2013: The Anglo Mix
And since this Blog is nothing if not multilingual (or at least suffers from a multiple personality disorder), here is part two of this Blog's 8-track mix retrospective of 2013...
Cosines - "Hey Sailor Boy!" (Single)
A stomping Northern Soul piano intro, great chord progression, lush strings, fantastic tongue-in-cheek lyrics and just a hint of irony in singer/songwriter Alice Hubley's voice. The finest 3'36" of poptastic pleasure as was released last year - if there was any justice in the world this would have been a hit.
Arctic Monkeys - "I wanna be yours" (From the album "AM")
It would be so easy to have picked out the thumping "Do I Wanna Know?", but this is by a country-mile the album's stand-out track. Taking the lyrics and title from John Cooper Clarke's poem and adding a beautiful crafted sympathetic score, Alex Turner creates a beautiful, obsessive, slow-burner of a love song.
Veronica Falls - "Teenage" (From the album "Waiting for Something to Happen")
Pure nirvana! Jangling guitars, thumping percussion, spotless vocal harmonies from leads Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare, all married to an infectiously danceable tune make this an absolutely perfect slice of indie-pop from one of the best-purveyors of the art form around.
Groenland - "Criminals" (From the album "The Chase")
They're from Montreal, French is their first language - yet Groenland have crafted a raft of stunningly refreshing songs that put many native-English speaking bands to shame. "Criminals" is at a face value a simple tune, yet contains the most incredibly orchestral and majestic middle-eight - all piano, soaring strings, majestic double bass - all complimented by Sabrina Halde's ice-water clear vocals. Classy...
London Grammar - "Nightcall" (From the album "If You Wait")
Taking Kavinsky's robotic "metal disco" electro-house anthem, the band stripped this song back to basics - adding only a sparse, minimalist backing of piano and guitar to marry with Hannah Reid's haunting and operatic vocals. But then as the song builds to a climax, so the original's beat is pulled to the fore... However, London Grammar's version is not so much a cover as a stunning re-invention.
Courtney Barnett - "Avant gardener" (From the album "The Double EP: A Sea of Split Pea")
In which Antipodean poet Courtney relates - in her unique, deadpan-matter-of-fact, way the hazards of anaphylactic shock while gardening. If the delicious wordplay wasn't enough (there's a vividly versed parallel to the scene in "Pulp Fiction" where Uma Thurman gets an adrenaline shot straight in her heart), the added musical texture - all Lo-Fi reverbed guitar - immediately grabs...
Sisu - "Counting stars" (From the album "Blood Tears")
It's hard to put your finger on the one thing that makes this song so mesmorising... The combination of chiming bells giving way to eighties-influenced industrial synths, monotonic drums, Sandra Vu's sinister yet spellbinding vocals... expertly woven together to create a dark, brooding ethereal twilight soundtrack which helps define this stunning debut album...
Lorde - "Tennis court" (From the album "Pure Heroine")
I chose this song off of the album because you want the opening track to make a statement. "Tennis Court" hits you with a cool icy-blast of freshness and originality... sparse electronic beats, a catchy chorus, amazing hooks; then add Lorde's warming, mature-beyond-her-years vocals and tinged-with-cynicism lyrics. If only all pop songs were as fresh and expertly crafted as this.
Frankie Rose - "You for me" (From the album "Herein Wild")
Again. Opening track. Statement. As "You for me" fires up - hard-driven, staccato garage-band guitar - your mind is cast back to Rose's earlier incarnation in Brooklyn's Vivian Girls... And then Frankie's lush vocals kick-in, the harshness of the guitar subsides, replaced by a symphony of lilting guitar-lead indie pop, keyboards and over-dubbed vocals, creating an incredibly rich and warming sound.
Palma Violets - "Best friend" (From the album "180")
Garage-band guitar riffs, swirling psychedelic keyboards, vocals that are as much shouted as sung, and as raucous and boozy chorus as you'll hear this side of a Pogue's gig - all captured on record as the band are live - loud, anarchic and most definitely in-your-face. Best played loud!
Laura Veirs - "America" (From the album "Warp and Weft")
It would have been so easy to have picked "Sun Song" but "America" is just such a brilliantly conceived song; a sprawling, rambling, heartfelt rally against the prevalence and acceptance of gun culture here. Beautiful steel guitars and swirling keyboards paint a picture of serene tranquility as Laura's plaintive vocals jar and implore, "How can it be so cold in America? Everybody is packing heat in America..." A song with a social conscience...
Chvrches - "The mother we share" (From the album "The Bones of What You Believe")
From an album choc-full of expertly produced songs, "The mother we share" comes at you with layer upon layer of eighties-influenced synth-pop, pulsating rhythms, memorable hooks and Laura Mayberry's crystalline vocals centre-stage. The bitterness of the lyrics ultimately give this song a playful Gothic edginess.
Best Coast - "Who have I become?" (From the album "Fade Away")
You know this is a great Best Coast song. All those tell-tale signs are there - Bobb Bruno's trademark Lo-Fi fuzzed-up guitar and Bethany Cosentino's west-coast vocals - however there's a darker sound and a new found maturity, confidence and sophistication unheard on either of their previous releases.
Blog Bonus (not available in stores!)
So theoretically, one of the huge advantages of 8-tracks is that it allows you to add not only your own purchased tracks but also tracks from your SoundCloud Library, thus overcoming regional DRM restrictions (and hence Mr Spotify, why I still only have a freebie account) - except when it doesn't...Dum Dum Girls - "Lost boys and girls club" (From the album "Too True")
Not actually released as a physical single, but available to stream - via just about everywhere really (except 8-tracks, apparently) - since the back end of last year. A teaser for the band's eagerly awaited album "Too True", I featured the video in a post last year. Featuring jangly guitars and a riff to die for, pulsating drums, a truly expansive and rich sound... all topped off with Dee Dee Penny sounding incredibly assured and confident... How could this song not feature?
...Besides my Blog, my rules!
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