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Soundtracked: Music, News, and More Week of May 28

Before writing this week’s round-up I was wondering if I may have made too bold of a statement last week when I said that Radical Dads’ Rapid Reality was going to be my favorite album of the month of May. Turns out I was still right, though here are a few that put up a good fight.

Listen:

After years and years of being gone, The Pastels are finally back. What is it about Scottish bands that just makes the word “dreamy” pop out when describing their music? With Slow Summits the Pastels definitely have a discerning dreamlike quality about them, especially on “Night Time Made Us,” an ode for young love (what else). Other album standouts are “Slow Summits” and “Come to the Dance.”


This week I found myself listening to the first half of Laura Marling’s Once I Was An Eagle at least four times because the first three or four tracks bleed into each other so perfectly. Once I Was An Eagle is definitely not an album to use as background music for anything, though the simple-seeming production misleads you into thinking that. Laura Marling’s perfect lyricism, which I was introduced to by 2011’s I Speak Because I Can, is even stronger here. “I Was An Eagle” is my favorite, as she almost snarkily tells the story of breaking hearts and having her heart broken all at once, which really just sums up the whole record. Definitely check out this album.

Massive Attack’s Tricky released yet another solo album this week. Opening track “Somebody’s Sins” is Tricky’s take on Patti Smith’s version of “Gloria.” It is amazing because Patti Smith singing, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” is already a great opening line, and Tricky warps it and makes it something a little creepier and menacing. Creepy and menacing are two ways to describe False Idol. But my favorite parts in the album are the vacant ones, where the lack of sound is forcing you to find something to listen to. On the other hand, “Nothing Matters” has a catchy enough chorus and a dance-worthy backbeat. “Parenthesis” is a slight reworking of The Antlers track of the same name, but Tricky’s magic does the same here it did for Patti Smith, and I’m not going to complain. Welcome to the dark side.

Watch:

TEEN have a video out for “Carolina” — that freak out at the three minute mark is perfect.

Read:

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Dixie Chicks, and that soft spot turned into love way back in 2003 when Maines declared onstage in London, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.” Awesome. Rolling Stone interviews Natalie on The Incident and talks about her new album Mother.

Feel better Lou Reed!

YEEZUS 6/18. Praise the ‘Ye.

yeezus

 

Random Nostalgia:



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