This track crushes. I could listen to just the backbeat minus the melodies on repeat for hours.
This week’s earworm. I love the chord progression laid on top of the melody in the chorus.
Material Issue, Valerie Loves Me.
I’ve had this song running through my head for the past week. Mmmmm sludgy goodness…
I’m listening to Dinosaur Jr.’s Farm, which is not exactly the best music for working (unless you’re in a hurry, like me). Green Mind was one of my cornerstone albums of the 90’s, and after a love-hate relationship with their later catalog, I’ve come back to their newer work. My ears have never recovered from the show I saw at Hammerjacks in ’95, but it’s good to hear them again.
Yet another album I’ve been listening to on heavy repeat is XX, by The XX. I can’t honestly say I’ve heard anything that sounds like this before, but damn, I like it.
Some more good music I just found this morning while listening to Morning Edition: Kodomo’s Still Life. Nice melodic electronica, nothing too intense, but enough melody to be background/working music. Very nice.
I’m kind of ashamed to say this, because I dislike the name of the band so much, but I’m currently digging LP3 by Ratatat. It sort of defies description, but I like the way it’s constructed and the influences I’m hearing.
Embarassing disclosure: I’ve had the chorus to “Party in the USA” by, of all people, Miley Cyrus in my head for the last two days. I place the blame squarely on the Party School episode of This American Life (which is fascinating and humorous, by the way). Damn You, Ira Glass!
In a related bit of music news, my boss sent along a great hack to be able to use Spotify in the U.S. (it’s a streaming music app that’s based in Sweden, where the licensing and distribution rights have been negotiated completely differently). The service is really good, the music streams immediately, and there’s a great radio feature that allows for discovery of new music via genre and decade.
After a couple of middling albums, The Crystal Method released a new one called Divided By Night which has been slowly growing on me this week. They’ve dialed back the big-beat they were known for earlier to produce an album full of collaborations with other artists, including Emily Haines of Metric (another favorite new album), but the one I’ve been rotating is the final track with an artist named Meiko, called Falling Hard. It’s nice to have them back.