(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Best Coast, Naughty Boy, RJD2, Deltron 3030, & No Bird Sing...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #66!
For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story: TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. They're also both opinionated and have access to computers. Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column. Over a year later later and here we are.
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, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page. The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.
As per tradition TCDroogsma and MinneSarah have not read each other's reviews prior to posting
So... Droogsy, Sarah... thoughts?
01. Best Coast - Lonely Morning (from the EP Fade Away)
TCDroogsma:
I've never liked Best Coast. Their songs are inoffensively bland, but the indie media's insistence that I give a shit about this woman & her cat was just too much. That was two or three years ago. Here we have "This Lonely Morning," a by-the-numbers pop-rock number that sounds as if Rivers Cuomo decided he had enough material for Raditude and sold this one off to the highest bidder. While there's no inherent sin in regurgitating old ideas, there's nothing interesting about it either.
MinneSarah:
About ten years ago, Greg Behrendt changed the course of psychology forever by unequivocally proclaiming, "He's not that into you." Since then, I have had a harder time discerning the nuances of relationships in song lyrics - let's not look desperate, he's probably not interested. But...sometimes timing just doesn't work out and this song has convinced me to go against popular belief and think, "It's going to get better - it's just an off morning!"
I'm torn - while this West Coast surf revival is starting to wear on me, I have to recognize that Best Coast were the ones that brought it into mainstream indie. This song is polished, focused, and spot on to the genre (with a hint of shoegaze). Bethany's vocals are direct and full, and the rest of the song is tight and to the point. If, like me, you are having to pare down your indie beach rock collection, this is one not to cut.
Final Score - TCDroogsma: 1.5/5
MinneSarah: 3/5
02. Naughty Boy (w/Sam Smith) - La La La (from the album Hotel Cabana)
TCDroogsma:
As I see it, there's two interesting sides to "La La La."
First, the musical side. Naughty Boy and Sam Smith are completely and unapologetically aiming for the Top 40. "La La La" is packed to the gills with gender indifferent lyrics casting the widest net possible. The hook is aimed straight for the pleasure center of the brain while the sampled, skewed "La la la's..." aim for the part of the brain that makes you think you have "interesting" taste in music.
Which brings me to the second side: Presentation. This song was conceived solely to end up on the KDWB's of the world and move units. Now, make no mistake, KDWB is awesome. I would rather listen to Trey Songz than Tom Waits every day forever. But the fact that this song is on The Current speaks to that station's infatuation with packaging, presentation, & pointless contrarianism. With the words "Naughty Boy & Sam Smith" atop a smarty retro-designed "LP" (re: Soundcloud avatar), The Current eats it up. If it turned out "Naughty Boy" was actually will.i.am and those skewed samples were Fergie the "tastemakers" at The Current wouldn't give it another spin.
MinneSarah:
Oh wow. This collaboration between British DJ Naughty Boy and up and coming soul revival vocalist Sam Smith, is unexpected on t\The Current - while I copped to not actually listening to the Current anymore on last week's reviews - has it come to this?
Let me back up by saying I love British music, I love anything with an electronic drive to it, Eurotrash is one of my favorite cultural exports, and I just went to Sneaky Pete's in the Warehouse District this week, finally finding out what that Robin Thicke character is all about. So my surprise is not inherently a bad sign. The lyrics are about tuning out anything you don't want to hear - la la la. This song gives credibility to ostrich avoidance techniques. As a person who deletes at least one contact from my phone per week, I'm totally on board.
Final Score - TCDroogsma: 3/5
MinneSarah: 3/5
03. RJD2 - Her Majesty's Socialist Request (from th album More Is Than Isn't)
TCDroogsma:
I can't help but feel for RJD2. Back in the early 2000's, when he was making killer beats for the finally-making-their-mark indie rap world everybody thought he was the future of hip-hop. However, part of what made that early work so great was that RJD2 was clearly following his own muse. When that muse led him to get behind the microphone and morph into the singer/songwriter/producer for The Third Hand, he was basically left behind by those early fans.
I thought The Third Hand was an interesting record, but it's nearly impossible to compare to RJ's early work. Unfortuanately, "Her Majesty's Socialist Request" continues his half-hearted attempt to win back his old fans without necessarily jamming himself into the old "hip-hop producer" box. While that strategy has worked well before (See: 2011's "The Glow"), this one's lacking. It has an RJ-by-numbers feel to it that seems like it will elicit little more than a "meh..." from both sides of his fanbase.
