Songs of The Week: "Suns Irrupt", "The Undiscoverd First", and "Helix"

Lot's of cool stuff lately, so I'm going to throw a few things at you this time around. While I wasn't a huge fan of the new Neon Indian, Era Extrana, it does have a few err, polished tracks. One of the more exciting and sensory engaging songs is the sublime, “Suns Irrupt”. With a robust and textural percussion back bone and a swell of slightly queasy yet soothing synth tides, it's a joy to listen to. While much of the album is too cluttered and messy to discern, “Suns Irrupt” is distinctly and properly layered. Alan Palomo's voice is sedate as usual, but in this case betrays a sort of mystic echo in the background. It seems steeped in a fantastical kind of history, yet is carried along by an overtly tech oriented sci fi psychedelic beat. I like it.

The new Feist album, Metals dropped pretty recently, and to the shock of no one, it's pretty good. What's a little more surprising is the territory she traverses, in her own delicate sort of way in “The Undiscovered First”. It starts off so restrictive, so frail and uneasy. Feist sings with a inalienable confidence. She conveys hints of sweetness slightly mixed with just a touch of scorn and contempt. The melody in turn timidly stalks her voice; scratchy and haphazardly arranged guitar strings and snake rattles keep their distance from her at first. It takes a partly domineering yet supportive horn section to kick in to match Feist's particular brand of restrained passion and for the arrangement to rise to the occasion- and then does it ever. The guitar expands with gruff reverb, and Feist starts channeling some serious Dead Weather and together the whole song just seems dauntingly fierce- especially verses it's diminutive origins.

The new Justice album, Audio Video Disco, is finally approaching, and the few brushes we've had with it so far are extremely promising. Their hooks just keep getting better, and so far “Helix” is the best. Aiming to be more arena rock oriented than dance club pop, “Helix” fits the bill, with a highly punctuated and rapid fire guitar hook that's way too much fun. A ghostly echo of a voice that would apparently rather dance than haunt you makes it all the more goofy and delightful. With the song's conclusion, Justice gracefully takes their hook and transitions it from dirty guitar staccato, to exclamatory and dramatic keyboard finale. So much fun!

Songs of The Week: "Honey Bunny" by Girls and "Girl" by Das Racist

You'll have to forgive the corresponding symmetry between these two entries; it was not intentional. I meant to throw up one of these songs last week but a mastery of time and even basic coordination are skills that continue to elude me- so let's do a couple at once. The first track is "Honey Bunny" by Girls, off their new LP Father, Son, Holy Ghost- which some people are just retarded for. I think the album is quite good, if somewhat derivative of Belle and Sebastian, who are in turn occasionally riding the coat tails of The Beatles, who's influence is also quite prevalent throughout the album. "Honey Bunny" seems to stand out as the album's best track, with a tight surfer grunge guitar riff to open things up and singer Christopher Owens proving to be an inescapably endearing and inviting force with his soothingly care free voice. He jumps back and forth from jaded albeit brushed off rejection, to pure adoration. And while the best part of the song is that amazing hook- "They don't like my boney body, they don't like my dirty hair"- I appreciate that he didn't end the song with it. If the romantic side of him didn't overcome the cynic, it wouldn't be the gratifyingly optimistic track that it is.

Next up is "Girl" by Das Racist off their new album, Relax, marking their first release on a record label, Greedhead music in this case. Relax is condescendingly referred to as their first "real" LP, relegating the equally valid offerings Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man to the quasi legitimate status of mix tapes. Just because they made these records themselves without the distributive assets or production capabilities of a record label, they are marginalized as lesser forms of art. Why most sources of music criticism are so complacent in this admittedly mild form of discrimination is unclear. Perhaps not being on a label and not officially releasing their work as an "LP" allowed Das Racist to avoid potential obstacles in the form of royalties due to all the people and intelectual properties they reference; royalties that a label backing them may be willing to pay. That rant aside, I was interested to see how the guerrilla warfare brand of hip hop that Das Racist indulges in would change under the production and scrutiny of an actual label. "Girl" is indeed the most produced and glossy experience on Relax. It has a wonderful if perplexing- considering the group here- spaced out pop melody that would feel more in place in an MGMT song. Das Racist has, if not a striking talent, than at least a persistent habit of creating pretty interesting rhythms, but paying them little or no regard when building lyrics around them. They deviate from this custom, but only at first, surprising many no doubt by actually, you know, singing. Half way through they switch over to not quite rapping, more some sort of spoken word monologue. The beat proves expansive and melodically stimulating enough to support both styles I think. I really enjoyed this singular instance where the Das Racist crew was more interested in using their music as a means to communicate something sincerely, rather than a crude delivery system for their still rather amusing lampooning of obscure and washed up pop culture references. They have the rest of the album for that after all.

Song of the Week: "Baby Missiles" by The War on Drugs

With such a culturally loaded name and obtusely abstract couple of album covers, I felt that I currently lacked the intellectual stamina to tackle The War on Drugs. Imagine my surprise when I finally gave it a go and discovered a much more approachable and nostalgic type of music. Exuding a kind of working class spirit and rustic energy, The War on Drugs is hard not to like. "Baby Missiles", first debuted on his EP Future Weather last year and has been repackaged in his new recent LP, Slave Ambient. This song in particular has very natural, tall tale style of lyricism with a lush celebratory rhythm comprised of equal parts synth and country style rock. Furthermore, holy cow, how much does lead singer Adam Granduciel sound like Bruce Springsteen!! Check it out.

