(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Pigeon, Cheyenne Mize, David Lynch, Speedy Ortiz, & Speed's The Name...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #51!
For those who remain unfamiliar with the Songs Of The Week column, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma has been a devoted fan of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception. Droogsy also owns a laptop, has a copious amount of free time, and is plenty opinionated. Seeing a chance to put him to work while supporting his MP3 indulgence we created Songs Of The Week. 51 weeks later and here we are.
As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast for yourself. It's free and it's fun for the whole family!
To that end, once you're given each song a spin or two feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in our poll to the right side of the page. The artist with the most votes will receive the validation of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the highest honor to which a modern musician can aspire.
So, Droogsy... thoughts?
01. Pigeon - Encounters (from the EP Fortunes)
TCDroogsma:
I knew only one thing about Pigeon before my first spin of "Encounters:" They're Australian. Given the track record of Aussies on the SOTD podcast lately (Standish/Carlyon, Alpine), you can understand my skepticism.
Well, "Encounters" comes on strong with a synth-line that sounds like a bonus game from Donkey Kong Country. From there Pigeon treads a path that's been thoroughly covered by every synth-pop band from every corner of the world in the last 5 years. They craft a nice little lovelorn verse, build to a large-scale lovelorn chorus, add a dash of group shouting, and leave us with a keyboard line to dance to. None of this is to say that "Encounter" is a bad song, but you've heard this song a hundred times before by a hundred different artists except that this one has a saxophone solo.
Final Score: 2.5/5
02. Cheyenne Mize - Whole Heart (from the album Among The Grey)
TCDroogsma:
Cheyenne Mize is yet another player in an Americana revival (of sorts) coming out of Kentucky. Frankly, after hearing a few of these artists (Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore being the others), I'm beginning to wonder if this is less a "revival" and more a tribute. Each of these artists has been described as giving a new take on the genre, but to my untrained ear this all sounds like pretty average folk music.
"Whole Heart" is not without its charms. Mize's voice is rich & pleasant, and she delivers the chorus, "I don't know what I'd doooo..." with palpable longing. Still, if you're not a fan of string-augmented folk music, "Whole Heart" isn't going to change your mind.
Final Score: 2/5
03. David Lynch - Star Dream Girl (from the album The Big Dream)
TCDroogsma:
When I saw David Lynch's name come up in my downloads last week I was filled with a sense of dread. A couple years back I'd made the mistake of getting very excited when I saw that I'd spend the week with his single "Crazy Clown Time." Sadly, that track turned out to be seven and a half melody-free minutes featuring Karen O wailing in the background while David Lynch performed what seemed like a David Lynch parody.
So, with that in mind, my expectations for "Star Dream Girl" were considerably tempered. Fortunately, "Star Dream Girl" shares almost nothing with that hot mess of a track. Lynch stays in his lower register and sounds like he's channeling a rockabilly AM radio station from the 60's. This being Lynch, the lyrics involve an unseen cast of characters "coming from all around, flying down that wide highway" to see the titular girl. With just one verse (which gets repeated) and a chorus implying eternal mystery ("Every night they come to dream of her, star dream girl"), "Star Dream Girl" hits is mark as deftly as "Crazy Clown Time" missed.
Final Score: 3.5/5
04. Speedy Ortiz - Tiger Tank (from the album Major Arcana)
TCDroogsma:
It took exactly three seconds for me to fall in love with "Tiger Tank." At that three second mark we're treated to snarl of guitars that sound like a long lost outtake from In Utero. As somebody who was known to blast that album when he was mad at his parents (I know, I'm a living cliche), I was firmly behind Speedy Ortiz.
Thankfully the band makes good on those first 12 bars. Lead singer Sadie Dupuis tosses off the kind of beautifully indifferent melody that bought mansions for Liz Phair & Stephen Malkmus while the band works up the kind of racket that makes me wonder why anybody on Earth would start a synth-pop group. The band augments a smart-hook with a stop/start formula that implies somebody in the band was a big fan of Bush's "Greedy Fly."
Now, I admit it's not totally fair for me to criticize the "Americana Revival" above when Speedy Ortiz is hardly reinventing the grunge-pop wheel. Had I grown up on Car Wheels On A Gravel Road rather than Razorblade Suitcase I might feel different. However, that wasn't the case and this is my column. You get what you pay for.
Final Score: 4/5
05. Speed's The Name - Circles (from the album No Planets Exist)
TCDroogsma:
Hmmm... a synth-pop band from the Twin Cities. Call me crazy, but I can't help but get the feeling I've done this before.
Sorry, I'd like to tone down the snark, but I've just heard so many of these songs that it's almost unfair to the artists. The indie music world's been saturated with songs like "Circles" in the last year that it's difficult for me to even differentiate which ones are great and which ones are average at this point.
According to their Bandcamp page Speed's the name describes themselves as "progressive indie rock and accessible pop. "Circles" gives the "progressive" label some weight right away as the vocals hit immediately and then unfold a melody throughout the duration of the verse. The lead singer sounds like he's aiming for Dave Gahan or Nick Cave, but he lands a lot closer to Brandon Flowers. He may take that as an insult, but I mean it as a compliment.
It's appropriate that the chorus of "Circles" opens with the line, "No planets exist when you don't believe in circles..." Speed's The Name's pro-circle agenda makes sense considering they're hardly reinventing the synth-pop wheel.
Final Score: 2/5
Well there you have it, folks! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!
As always, please remember that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.
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