chvrches

My Top 10 Songs of June 2013

I can’t believe 2013 is half done. The first half of the year has been so good for music, if I had to cull everything together to make a top 100 list right now, I’d have trouble doing so. I have no earthly idea what I’m going to do come year’s end. I’ll worry about that later though. Here are the songs I listened to/liked most in June:

10. Chvrches – Gun

Maybe it doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of “Lies”, “The Mother We Share”, “Recover”, and “Now Is Not The Time”, but the more I listen to “Gun”, the more I dig it. I really like the way Chvrches employ a double chorus/hook-hook song structure on many of their tracks. “Gun” is a shot of pure pleasure. Chvrches are on bloody fire. And apropos of nothing, Lauren Mayberry is adorable.

 

9. The Besnard Lakes – People of the Sticks

This is The Besnard Lakes at their badassest (say that 10 times quickly). The song is transfixing. The video is highly unusual. I’m down with all of it.

 

8. Phosphorescent – Muchacho’s Tune

This is gorgeous music. Melodic and melancholic with a sliver of sunlight in the dark, distant sky.

 

7. New Politics – Harlem

This song is a mischievous, cockroachian pest. Once it builds a home in your brain, good luck getting rid of it.

 

6. Preatures – Is This How You Feel?

This song reminds me of about 472 other songs. It has the soul of an old rock/blues song, yet somehow, it sounds unwaveringly fresh. I call that magic.

 

5. The Belle Game – River

That voice. My oh my, that voice.

 

4. Cold War Kids – Loner Phase/Lost That Easy

I love “Loner Phase” and “Lost That Easy” equally. They’re two of the several phenomenal songs from what I think is Cold War Kids’ most consistent album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. The media linked below is one of the coolest lyric videos I’ve seen yet. Cold War Kids just keep getting better.

 

3. Paramore – Still Into You

Paramore’s latest (eponymous) LP is, quite frankly, a revelation. I had no idea Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Jeremy Davis had this in them. They tackle seemingly every subgenre of pop/alt, and they do it with such ease and vigour. The album is a confluence of many factors that (luckily) clicked at the same time. I’m not sure they’ll ever top it, but I’ mustn’t dwell on such things. I’m just going to continue to enjoy the hell out of a gobsmackingly good record. “Still Into You”, the second single from the album, is a downright juggernaut. This is takeover music.

 

2. Robin Thicke f. Pharrell and T.I. – Blurred Lines

I liked “Blurred Lines” at first, but I don’t think it really hit me until I was bludgeoned over the head with it — that’ll happen when a song is played on every format in existence on a loop for months. If there can be such a thing, it was an enjoyable bludgeoning. “Blurred Lines” is, by light years, Robin Thicke’s best song ever. In fact, I would argue he never even had a good song until he made this. I also believe that Pharrell is probably the sole reason why this song is so catchy, such is his power/ability. Alan’s kid has a great talent at nicking stuff from Justin Timberlake, and a good voice, but considering how many albums he’s released with nary a song worth remembering, I’d say he’s extremely lucky Pharrell decided to let him sing on this behemoth of a beat. But I digress. The song is a bloody monster, and it may or may not (read: may) have been made even more seductive by the unrated version of the video (google that ish and you’ll see why).

 

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair

A couple weeks ago, I watched the video for Yeah Yeah Yeah’s new single, “Despair”, and I was overcome with emotion. Here’s how I described it at the time…

Honesty: I heard YYY’s “Despair” today, and I shed tears. I love music so much because occasionally, overpowering moments like that happen. Music is the art form that marinates my heart, beckons for it, keeps it tender, nurtures it. And in turn, my heart beats for it. As for YYY’s “Despair” itself, it couldn’t espouse a feeling further from its title. It’s the power of 1000 suns. It’s brighter. It’s a revelation. The video only heightens the feeling. The ebullient faces of Karen O & drummer Brian Chase make my soul stir, my pores goosebump, me live.

I still feel that way and I don’t think it’ll change any time soon. Music The All-Powerful.

