"Windows" - Rocco Deluca. This may be Mr. Deluca's entry fee into how the Elliot Smith Veneration Society. A pretty piece with an understated lo-fi slide about some magical realm where you can float around like a ghost looking at everything. Either that or the windows are his girlfriend's eyes.
"No Sleep" - DZ Deathrays. Every cool band has a "No Sleep" song or have it in an album title. Motorhead, Beastie Boys, Stiff Little Fingers, Wiz Kahlifa and all the covers thereof. And now, may we hear a round of applause for 2012's "No Sleep" song. This one features a slightly detuning guitar as the hook (or at least its my hook, your results may y'know vary). There's a funny low-rent video to go along with it. Comes off a fine similarly titled EP.
"Boomerang" - Miniature Tigers. This comes off M. Tigers noteworthy new album, MIA PHARAOH. I've already spoken of the fine attributes of "Female Doctor." This is a pop mixture of elements from every of the last five decades - Beatlesque harmonies, 70's electric drums, 80's Brit-pop psyche, some 90's electronics and 00's Afro-pop bass and rhythm guitar line. It's a mixture that goes down real smooth and all the burps taste like cherry.
"Dead Oaks" - Now, Now. A short building throbber about a long trip to see someone. It wastes little to get there.
"Let Them Talk" ft. Yolanda - Spoek Mathambo. Wow, what a great song from this S. African Sub-Pop artist. Mixes rap with electro and grime. A feast for the ears, play loud and directly into your aural cavity.
"Ice Wharf" - Work Drugs. Apparently recorded on a beach on the Cayman Islands, it certainly captures the laid-back beach feel even if the song is about a "summer of trouble" back in London. Crickets and a second voice provide the only accompaniment besides the guitar. Makes me want to quit my job, cash in my savings and head down there.
"Oblivion" - Grimes. It's hard not to like what the Canadian has laid down on this track and one or two others from her new long player. Maybe I'll even grow to like the other cuts as I expect its going to keep on resurfacing. Call it laptop-waif.
"Leonard" - Sharon Van Etten. Ms. Van E slows it down a bit in this song, puts it into a country bluesy 6/8 about some guy in some waypoint on her journey for whom she appears to hold a mysterious fascination.
"Guggenheim - Got It Right Mix" - The Ting Tings. Explosive remix of one of the better songs on their sophomore record. Starts off with a Lou Reed style narrative about some guy and the girl he cheated on with. As a result, as explained in the chorus, the wronged woman first considers revenge but then realizes it was just as much her fault and instead of pining about a failed affair, she's going to aim higher and get into a venerated art museum. Or something like that.
"Holding Teeth" - Princeton. Another cut from a sophomore album. Orchestral rock(?) - mallet instruments, strings, lite percussion and that Earlimart style vocals are put to fine use.
"Fatherland" - Mr. Dream. Crazy stupid and as dumb as great garage anthem rock can get.
"Break My Spine" - Backwords. Folky piece about what's like to be the subordinate in a relationship. "I love it when you break my spine."
All links go to Spotify. All photos link back to original owners and are compliant with their license.
Eventually most of these songs will get into the often updated "Top Songs of 2012" playlist
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