Song of the Week: "Plaything" by Wild Beasts

This uncharacteristically lousy Vancouver weather- did i say uncharacteristic? I meant so goddamn common and frustrating these days I wanna start burning leaves without a permit just to spite that cold bitch mother nature- has put me in a somber mood. My recent summer mix tape seems out of place considering the down pour outside. So I find myself turning to Wild Beasts; Smother, their new album dropped about a month ago, but I afforded it only the briefest attention, as the more sedate and down beat offering from the group didn't seem like appropriate summer listening, but it certainly fits the bill now. Upon further review of Smother, "Plaything" instantly struck me as a standout track. Something about the eerie key boards and slightly bizarre and varied percussion gives me some serious Mike Oldfield vibes. In other words, I highly recommend it. Give it a listen.

Song of the Week: "Sail Away" by The Rapture

One of my most anticipated albums of 2011 has got to be The Rapture's upcoming 3rd LP, The Grace of Your Love. It's been an agonizing 5 years since their last effort, the brilliant but criminally underrated Pieces of the People We Love. As the release date slowly draws near information about the album is starting to trickle out including track lists and producers- Phillipe Zdar, namely. The biggest bombshell however is that the Rapture are back on the DFA; so I'm pretty excited. To get others excited here's a clip of The Rapture performing a track from the new album called "Sail Away". It's not officially released yet as they only occasionally play it at shows so far, so the video quality could be better. But that doesn't stop it from being a damn good song. Hurry up September 6!

Song of the Week: "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead

We all know that Thom Yorke is something of a musical genius, with a talent for intuitive melodic creations and exploratory lyrics. But who knew he could dance? Watching the video for the new single "Lotus Flower" has me wondering if this is a career he overlooked- the guy's got moves. Aside from that, "Lotus Flower", from the surprise release of King of Limbs, is pretty terrific. With what seems like an improvisational mix of blues and dubstep- the beat moves along in a less than linear fashion. Yorke's voice is full of bold ideas that slowly swell from him, but the music doesn't seem to match his words. However the somewhat amorphous and less than fully formed structure of the melody keeps it from being too rigid, so it manages to accompany Yorke's voice quite nicely. It's sort of like a ballad- but only in terms of a post Kid A kind of way. Give it a listen!

Song of the Week: "Chinatown" by Destroyer

What happens when you combine mid 80s cocaine fulled existentialism, early 90s smooth jazz, and modern day production sensibilities? This, apparently. The first track of Destroyer's new album Kaputt, "Chinatown" is relaxing if nothing else. Dan Bejer's voice is a tad aristocratic, but it's complimented nicely by sporadic pop ins from back up vocalist Sibel Thrasher. The various musical elements are pretty disparate, but the jazz stylings act like a molasses, naturally binding everything together. In other words, it works. Give it a listen and keep your eyes peeled for a full album review in the next couple days.

Song of the Week: "The Girl and the Robot" by Robyn

Robyn spent a good chunk of her career with a bad rap from the 90s. But she went dark, retooled, re-armed, and came roaring back; this year alone she's released three LPs. Off of Body Talk Part 1 we have “The Girl and the Robot”. It's a sinister and industrialized kind of pop raucous. It seems lyrically oriented around your standard references of desire and paranoia. However, its layering on top of such a cleverly constructed yet evil in its overtones beat is pretty sharp. What do you think? Is it crap pop poetry or something more jarringly unique?

Song of the Week: "Revival" by Deerhunter

The third track from Deerhunter's new, and absolutely brilliant, LP Halcyon Digest, “Revival” is aptly named. It's a song about not just discovering, but rediscovering the joys and inspiration that comes from making music. It starts off with a sharp, crisp and precise acoustic beat; as if it was designed for a no nonsense sort of efficiency. But as Bradford Cox transitions into the chorus his mood and style transition into something a little more broad and expansive. As he sings he- in a sort of real time way- creates this swelling, cascading sense of realization and epiphany. “Darkness, always... it doesn't make much sense”, he preaches. Its as if he has begun to understand that creation can be a cathartic process, not a dreary and painstaking motion. The way he performs is as if he's not just letting us in on something he recently discovered, but as if he is stumbling upon this enlightenment right along with us. Listen to the way he slows down his pacing just a little bit during the chorus. It's masterful and a big step forward for an artist that has never really been synonymous with any optimistic descriptors.

Song of the Week: "Round and Round" by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Part Animal Collective, part Beck, part 70s New York porno-funk, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are distinct, to say the least. As they continue to garner more and more attention and accolades, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to listen them. To further compound this,, here is a track off their most recent album, Before Today, titled "Round and Round". Starting off with a quirky off beat funk riff, the song seems to wander in and out of, and side to side of a coherent stream; but its a fun stroll. As the lyrics and Pink's vocals seem to become ever more lost and disoriented, he eventually finds his direction; and we are treated to an epic yet strangely soothing and comforting chorus. Give it a listen.

Song of the Week: "Keneda" by Geinoh Yamashirogumi

I recently found an original English dub of the classic film, Akira. Its meticulously detailed, looks absolutely stunning, and is violent as hell. Much of its soundtrack is very dense and obtuse, but the opening track, titled "Keneda" by composer Geinoh Yamashirogumi is brilliant. Give it a listen.

Song of the Week: "Coquete Coquette" by Of Montreal

False Priest, the new album by Of Montreal is out this September. I'm so excited I could punch my own mother in the face. This is the first song off the forthcoming LP, "Coquete Coquette" It seems like a much smoother affair than the more cathartic experience that was Skeletal Lamping. I dig it.

Song of the Week: "VCR" by The XX