Man, do those Chromatics keep whipping out the 'blagueworthy hooks. Everybody loves them, and that's a consensus I can get behind. Atmosphere + keeping it simple = winning nearly every time. This tune takes their night moves into broad daylight and the black eyeliner looks just as stunning.
Seems there's no sunny day that Lou Reed can't cloudy up. The original avatar of rock n' roll damage has been historically hit-or-miss in his post-Velvets work, but oftentimes, his misses are the most entertaining. I'm not sure which category this tune falls in, coming as it does from the self-loathing/alcoholism-fueled phase of his career. Which makes it doubly entertaining.
When the weather suddenly says "summer", music inevitably follows. My mind goes to songs for laying in the grass looking up at the big blue. Here's one from a score that a youngish David Byrne did for Twyla Tharpe's Catherine Wheel dance piece. I have to say, for all of Byrne's tastemakerly stature these days, he really had a groove in that Eno/Remain in Light period that he has never come close to achieving in the decades since. I do applaud his bicycle advocacy however.
Drone-y type music comes in 2 general varieties. There's one kind that makes you keenly aware of the terror of forever, where the sense of endlessness actually creates an unbearable vertigo, and you just desperately want to to believe there's some kind of life outside that frame. And there's the kind that gently helps you disengage from your sense of time, opening your ears to a world of space and all the textural, unhurried pleasures that brings. This tune doesn't conjure either extreme, but it is a nice n' poppy easygoing approximation of the latter. Healthy, jaunty fare for well-functioning transit systems.
When it comes to a tight pop song, it's hard to fret over a lack of originality. There's a place for pioneers and a place for craftsmen, and it's good spend quality time with both. These Danish lads bring a lot of spunk to their '90s orthodoxy. And the singer's barely controlled caterwaul helps me keep in touch my inner angsty teen.
I've got a soft spot for non-dance music made by dance guys. I haven't delved too deep into the dubstep and assorted beat stylings of Zomby, but I am very much into the subdued electronic moods of his Dedication record. Here's some spooky piano ambiance that reminds me of something I might have pecked out myself. Not a bad one for Friday the 13th.
I've come to a decision. Caustic lyrical observations about the stupidity of how we live only work when the music is smooth, and better yet, awfully greasy. If you don't let the snark ride in on buttery chords and tasty leads, you're likely to choke on your own salt. Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout, and these guys are my evidence. This one seems to be a riff on the emptiness of the TV-mediated life, blah blah. Lucky for us, the music is has enough atmosphere to make it seem like an inspired sentiment.
It's a remarkable career that extends from highwire jazz fusion to co-writing most of the Whitney Houston songs you're likely to hear at karaoke bars. I kinda wish I could offer a more badass tune by the guy who replaced Billy Cobham in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but what this one lacks in note density, it makes up for in unabashed 7/8 grooving, with equally unabashed guitar cheddar. It takes about a minute and a half to get going, but after that, it's a festival of heroic/superdorky mirror posturing.
You can't help but admire the winding career of Warren Defever (aka His Name Is Alive), who has followed his muse across all sorts of unpredictable realms, treating some of his best songs as palimpsests.
I admit that the last week away from the 'blague was not the full-on vacation I'd hoped for. Like a phantom limb, I found myself fighting the twitch to share any passing musical thrill. Sometimes you have to enforce your time off, if only to break up your habits. But at the same time, I'm a lot happier serving up the love.