MinneSarah:
Instrumental songs can drag on, though "Her Majesty's Socialist Request," keeps interest by drifting through and building on disparate genres to create a song that flows and works. Handclaps are the main percussion through this song - and it vacillates from the bravado of the streets of big city America to a mellow dissonant Middle Eastern vibe. There are no lyrics, but a sample of a man saying - "Buy," "Sell," "Soul" with the sound of a bomb exploding does drive the song's title home without much room for interpretation. The song leaves on a sample that sounds like a seventies TV show, but it works the nostalgia end and makes sense as a closer.
Final Score - TCDroogsma: 2.5/5
MinneSarah: 3.5/5
04. Deltron 3030 (w/Zack De La Rocha) - Melding Of The Minds (from the album Event 2)
TCDroogsma:
Fun fact: Since the release of Deltron 3030 back in 2001 Del hasn't stopped being awesome. Actually, he was pretty awesome before that album finally launched him up the hip-hop ladder. Unfortunately for Del, a lot of those new fans he found with the first Deltron album had no interest in following along once "Deltron" stopped rapping about the future and returned to being Del The Funky Homosapien and all the Bay Area rapping that came with it.
I suppose I can't blame Del for returning to the Deltron format. It's his most recognizable (and most profitable name) and there's no sense just letting it stay on the shelf. On "Melding Of The Minds" he teams up with Zack de la Rocha, another man who knows a thing or two about how fans fall along when groups breakup (I know people who still make me listen to "Killing In The Name." I don't know anybody who owns a One Day As A Lion record). On "Melding Of The Minds" Deltron takes de la Rocha's hook and spins it into part of his narrative about a war in the future. Somehow this all makes sense.
MinneSarah:
It's 2013, and hip-hop supergroups are a thing. While I reached the pinnacle of my approval with this genre in 2002 with Gorillaz, Deltron 3030 is carrying the torch in a way that doesn't even make me feel that old.
"Melding of the Minds" features guest vocals by Zach de la Rocha, so you know the bent of the song is at least slightly political. Del's rhymes are clean and sound effortless - he fits a remarkable amount of lyrics into 4 minutes. Kid Koala's beats sound increasingly urgent, which builds the song up into an almost exhausting fervor. However, for a song featuring heavyweight musicians with unquestionable talent and passion, "Melding of the Minds," still has enough sense of play and whimsy for it to be both serious and enjoyable.
Final Score - TCDroogsma: 3.5/5
MinneSarah: 3/5
05. No Bird Sing (w/Molly Dean) - And War (from the album Definition Sickness)
TCDroogsma:
I'm still not certain what to make of the direction No Bird Sing has taken with "And War" (and the other tracks on Definition Sickness).
Up until this album No Bird Sing operated as a sort of art-rap Kill The Vultures. Where Crescent Moon rapped about his own demons over sparse, kitchen sink beats, Joe Horton & No Bird Sing took a more "poetic' approach. The instrumentation was sparse, but rather than the rough sounds of KTV, they leaned heavily on live, jazz-like instrumentation. Horton's lyrics are certainly cryptic, but unlike the world-weary Crescent Moon, Horton sported a young man's anger and optimism at the world around him. The main similarity between both artists was that their voices were definitely the most important instrument in their toolbox.
"And War" takes No Bird Sing in a different direction. The jazz-leaning tendencies have been replaced by synth-lines and massive drums, leaving the beat sounding like Ryan Olson remixing Peter Gabriel. The problem with such a lush & consuming beat is that it leaves Horton's voice one of many moving parts. Oddly, this takes away from the lyrics of the song. I may not have been able to make out what he was driving at on old NBS songs, but when that voice is upfront & passionate it's easy to find yourself spending time trying to unravel the string. "And War" never demands your attention in the same way, content to let you bask in the sound rather than the lyrics.
MinneSarah:
"And War" is a downbeat song, weaving ethereal backing vocals and heavy drum beats with serious lyrics. No Bird Sing has a poetic approach to songwriting, meaning the lyrics can be up for interpretation. The lyrics are passionately delivered and dark, though not always totally coherent, they still make the point. Molly Dean's bittersweet vocals add to the sense of hope in a dark world vibe that this song has going. While I haven't listened to much downbeat hip-hop in recent years, it sounds as though No Bird Sing has a firm hold on the genre, and rather than causing the listener to feel hopeless, "And War" embraces the darker side of the coin without going over the edge.
Final Score - TCDroogsma: 3/5
MinneSarah: 3/5
Well there you have it, MP3 junkies! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & 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 bit too much time on our hands.
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