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“Treat Me Like Your Mother” |
| The Dead Weather | ||
| Allison Mosshart fiercely sneers, demands and threatens over Jack White’s slick beats and Jack Lawrence’s and Dean Fertita’s prog-punk rock. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“Knotty Pine” | |
| Dirty Projectors & David Byrne | ||
| “Knotty Pine” covered a great deal of time and space in coming together — David Byrne wrote the lyrics in the ’70s and Dave Longstreth placed it to music all these years later. It’s fitting, then, that the song seems separated from time and place. The Projectors’ sprightly voices send the song into blissful territory before the first verse even finishes. | ||
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-Jon Kjarsgaard
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“Lakeside” | |
| BLK JKS | ||
| A frenzy of guitars, restless rhythms, and half-ominous/half-joyful vocals converge and collide, reaching a fever pitch of epic proportions. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“Pa Pa Power” | |
| Dead Man’s Bones | ||
| Skeletal, goth-flavored standout (complete with accompaniment by Silverlake Conservatory Children’s Choir) from the surprisingly adept debut disc by Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Gosling and friend Zach Shields. | ||
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-Jon Kjarsgaard
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“Actor Out of Work” | |
| St. Vincent | ||
| “Actor” begins like the flip of a switch — no preface, no pretense, just Annie Clark’s warm yet detached voice deliberating over jagged, fuzzed out guitar, drums and a delightfully bizarre guitar riff. Then, sudden as it started, the switch is flipped back off, an actor coming back to reality from a monologue, off to another audition. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“Generator ^ Second Floor” | |
| Freelance Whales | ||
| With their self-released debut album Weathervanes, Freelance Whales have splashed on to the scene with a collection of thoughtful and catchy tracks. “Second Floor” has a breezy but intense sound driven by a banjo, bells, and guitar, which gives the track a very organic vibe. And yes, there’s also a first floor — and it’s good. | ||
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-Chad Helminak
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“Strictly Game” | |
| Harlem Shakes | ||
| Apparently Harlem Shakes weren’t as happy together as their music would suggest. The now-defunct band mimics Vampire Weekend’s success with cheeky, happy-go lucky lyrics and bouncy Afro-Caribbean beats. Perhaps this will be a better year for the separated Shakes, but it certainly won’t be for us. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“High Ground” | |
| Orenda Fink | ||
| Orenda Fink gets all placid and pastoral singing to a dude who’s so destructive he’s like a flood, while banjos and Modest Mouse’s Issac Brock are busy in the background. | ||
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-Jon Kjarsgaard
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“Wind Phoenix (Proper Name)” | |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars | ||
| Cobbled together lyrics littered with vague personal references couple well with a rag-tag ensemble of guitars, brass and vibraphone. Cymbals Eat Guitars deftly navigate through the patchwork song, the whole a happy result of junk-pop culture. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“Home” | |
| Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros | ||
| Somewhere there’s somebody singing longingly of a home they’ll never see again, but that isn’t anywhere near Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. “Home” is a victory march to everywhere and, in fact, it is everywhere you are. | ||
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-Andy DeLoach
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“While You Wait for the Others” | |
| Grizzly Bear | ||
| An anxiously restrained and stripped down verse bursts into a palette of gorgeous harmonies on the chorus. Somewhere, Robin Pecknold is green with envy. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“The Sandman, the Brakeman, and Me” | |
| Monsters of Folk | ||
| What is interesting about this supergroup is that each entity is already uniquely identifiable. On first listen, this track could be mistaken as a M. Ward solo effort — but then come those superb backing harmonies supplied by Mr. Oberst and Mr. James (Yames, here) that makes such an enjoyable case for why these Monsters are powerful when united. | ||
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-Andy DeLoach
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“Northern Lights” | |
| Bowerbirds | ||
| Bowerbirds prove here that often the greatest beauty lies in simplicity. The melody is simple, the strum pattern is simple, the lyrics are simple. But it all comes together to become one beautiful, straightforward song that feels like an old familiar blanket on a cold day — inviting, cozy and warm. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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“Fortune” | |
| Little Dragon | ||
| “Fortune” is a shining example of Little Dragon’s signature smooth-but-noddy, sleepy-yet-electric sound. What sets the Sweden band apart is frontwoman Yukimi Nagano’s cooing voice. Spinning wryly-romantic tales over eerie melodies and Fairlight synthesizer washes, she is consistently captivating. | ||
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-Jon Kjarsgaard
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“People Got a Lotta Nerve” | |
| Neko Case | ||
| If there were a contest for best sing-along chorus of the year, Neko Case would win hands down. The alt-country “man eater” chorus here is fiery, playful, and powerful — not surprising from a singer-songwriter who embodies those same qualities. | ||
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-Claire Tiller
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