightly triumphant emotional track.
Additionally, James Blake’s Overgrown dropped this week to overwhelmingly positive reviews, along with a video for eponymous single “Overgrown.” “Overgrown” displays Blake’s penchant for creating majestically unnerving and tense soundscapes that illustrate emotional valences. As in most cases, Blake uses this musical backdrop and another topic (time) as a metaphor. He croons “I don’t want you to know/I took it with me/But when things are thrown away like they are daily/Time passes in the constant state/So if that is how it is… it is not time Blake is speaking of, but love. If you haven’t already picked up Overgrown, I highly recommend it, along with lead single “Retrograde,” (another song about love.)
On a completely different and way more upbeat note, after the jump is this week’s playlist to accompany the countdown to the weekend, enjoy!
Deerhunter are set to release their new album Monomania in a month and this past week they shared the self-titled lead single. Like most Deerhunter songs, it brings you through an abstract and wondering, distortion-heavy journey, yet while keeping some semblance of melody and rhythm. In their latest work, you can hear odes to some classic blues rock & roll and Ramones-esque punk. “Monomania” certainly has an edge to it, that frankly recent music has been sorely missing, and I suspect the album as a whole will too; with front-man Bradford Cox describing the album as “a very avant-garde rock & roll record.”
Shifting gears, after the jump is this week’s playlist that focuses heavily on synth and electro-pop production; making it even more appropriate to have “Monomania” as a stand-alone. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Good Friday/Passover edition of the weekly rotation! Other than the day, not much actually has to do with religious holidays. Either way, after the jump, enjoy what this week’s playlist has to offer from some indie veterans to others starting to make real names for themselves. And, naturally, make sure not to eat too many Peeps over the weekend, if there is such a thing.
