california

My Top 20 Songs of May 2013

10 songs? No chance. 15? Way too tough on my psyche. I recently broke up with my lightning insurance provider (he wanted to be more — including coverage for thunder, limb loss from trampolining, and rashes stemming from excessive koala cuddling —  I thought we were good as is), so my mental stability is currently a tad tenuous. Any other traumas and I’d be off a bridge. To make sure that doesn’t go down, I had to expand this list to 20 songs. Really, I’d no choice. May left me no options. May right be done by this list. May was the best month of music I’d experienced in as long as I can remember. Maybe, definitely.

May

So much awesome tuneage. So little 31 days. Here’s what I listened to/loved the most…

20. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula/Muchacho’s Tune

“Song For Zula” is still in my brain. I can’t shake it. I have a feeling I won’t be able to for quite some time. “Muchacho’s Tune” is similarly beautiful. Phosphorescent are legit.

19. The Belle Game – River/Wait Up For You

A pair of pretty, catchy tracks from two Chicago siblings.

18. Isle of Rhodes – Shoulders/So In Love

Brooklyn never sleeps.

17. Churchill – Change

The chorus is a beast of a sing-a-long.

16. Rilo Kiley – Runnin’ Around

I can always count on Jenny Lewis and company.

15. Daft Punk – Giorgio by Moroder

Bad. Ass. Everything about it.

 

14. London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years

My god this song is exquisite.

 

13. Lilly Wood and The Prick – Where I Want To Be (California)

Ever wonder what Lady Gaga would sound like if she sung Indie/Alternative/Pop? Play the track.

 

12. Charli XCX – You (Ha Ha Ha)

Really good use of fantastic source material, even if the sentiment has been bastardized.

 

11. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

Love the lyrical double entendre. Love the track. Vampire Weekend are as big as they should be.

 

10. Valleys – Hounds/See The Moon

Montreal, raise your head up out of the (electro, pulsating, ominous) shadows. Valleys, you’ve crafted a marvellous debut. These two songs are exhibits A and B. Impressive stuff.

 

9. Slowriter – Silver Spaceships/April 8

Weird. Wacky. Wonderful. I hope Bryan Taylor and this band get the recognition they deserve for Trailblazer.

 

8. Frank Turner – Recovery

A little Noel Gallagher. A little Streets. A little Ed Sheeran. A lot of fantastic. This is a hit.

 

7. Paramore – Hate To See Your Heart Break/Last Hope

Frankly, I didn’t know they were capable of songs like these. “Misery Business” and “That’s What You Get” were and remain sensational emo/pop/alt songs. But I can’t suggest for a second that I thought they had something like “Hate To See Your Heart Break” in them. It’s pretty, demure, vulnerable, honest. Emotionally bare. It could be the best song they’ve ever done. “Last Hope” is also a beast of a song. Hayley Williams and Paramore have jumped up about 63 levels with their latest, eponymous album. I’m taken aback. Wow.

 

6. Mariah Carey f. Miguel – #Beautiful

Too bad the video sucks, because this is the best song Mariah’s done since “We Belong Together”. And what can be said of Miguel? His vocal is outstanding. He never drops the ball. He kicks ass. I’ll stick my neck out and hope not to get hurt by the assertions.

 

5. Cold War Kids – Bitter Poem/Bottled Affection

Simply put, “Bitter Poem” gives me chills. It did after the first listen. It did after 5. After 10. It still does. I think it might always. I’d be okay with that. “Bottled Affection” tells my ears that Cold War Kids can mold song form into whatever they want. Dear Miss Lonelyhearts is the most consistent — and best, front to back — album CWK’s have ever done.

 

4. Ambassadors – Unconsolable

Don’t recall how I found this track. Boy I’m glad I did. It’s frickin’ awesome. If you like AWOLNATION, this track is for you.

 

3. Biffy Clyro – Folding Stars

“Folding Stars” is from 2007, but I’ve only recently discovered it. I think I spent a solid 88 hours in May (shy guesstimate) singing “Eleanorrrrrrrr, Eleanorrr” at all levels of inappropriateness. 360p for life.

 

2. Best Coast – Fear Of My Identity

Can. Not. Stop. Singing/Humming/Blasting/Tapping Feet To/Robbing Banks To. This.

 

1. Haerts – Wings

Hailing from Germany, England, and the U.S., Haerts bring together all manner of influences/eras on this absolutely soaring track. It sounds like 1983. The video looks like it was shot then too (I’ve linked the original video they released several months ago. They’ve a newer one, in 1080p, on Vevo, but there’s something about the former that’s more charming). But Hearts are tricksters. That melody — my god, that melody — is timeless. Nini Fabi’s vocals (with a seasoning of Susanna Hoffs peppered in here and there) are beyond ethereal, majestic — they’re abracadabra magic.