My Top 15 Songs of March 2013

March was absolutely loaded with fantastic music releases. So good, in fact, that I’ve had to expand this list’s belt buckle to accommodate the supersonic songs that were dropped in March. Here are my favourite songs of March, 2013…

Honourable mention:

Little Daylight  – Overdose

Phosphorescent – Song For Zula

Phoenix – Entertainment

Wildlife – Dangerous Times

Atlas Genius – If So

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilege

Young Galaxy – Fall For You

Pickwick Hotel – Hacienda

Puscifer – Breathe

How To Destroy Angels – Too Late, All Gone/How Long

List:

15. Kisses – The Hardest Part

Fresh, summery, potent.

 

14. Plumb – Say Your Name

Pure pop and pure exultation to the altar of melody.

 

13. Alabama Shakes – Always Alright

A really, really, really good tune on record. Live, as seen/heard below, it jumps up several levels; a hypnotizing beast.

 

12. Emeli Sande – Next To Me

I’m extremely late to this party. I don’t care. “Next To Me” is a wonderful pop tune, lyrically, musically, vocally.

 

11. Purity Ring – Grammy

A Soulja Boy cover. And it’s bloody brilliant. Better than the original.

 

10. The Postal Service – A Tattered Line Of String

Welcome back boys. An elevating, elastic earworm.

 

9. Youth Lagoon – Mute

A slow-motion merry-go-round of a song. It’s 6 minutes, but when I listen to it, I feel like I’m lost in it for hours.

 

8. Wavves – Demon To Lean On

Wavves are back with hooks piled sky high. Outlandishly catchy. They’re on to something big here.

 

7. Surfer Blood – Demon Dance

I dedicated March to demons and loved every second of it. Hot seat, cool breeze.

 

6. Daft Punk – The Robot Makes It Get Funky

In a month of supernova releases, it took Daft Punk all of 15 seconds to find themselves (high up) on this list. 15 seconds. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the Teachers. Imagine if it were a full track? The robot makes it get funky — always.

 

5. We Are Wolves – Sun

Out of nowhere. “Sun” doesn’t sound like anything else, and that’s only part of what makes it so incredible. Hooks so plentiful you’d think it was Marc Jacobs’ closet. I hope this song finds the ears it deserves — it’s incredible.

 

4. Chvrches – Now Is Not The Time

One after another after another after another. Hit after hit after hit after hit. Yawn. Chvrches are doing pop like no one else, and they’re also doing it better than anyone else. Pop saves lives when it’s this good, it’s just so elusive to get to this point. What Chvrches have done thus far in their short but incredible career is not music-by-numbers, but music-by-magic, the hardest trick in the book to pull off. I’m flabbergasted, amazed, and preaching, part of the choir, already and vehemently, loyal to my Chvrch.

 

3. The Dream – Slow It Down

The Dream is an uber-successful producer. He’s written hits for so many. He smartly saved this massive hit for himself. The whole song is one entire hook. It’s hard for a song to get more pleasant to the ears, but when he says, “enough with the muthaf***ing dance songs, you gotta slow it down,” he’s criminal, vicious. Fabolous is also fantastic on his guest verse.

 

2. Biffy Clyro – The Thaw/Biblical

What a statement. I’d quite liked “Many of Horror” and “Bubbles” from Biffy Clyro’s last album, Only Revolutions, but hadn’t known much else from their catalogue. Things have changed. Their new (double) album, Opposites, has forced itself upon me with such relentless vigour. Biffy Clyro are a special band, and they’re going for the title belt with this record. The album is so good I could isolate at least 10 tracks worthy of praise, but I’ve listed the two that I’ve listened to most. “Biblical” is a fantastic single, and will play as part of encores in huge arenas. “The Thaw” is just as good, endlessly catchy and emotionally resonant. Scotland is on fire.

 

1. Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

The one song that stands above the rest on The 20/20 Experience. “Mirrors” is an aural epic, and it gets better with every listen. It’s the only outright “hit” on the album. It’s too bad that’s the case, but as a standalone track, it’s one of the best JT’s ever done.