Stream of M83's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"

I found this link while cruising through the blogosphere and upon first listen I love this album. I wouldn't say I like all the songs individually, but it seems, as is characteristic of Anthony Gonzalez (M83) that the album is more of a project than a collection of songs. His project is to use his expansive sound and despite the title of his LP, make the sound less ethereal (though it is ethereal on some parts, especially at the book ends of the album) and instead create a play on pop-sensibilities, ranging from 80s new wave, to bubblegum shoegaze, to proto-house electronica. And even more so, Gonzalez has risen to involve vocals that are melodic and gracious, defining the tracks more so than his beat work (which I still give a thumbs up). In fact, I would say the songs that don't have a melodic vocal are the ones I like the least (though I must admit I am partial to vocals over instrumentation in general) mainly due to the centrality that these vocals give to his characteristically expansive sound.

More succinctly, this album is awesome. While it is experimental and finely crafted anglicized French-electronica at its best, I love it because it feels like super hero music. I've played the stream a couple times thus far, and it has functioned well as study music, but I have a nagging suspicion that it is save-the-world-because-by-listening-to-this-you-feel-awesome music.


Here's the stream, from Amazon France:
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/entity/M83/B000APTB8M?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1317985230&sr=1-1&ie=UTF8&tag=alternaive-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1642&creative=19458

and here is a link to one of my favorites "Steve McQueen" (the song title speaking for the feel of the whole album):
http://www.juzp.net/SMaaLXEF7oqvz

Little Dragon-Ritual Union (Tensnake Remix)

I have sorta this thing with Swedes, where I essentially classify everything they make as awesome like: Ikea, H&M, Swedish Fish, Lykke Li, Miike Snow. And this song by Little Dragon, remixed by Tensnake, only confirms this love. The beat is sick, the vocals are rich, and the lyrics are haunting; sounds like a win-win to me.

Frank Ocean-"Swim Good"

I recently have been complaining that R&B has been slacking for a long time. While acts like The Weeknd and The-Dream have made breakthroughs through their experimentation with alternative music forms (which validates the post-modernist theory that musical genres are ceasing to exist), I still crave for the good old days of soul, or even the not too distant days of sleek hip-hop beats with soulful vocals over it. Frank Ocean has been surprising me over time, especially since he is associated with Odd Future, a hip-hop collective that is strongly into clashing with and breaking musical barriers. Ocean's "Novacane" was sing-songy but also very non-traditional in its drug references, tongue-in-cheek, and felt Kid Cudi-like (whom I love) and very Odd Future.

Then I heard this:




If genres really are melting away, it is nice to hear Frank Ocean remind us of the vocal stylings and sleek-but-resilient instrumentation that R&B used to, and could still have.

Come As You Are

I heard this song the other day and I stopped whatever the hell I was doing and said "My God."

Recently I had been thinking about how my appreciation of Nirvana increased after  I began to appreciate how Kurt Cobain combined gritty lyrics with a strong pop sensibility (with his insistence on melody driving all his songs) and flattening each song with his powerful growl (which often hid the fact that he had great range and vocal sensibility).

Now replace the growl with a soft saccharine voice, the rumbling bass and simplistic pounding drum with an (awesome) electropop beat and slowed down interpretation of the melody, and you get this beautiful song, which not only says a lot about Yuna as an artist but speaks to the power of Cobain as a songwriter and vocalist.


And when you hear this saccharine voice singing "No I don't have a gun," something inside you freezes.

Come As You Are

I heard this song the other day and I stopped whatever the hell I was doing and said "My God."

Recently I had been thinking about how my appreciation of Nirvana increased after  I began to appreciate how Kurt Cobain combined gritty lyrics with a strong pop sensibility (with his insistence on melody driving all his songs) and flattening each song with his powerful growl (which often hid the fact that he had great range and vocal sensibility).

Now replace the growl with a soft saccharine voice, the rumbling bass and simplistic pounding drum with an (awesome) electropop beat and slowed down interpretation of the melody, and you get this beautiful song, which not only says a lot about Yuna as an artist but speaks to the power of Cobain as a songwriter and vocalist.