I don’t exactly know why I think of Chvrches when I hear Haerts, but I do. They don’t really sound like each other, and it’s clear their influences lie in different areas. It’s just that Chvrches have released about 4 perfect (I really mean perfect) pop songs this year, the kind that a band is lucky to have one of in their careers, and I thought they’d remain peerless in that regard for ages. I didn’t think anything or anyone could touch them. I was wrong. They have a friend now to play with high atop Mt. Poplympus. The St. Lucia (of course, it all makes sense) produced “Wings” is nostalgia, recollection, fondness, anchored in its multiple pounding, blood-driving, healthy, huge haerts.

My Top 10 Songs of April 2013

March was such a good month for music it couldn’t help but bleed into April. I took my time getting to know March songs, taking them out for coffee, flirting with them, skirting the line of appropriateness between a guy and his songs, and before I knew it, the end of April had arrived and burst our little love bubble (April’s a killjoy, no wonder there’s always so much rain). As such, my list of the Top 10 Songs of April is heavily indebted to March, with a few new releases peppered in for flavour.

I also found myself listening to a few older songs — a lot. To shine a light on these tremendous older/oldish songs that captured my ears and attention so, I’ve made a mini list (directly below), and followed that with my favourite newer/newish songs.

Silversun Pickups – The Pit

The only song I found to be immediately and eminently gratifying on SP’s latest, Neck Of The Woods, was “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)”. It took months over months to finally click to the pretty awesome, brooding, and electronic-tinged “The Pit”. Better late than never.

 

Thee More Shallows – Oh Yes, Another Mother

From 2007, it’s still the number one song on Saturn’s Titan. Criminally overlooked here on Earth. A crying shame.

 

Pat Benatar -We Belong

Sing it Pat. Still sounds great almost 30 years later.

 

Green Day – Redundant

In my top 3 Green Day songs of all-time. Quite possibly the most vulnerable Billy-Joe’s ever sounded lyrically. Replete with an awesome, mind-funking video, featured below.

 

Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror

I’m convinced this is one of the best songs of the past five years. I’ve recently discovered that Biffy Clyro have a jaw-droppingly good back catalogue. Still, “Many of Horror” is their crowning achievement, and I bet it always will be. That riff. My god. (Check out the unbelievable live performance of the song below.)

 

Top 10 newish:

10. Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s catchy as hell. Good lead single in an ultra-competitive environment.

 

9. The Knife – Raging Lung

I’m still developing my thoughts on the incredible, difficult, political, dense, off-putting, personal, beautiful new Knife album, Shaking The Habitual. What I do know though, is that in such a (fracking) fluid environment, “Raging Lung” weighs the whole experience up (gravity does not apply in The Knife’s world) like an anchor. It’s a masterpiece, sure, but it’s also much, much more. I’m just not sure what else to call it. Exactly how The Knife want it.

 

8. How To Destroy Angels – How Long?

My favourite tune on Trent’s latest effort. I like it more every time I hear it. Mr. Reznor has a preternatural ability with synthetic sound.

 

7. We Are Wolves  – Sun

So flipping catchy. The explosion at the end seals it for me. I can say without pause this is and will be one of the best songs released in 2013.

 

6. Surfer Blood – Demon Dance

The guitar work. The melody. Sen-bloody-sational. I can’t seem to get enough of this song. Like its cousin (in name and vibe) below, it’s been on repeat for weeks and weeks.

 

5. Wavves – Demon To Lean On

Wavves have made a splash before, but they’ve never released a tsunami like the one they roll in on here. The guitar riff. The playful vocals. The sound of summer, and the sound of not giving a shit that it’s summer. The live version, featured below, from Letterman, is also a fantastic experience.

 

4. Psy – Gentleman

I wondered how in the world he’d follow up his ubiquitous, galactic smash. The answer is relatively simple: with something even bigger. “Gentleman” is so catchy he’s already blown way past any reasonable categorization as a one-hit wonder. He’s at two mammoth tunes and counting. And he looks like he couldn’t be having more fun doing it.

 

3. Muse – Panic Station

“Panic Station” is several months old now, but I’ve fallen so deeply for it only recently. I’d liked it before. Now I love it. Maybe it’s that it sounds nothing like anything else on The 2nd Law, or any other Muse song for that matter. Maybe it’s the unmistakable 80’s gitch. Maybe it’s the pomposity. Maybe it’s the guitar riff. Maybe it’s Bellamy. (It’s always Bellamy.) The whole proposition just got a shit-tonne more weird by the release of the absurd, hideous, car-crash-like, balls to the wall video, featured below.

 

2. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula

I would issue strong odds that “Song For Zula” will end up the most beautiful song released in 2013. Or maybe any year. I have such a voracious appetite for, and commit the time that I do to, finding new music because once in a while — once in a blue moon — something like this finds my ears. Simple, haunting, wondrous aural magic.

 

1. Daft Punk – Get Lucky

It was never going to be anything else. The kings are back — finally. And to boot, “Get Lucky” is unquestionably their catchiest/best song in over 12 years. The wait was unbearable. The joy is immeasurable.