scotland

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.

My Top 10 Songs of February 2013

Here are the songs (mostly new, a couple from a while back) that I’ve been listening to most this February…

Just missed the cut:

Bastille – Requiem for Blue Jeans

Tegan and Sara – I Was A Fool

Clubfeet – Everything You Wanted

Frightened Rabbit – Nitrous Gas

Wave Machines – Ill Fit

The Top Ten:

10. Torres – Honey

A relatively sparse production, “Honey” hits where it hurts, right in the gut.

9. Feathers – Land Of The Innocent

Fantastic new pop song. Slightly dark, mysterious, and full of hooks.

8. Mother Mother – Bit By Bit

Just as strong as “Let’s Fall In Love”. These Canadian alt-pop-rockers have made a supremely gitchy tune in “Bit By Bit”.

7. The Neighbourhood – A Little Death

Really cool, sultry video accompanies this dynamite alt-pop offering.

6. The Lone Bellow – Bleeding Out

I wish there were a studio version of this tune available on Youtube to showcase how bright and compelling this sing-a-long stomper is. As it stands, this live version does just fine. Brooklyn’s answer to Mumford and Sons and Of Monsters and Men.

5. The Joy Formidable – The Leopard And The Lung

Epic. Monstrous. Gargantuan. “The Leopard And The Lung” is probably the best song on TJF’s new album Wolf’s Law. Its soft moments are sublime and its hard ones thrash through walls like Juggernaut’s metallic egg head.

4. Foals – Inhaler/My Number

“Inhaler” finds Foals rocking out more than they probably ever have — and they sound bloody fantastic doing it. For the life of me, I can’t let “My Number” go. It’s an entire song made up of hooks. Two sensational songs.

3. The Knife – Pass This On/A Lung/You Make Me Like Charity

In anticipation of The Knife’s new album (their first in seven years), I’ve been listening to their older stuff. “A Lung”, from their debut album, The Knife, is probably the most menacing song on the LP, a haunting harbinger of things to come on Silent Shout, and it’s incomprehensibly good. “You Make Me Like Charity” and “Pass This On” are both from The Knife’s second album, “Deep Cuts”. The former is an insane, tax-paying obsessed love letter that’s bathed in innumerable hooks. The latter is possibly the catchiest song The Knife have ever done (“Heartbeats” included — it’s close, who the hell knows). I’ve been obsessed with the video (link below) because it features the King and Queen themselves, Olof being the initial victim/dancer who falls prey to the siren’s song, and Karin, whose stoic gaze appears a few times in the video, most notably at the end in the final shot. I’m pretty sure Olof and Karin are the baddest people on the planet. No biggie.

2. Coheed and Cambria – The Hard Sell/Dark Side Of Me

This is alt-rock, and it’s funking fantastic. For me, Coheed and Cambria have never sounded this urgent, and they haven’t had songs as good as these since “A Favor House Atlantic”. “The Hard Sell” is ferocious yet innately catchy. A tough job, but one they pull off with ease. “The Dark Side Of Me” is slightly less ferocious, but more hopeless, more barren, more affecting. So surprised at the quality of these two songs; Coheed and Cambria have made a statement.

1. Chvrches – Recover

It took a few listens. At first, I thought Chvrches new song, “Recover”, was really good but not quite on par with “Lies” or “The Mother We Share”, two already indomitable tunes. Then around the 4th or 5th listen, it hit me, “Recover” is just as brilliant. It’s a soaring, synth-driven song soaking in melody, hooks and electronic mastery, all while sounding undeniably human, irrefutably warm. Then there’s Lauren Mayberry’s vocals. Pristine, piercing, and potent, they soar above the song and prop it up at the same time. I’m absolutely floored at how good the first 3 releases have been from the Glaswegians. It’s a hit or miss game to try to predict if a band is going to break or not, but I really feel that Chvrches will bust through in a huge way. There’s not better pop being made on planet earth right now. This sound will find ears. It’s already found mine and they can’t let it go.