Four Songs to Listen to Forthwith - 07/11/10

I’ve been a huge Ratatat fan for a long time. Their music is metallic and sweet. It’s like eating a brownie with flecks of iron tossed, you know, for flavor and texture. They released their forth album last month, LP4. It was made around the same time as their previous, LP3. LP3 was alright, as a diehard Ratatat fan I found it easy to like and appreciate, but I could also see the truth in many of the negative reviews. As far as Ratatat goes, it was non experimental and it seemed to lose some originality. Remember, I’m talking about Ratatat so I’m hoping you keep some perspective that this band is in my opinion, an absolute must-hear. LP4 has blown away that previous work and restored my faith in these two musical mad scientists. The entire album pulls the back of your head forward and then pushes it back with the greatest ease. You won’t know what you’re listening to, but you’ll like it. This isn’t musical that you hum to, this is music you absorb. I grabbed “Ratatat – Party with Children” because it’s a great song, simple video, and just had a party on Friday with, you guessed it, lots of kids running around.

Fol Chen are an Indie Pop band from LA. They recently released their second album. Not the stuff I normally listen to, but this song sits really well with me. Fol Chen – Cable TV. I’m not sure how to compartmentalize this song, it’s clearly trying to be pop, low synthetic base, catchy loops and generally simple lyrics. “Won’t you come away with me; The carpet’s filthy but the ice is free” This song excels at shaking off clichés. It’s like someone that hasn’t grown up in the USA is thrust into LA for a week, then this talented foreigner is asked to make their own pop song.

I dwell on contemporary bleeding edge stuff, but I grew up listening to the classic rock of my parents. Most of the arena rock was and is garbage, but along with that are strong genres about art and self expression. Psychedelic, folk, and progressive rock were doing some great things in the late 60s, early 70s. Emerson Lake and Palmer were an English supergroup, they did arena rock right, selling out ridiculously sized concerts and filling the time with beautiful, creative music that pushed rock to new places. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – Lucky Man, it’s a sad song about a rich young man dying in war, a popular topic during 1972. The three sing the chorus with their distinct, eerie harmony. Twelve string acoustic guitars blend into rolling drums and one of the earliest songs with a moog synthesizer. One more quick fun fact, it was written by Greg Lake when he was 12 years old.

Let’s bring it down. Here’s some honest acoustic folk. I was afraid that I couldn’t find a decent link to the song Irving - Crumbling Mountain Tops. Irving has very modest popularity. I really have no idea where I first heard this song, maybe it was off a station on Launchcast or Pandora, maybe it was a Pitchfork review. I don’t know, but it’s simple and beautiful and exquisite. I love that I was the third person to see this video on youtube, not a video, just album art. There’s some artsy fan video, but I’d much rather stare at the cd jacket than whatever that other guy was doing. Where’s all the other uploads?