Chairlift “Polymorphing” (From “Moth”)
Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly’s third album is the best synthesis of their effervescent pop yet. Their music still gets labeled by some as “indie pop”, for reasons that only make sense if you are hung up about enjoying pop music non-ironically (an arcane rockist attitude to, thankfully, more and more people). The album was released on Columbia, utilizes some very 1980’s signifiers (that’s a seriously Quiet Storm-like guitar lick that comes in at the four minute mark), and they collaborated on Beyonce’s “No Angel” in 2013. This is pop music and that’s a beautiful thing.
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Daughter “Doing The Right Thing” (From “Not To Disappear”)
A gorgeously ethereal and emotionally affecting song about Alzheimer’s by this underrated London trio on a record label, 4AD, whose bread and butter has been dark, hazy beauty since 1980. Maybe not the cheeriest of subject matter, but this is one of the most haunting songs I have heard this winter.
PJ Harvey “The Wheel” (From “The Hope Six Demolition Project”)
Let’s be very clear: PJ Harvey is on a very short list of the most important artists of my life and I believe that she has the most immaculate discography of her generation. Her music has made my life much richer and intrinsically influenced, not only my musical tastes, but also the entire way that I view humanity. So, yeah, I’m pretty excited about her forthcoming record, which she recorded as part of a public art installation last year; and the first morsel we have been fed absolutely lives up to my expectations.
Iggy Pop “Gardenia” (From “Post Pop Depression”)
It was a bit of a shocker when it was announced last week that Iggy Pop had recorded a new album with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, but if anyone is capable of bringing out the best in Pop, it’s Homme, and the first single, “Gardenia”, sounds very much like classic “Lust for Life”/”The Idiot”-era Iggy. David Bowie and Lou Reed are gone, but we are lucky that we still have Iggy Pop from that lecherous triumvirate. That he is still capable of work this strong is a bonus.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed “Not a Daughter” (From “Arc”)
A bit of a departure from Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s grindcore past, but they more than pull it off. This is the first in a planned series of EP’s which will each explore one band member’s musical influences, and on the first, vocalist Katherine Katz (one of extreme music’s most invaluable voices) screams through the pain of dealing with her late mother’s schizophrenia over a bed of Scott Hull’s (most notably of the cataclysmically fantastic Pig Destroyer) monstrous Eyehategod-indebted sludge riffage.
Spotify Playlist: Timely Tunes, Vol. 11
Tracklist:
- Goody Goody “It Looks Like Love” (From “Goody Goody”)
- Talking Heads “Slippery People” (From “Speaking in Tongues”
- Chairlift “Polymorphing” (From “Moth”)
- The Gap Band “Yearning For Your Love” (From “The Gap Band III”)
- The xx “Angels (Four Tet Remix)” (Single)
- Daughter “Doing The Right Thing” (From “Not To Disappear”)
- Tori Amos “Father Lucifer” (From “Boys For Pele”)
- PJ Harvey “The Wheel” (From “The Hope Six Demolition Project”)
- Primal Scream “Movin’ On Up” (From “Screamadelica”)
- Iggy Pop “Gardenia” (From “Post Pop Depression”)
- Richard Hell & The Voidoids “Betrayal Takes Two” (From “Blank Generation”)
- Black Sabbath “A National Acrobat” (From “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”)
- Agoraphobic Nosebleed “Not a Daughter” (From “Arc”)
- Eyehategod “Take As Needed For Pain” (From “Take As Needed For Pain”)
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