Despair

SONG OF THE WEEK #38: DESPAIR by YEAH YEAH YEAHS

This week I’ve been all about Despair, but don’t worry, I’m fine. Even the song – my favourite of lots of great tracks on Yeah Yeah Yeah‘s upcoming album Mosquito – isn’t actually too much of a downer at all. As Karen O says in this Youtube stream of the album in full interspersed with snippets of interviews about each track:

I think with a lot of the songs on this record too it’s like you know if you read the titles you know you might think like oh man this is dark and stuff like that but there’s like so much like joy and like kind of just like yeah like fun and um this is kind of what we did to like to cheer us up.

By its end, it gets a bit sentimental, but it’s a nice antidote, maybe, to the terror that’s gripped the Western World this week after the Boston Marathon bombings and the ensuing cacophony of mass hysteria.

My sun is your sun
Their sun is our sun

Even nicer than the album track, I think, is this acoustic version. Despair? Don’t.

Some sun has gotta rise.

 

 
 
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A New Life

SONG OF THE WEEK #37: A NEW LIFE by JIM JAMES

I’m travelling at the moment, checking out what a new life might look like.

I want a new life

And, quite coincidentally, this is my favourite song off Jim James‘ impressive solo debut Regions of Light and Sound of God. Reminds me, for some reason, of The Magic Numbers, back when they were good. Which could lead me to suggest something about appreciating the parts of the past that were good, even if they didn’t lead you where you wanted to go, but I fear I’m already forcing things here…

I think I’m really being sincere Continue reading →

Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe

SONG OF THE WEEK #36: BITCH, DON’T KILL MY VIBE, by KENDRICK LAMAR

This all happened last year, but Kendrick Lamar‘s album good kid, m.A.A.d city is one (along with Dirty Projectors and Swans) I discovered on various End of Year lists for 2012, and have been going back to since January. It’s great stuff altogether.

I think the song is addressed to hangers on, not a love interest, but if you like you can also sing the chorus to your girlfriend, ex-girlfriends, mother, whatever, if you want to:

I can feel your energy from two planets away
I got my drink, I got my music,
I will share it
but today, I’m yelling:
Bitch don’t kill my vibe

Continue reading →

Push the Sky Away

SONGS OF THE WEEK #33, #34 & #35: JUBILEE STREET, HIGGS BOSON BLUES and PUSH THE SKY AWAY, by NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

So, I’ve been neglecting my Song of the Week lately, not to mention this blog generally. I’ve been busy with one thing and a few others, preoccupied, I’m sorry, I haven’t forgotten what this used to mean to me, it’s not over.

But during the past few weeks I’ve been listening heavily to Nick Cave‘s new album Push the Sky Away, his first with the Bad Seeds since 2008, his best album in many years, and the best new album by anybody I’ve heard in many many months.

So it’s a good opportunity, here, to splurge.

Look at me, I’m flying, Look at me now

Jubilee Street takes a while to get going, but once it does you realise, in your exultation, that everything that came before now makes sense. All the best things in life are like that. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in Higgs Boson Blues – but it involves Hannah Montana and some incredible drumming, and Push the Sky Away is Cave at his quietest, simplest, best.

Some people say it’s just rock ‘n’ roll
Oh, but it gets you right down to your soul

True that.

 
 
 
 
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The Seer Returns

SONG OF THE WEEK #32: THE SEER RETURNS, by SWANS

The Hats Off Song of the Week has not been a very poppy place this past while, but Spring is coming.

For now, though, let’s enjoy the winter while it lasts.

He’s a greasy beast, heaving in a field of sticky black mud

Swans’ 12th album The Seer is almost two hours long, and I recommend you give the whole thing a chance (I imagine it might be best enjoyed while emerging from a snake venom-induced coma) – this song, The Seer Returns, sounds best emerging from the thirty-two minutes of randomness of the previous track, but I think it works pretty well on its own too.

Put your light in my mouth

 
 
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In Another Way

SONG OF THE WEEK #31: IN ANOTHER WAY, by MY BLOODY VALENTINE

… done in much the same way – My Bloody Valentine are back, after 22 years, with another album that sounds a lot like the last one, that is taking me a while to get into, and which, so far at least, I am liking more and more with each listen…

 

 
Pop out the playlist on your right (or down below, for the smartphone viewers) for uninterrupted listening.