And when you hear this saccharine voice singing "No I don't have a gun," something inside you freezes.

Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

I'm still grieving the death of Amy Winehouse. I was shaken to the core when I heard the news last Saturday.

I first heard her voice around Christmas time 2006 when I heard "You Know I'm No Good" and I thought, "wow pretty cool." But no hook. Then later the following summer, when most of America did, with "Rehab" on constant rotation on the radio. Still no hook.

Then, the next summer, I heard my friend's Frank CD, and the intro track "Stronger than Me" had me instantly hooked.

Her emotional rawness, her wit, her vocal strength and breathtaking vocal arrangement had me in her grips. I was obsessed since.

That summer, I downloaded (almost) everything Winehouse, and by far "You Sent Me Flying" was my favorite.

It spoke to the fragility of both unrequited love and youth in a way that no one had ever really dealt with. When I think about it, beyond her amazing voice, what I loved was her songwriting talent. Principally, I loved that she decided to write songs in a way that no one else really wrote. Her instrumentation breezed along as her perfectly poetic lyrics about imperfection and observation drove her songs. Finding out later that she mainly wrote the words and vocal arrangements and was assisted with the hip-hop and later soul-based beats, reinforced the fact that Amy's voice (both vocally and lyrically) was the highlight of every song.

Many of her devoted fans believe that her Frank LP was better than her more popular Back to Black LP. And to some degree, I agree with that opinion. I didn't really appreciate Amy until after hearing most of Frank. It may be because Frank relied on a more raw sentiment, with songs like "Fuck Me Pumps" running the show, and gritty hip-hop beats (like using the instrumentation in "Made You Look") cementing this feeling. With Back to Black, Amy was geared towards a more polished, old-time path.

In an interview she stated that she loved the drama of 60s motown. In Back to Black she used the motown model not just in instrumentation and vocal arrangement, but also, in a way, her lyrics. Her songs more succinctly employed her characteristic wit and fragility into a melodic pop-based manner. While palpably less raw in form, in content Amy still shined through with songs like "Just Friends"-

Overall, its hard to say I have a favorite Amy song, and if I could, I would post every song I knew to remember her. In fact, to even attempt to tribute her, in a blog post, or any other means, is quite difficult. But that proves a testament to her and the pricelessness of her work in her short period of time.

Ever since I heard "Stronger than Me" I wanted her to be well, I wanted her to put out more work and I wanted to see her live one day. But for the past few years that never happened, and each headline about her seemed more helpless than the last. I know that many people will remember her for her public fall. But for me, I always have and always will remember her for the joy her music gave me. And I guess death for her, while it may not make her more famous or make her songs sound different, will provide her the peace she looked for in her life.

Many people have commented on the "27" club of incredibly talented musicians who died (under presumably the same circumstances as her, via drugs) at the age of 27, including Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. It now includes her.

M.I.A. posted a song on SoundCloud called "27" the day after Amy's passing.

On twitter, she wrote: "i recorded this song b4 vickileekx but never put it out. its an unfinished demo...R.I.P.A.M.Y" (To date, I think it is one of M.I.A.'s best songs). And where words fail to properly pay tribute, I think such a beautiful song pays homage to a beautiful voice.

27 by _M_I_A_

No One's Gonna Love You...

No One's Gonna Love You-Cee-Lo Green

I've loved Cee-Lo pre-"Fuck You" and even pre-Gnarls Barkley. He had me at his first single "Closet Freak." Last fall I downloaded The Lady Killer LP and to be honest was not super enthused with it upon first (or second listen). But as time goes on and songs have played on my shuffle, more and more I fall in love with the artistry behind the songs (even if the lyrics aren't as tastey as his prior two solo LPs or Gnarls Barkley LPs). And "No One's Gonna Love You" becomes more of a standout. On a summer afternoon drive, the crispy feel of the production, the faded melodic vocals, the strength of his longer notes grouped with his already rich voice create this audibly tangible feel of the fragility of him singing this song. If I were a song, I'd hope to be this, cracked and beautiful. The antithesis on the emphasis of production being slickly polished.