(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
CocoRosie, Tricky, The Love Language, SOKO, & Food Pyramid...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to the 50th installment of Songs Of The Week!
For those of you who remain unfamiliar with the SOTW column, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma has been a devoted follower of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception back in January of 2007. He's also quite opinionated, owns a laptop computer, and has ample free time. Seeing an opportunity to indulge his MP3 addiction & put him to work we created this Songs Of The Week column. Fifty weeks later and he's showing no signs of slowing down.
As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free and it's fun for the whole family!
To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two please take a moment and cast a vote for your favorite Song Of The Day in our poll at the right hand side of the page. The artist with the most votes and the end of the week wins the validation that comes with winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the greatest height to which a modern musician can aspire.
So, Droogsy... thoughts?
01. CocoRosie (w/Antony Hegarty) - Tears For Animals (from the album Tales Of A Grass Window)
TCDroogsma:
CocoRosie are several years into their career now and I still have no clue what to make of them. On paper, I should vehemently dislike this band. The back story of creating the band in a Paris bathroom, the needlessly graphic lyrics, their affiliation with "freak folk..." All of it should add up to "terrible."
And yet, every song I hear from them contains something intriguing. With "Tears For Animals," that something comes in the form of the Antony Hegarty coming on like indie rock's Akon to deliver a hook that keeps the song from going to far down the rabbit hole. Hegarty's voice cuts through the needlessly quirky vocals of the Casady sister like a siren and the group is smart to lean on him for the song's appeal.
Again, I've never been a particularly big fan of CocoRosie, but with a savvy bit of outsourcing they've turned "Tears For Animals" from just another CocoRosie song to something that's surprisingly enjoyable.
Final Score: 2.5/5
02. Tricky - Nothing's Changed (from the album False Idols)
TCDroogsma:
Growing up a 120 Minutes fan in the 90's, I'm somewhat familiar with Tricky's early work. The dark textures, the trip-hop emptiness, the nearly overwhelming British-ness of his work are all lodged firmly in my brain somewhere.
On the other hand, growing up a punk rock fan in the 90's, I would be lying if I said I was jumping on that bandwagon. To put it plainly, I didn't keep up with the work Tricky was doing between Maxinquaye and now. That's why it was quite refreshing the first time I played "Nothing's Changed," literally, it's as if nothing changed.
"Nothing's Changed" skips along on the same mix of shuffling percussion, dramatic strings, and half-afraid vocals (courtesy of Francesca Belmonte) that I expected when I saw Tricky's name turn up in the list of songs for this week. "Nothing's Changed" retains that tough-to-nail down British-ness that kept Tricky in my brain all these years while still somehow sounding just a bit ahead of our times. It's possible that we're just never going to catch up to Tricky.
Final Score: 3.5/5
03. The Love Language - Calm Down (from the album Ruby Red)
TCDroogsma:
The Love Language is a scrappy-poppy band out of North Carolina signed to Merge Records. Just giving "Calm Down" one spin and it's pretty clear that lead singer/songwriter Stuart McLamb grew up listening to Merge Records head man Mac McCaughan's scrappy-poppy band (and American treasure) Superchunk.
"Calm Down" is a strange, snotty beast. I've been listening to it for a whole week and I can't figure out if it's a pop song being sung by a guy who doesn't want to be singing a pop song or a punk song that's been fleshed out and dressed up. The crystal clear pop of the instruments meshes well with the the shouted, victim-blaming refrain of "You won't let me calm down!" which, despite sounding a bit "this is everybody's fault but mine!" actually makes for a strangely empowering line, especially in the final third of the song when McLamb is so not-calm that only a tangle of guitar can adequately prove his point.
Final Score: 3/5
04. SOKO - First Love Never Die (form the album I Thought I Was An Alien)
TCDroogsma:
The first time I listened to "First Love Never Die" I spent 60 seconds becoming vaguely enthralled. The song has a weird, almost reggae-ish vibe to it for that first minute. The guitar work is pleasant, the organ warming, and the drums sound like their being played from under a comforter on a sofa. As someone prone to romanticizing seemingly trivial things, SOKO's cooing, "I feel like walking, do you feel like coming?" was an invite that couldn't refuse.
Over the course of that first verse, which covers the subsequent walk and conversation, it's clear that SOKO is speaking with the the titular "first love" for the first time in a while. She delivers the lines "Now your hair is long, and you look so thin... you're always so pale, but something has changed, you're almost a man..." with an amount of warmth & surprise that's almost unfair.
Now, not only do I romanticize the trivial, but at any point during the day it's a safe bet that I'm drowning in nostalgia. Those first 60 seconds were more than enough for me to love "First Love Never Die," but the 61st second treats us to a time-change sent from god above. The drums skip a beat like they're mimicking SOKO's pulse as she lays her feelings bare, "Four years and I still cry sometimes... first love never die.." It's a moment both thrilling and soul-crushing. SOKO goes on to craft a lovely portrait of two conversing and though we never hear her former love's side of the conversation, the song ends with the appearance of horns like the embrace from a "former" love who will never truly live up to that adjective.
Final Score: 4/5
05. Food Pyramid - Dexedream (from the album Ecstasy & Refreshment)
TCDroogsma:
I was genuinely thrilled when I saw that I was going to get to review a new Food Pyramid song in SOTW #50. As you've probably noticed, I reference them in nearly every time I review an instrumental track. I'm no superfan or anything like that, but their crisp, clean drum loops and mostly-bare adornment held a real appeal to me as I was starting to move away from my indie rock- & hip-hop-centric taste.
"Dexedream," then, is the natural progression of that style and frankly I'm not totally convinced this is a good thing. Sure, the song still rides some consistently looping drums to great effect, but the drums have been pushed a bit further into the background rather than being one of the major players. "Dexedream" finds its mood in the form of some muzzled guitar work and vocal line that sounds like a ghost haunting the apartment next door.
In keeping with their previous work, the song pushes past the six minute mark. The difference between "Dexedream" and what I was expecting is that it doesn't really add up to much. All the sounds you're going to hear in the song have turned up by the 2:00 mark and they never create any tension by dropping out or reappearing. The Food Pyramid that I knew before had a vaguely minimalist bent. "Dexedream" is more like a collage. Again, it's the next logical step for the group, but it just doesn't cut very deep.
Final Score: 2.5/5
Well there you have it, folks! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!
As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.
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