Cloud Nothings - “I'm Not Part of Me”

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Cloud Nothings - “I'm Not Part of Me”. Number 89

Its fine. Vocals are a little bit receptive, but the song pulls it off better than most. Its branded as indie rock, but the sensibility seems quite poppy to me. There really isn’t anything wrong with this song, but life is short and there are other similar songs in this space that are just better. If somewhat upbeat poppy nominally indie rock songs about relationships are what you go for then check this out. - Edit Rereading this, it seems a little harsh to me. I'm still not saying its great, but it really isn't bad

Hundred Waters - “Murmurs”

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Hundred Waters - “Murmurs”. Number 91

On the plus side I like the singers voice and the music / sound is interesting. On the down side the song initially starts off with very repetitive vocals. This may be for a legitimate effect, but its still repetitive.

The song gets a lot more interesting by the mid to later half of the song and incorporates a lot of cool ambient sounds to good effect on top of the core music which is also cool. Unfortunately, the song is sort of a downer, so while its good I don’t know if I would put it on a playlist that I planned on listening to often. My life would need to get a lot worse before this song really hit the spot.

I'll probably check out the full album since vocals and sounds are both very nice and I could potentially find some songs with a different tone.

Protomartyr - Scum, Rise!

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Protomartyr - “Scum, Rise!”. Number 90

I am surprised how much I like this song even though I don’t think I would listen to it regularly. It’s built on a simple but catchy repeating core that combines a propulsive driving sound with a dark and eerie feel. Very minor key sounding. Not sure where I would place this song, it has a lot of punk elements, but there’s definitely something very metal in its musical sound. The song is pretty kinetic and if you have it playing in the background it’s pretty easy to find yourself unconsciously bobbing your head to it. Odds are good that I’ll eventually give the full album a listen.

NPR’s “All Songs Considered” Considered

As a new weekly Friday feature (which may wind up being neither weekly nor limited to Fridays) I’m going to listen to an episode of NPR’s All Songs Considered and then recommend a song from the episode. In some cases it may be the best song (or at least the song I like most) in other cases it may just be a weird or interesting song that someone might not otherwise encounter.

I think I will usually just link to the episode and then post a video of the song. Today though I’m going to go a bit off script and plug the episode itself as well as picking song from it. The episode “This guy probably recorded a song you love” interviews John Congleton who has worked with Angel Olsen, St. Vincent, Earl Sweatshirt, David Byrne, Lower Dens, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Bill Callahan, The Mountain Goats, Modest Mouse, The New Pornographers, Swans, and more as producer / recording engineer. The episode plays a bunch of songs that inspired him as well as several songs he worked on. The interview is interesting and there are a lot of good songs that get played. This is worth listening to in its entirety. Download the podcast and listen on a run or listen to it in the background on your commute or at work.

Since I’m plugging the cast in its entirety, rather than picking the “best” song, which you would hear anyway (and may have heard before), I going to go with a particularly fun and unexpected song that I haven’t thought of in years. The song is Grim Grinning Ghosts from the soundtrack to Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. It’s actually a pretty cool song with some funky chords going on, neat vocal harmonies, and it features the voice of Thurl Ravenscroft who played the Grinch.

As a practical note, I have a lot of back episodes to get through, so I may wind up either doing this twice a week, or listening to some episodes where I don’t pick anything until I get caught up with the current episode.

A missed opportunity

I should have put up an April Fools review yesterday.

iLoveMakonnen - I Don't Sell Molly No More

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up iLoveMakonnen “I Don't Sell Molly No More”. Number 92

This is surprisingly bland. It doesn’t do anything interesting musically or lyrically. I’m kind of perplexed as to how this made it to a top 100 list. There are many songs that I hear, and I don’t like, but I still know why someone would like them, that there are things the song objectively does well even if they are not the things that appeal to me. Here, I just can’t find anything the song does particularly well. It’s not musically interesting. The lyrics are dull and repetitive. The guy doesn’t seem to have great delivery or great “flow”. The song isn’t built on great beats. Maybe he knows somebody…

DJ Quik - Pet Semetary

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up DJ Quik "Pet Semetary". Number 96

Its lyrics are needlessly violent, homophobic, somewhat misogynistic, and serve to memetically entrench and perpetuate all manner of social ills. That said, for a song with those characteristics, I think this is better than average. The musical part of the song is quite good and has a smooth slow retro feel while still being kinda catchy. The lyrics are, at times, clever.