Distant Sun - Brooke Fraser.
Sundays call for some easy listening and there can’t be any easier than the She Will Have Her Way compilation. Female vocalists covering the songs of the Finn brothers. Which is a pretty comfortable match - hat’s off to whoever had the idea.
Contributed by @GarethRosslee.
Nancy From Now On - Father John Misty.
Father John Misty is Joshua Tillman, the drummer from Fleet Foxes who recently parted ways to focus on this solo project. It’s not often that drummers manage to sustain a solo career, but this is a good start. It’s like a woozy affair between the vocals of the great John Grant, and the sound of disco-tinged 70’s “soft” rock. But don’t let that last bit put you off….
Contributed by @djbadly.
Man Made Machine (feat. Martin L. Gore) - Motor.
Electronic duo Motor have always made really interesting, if not always obviously accessible industrial dance music. Their fourth album shows that, by recruiting vocalists from the upper echelons of synthpop, they can also craft a killer pop song.
Man Made Machine features Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore delivering a quite sweaty, rather obsessive, very pervy vocal over some nasty synths. The effect is aggressive, horny, catchy, and relentless. Justin didn’t know what he was talking about: this is dirty pop.
Contributed by @orchidhunter.
Love is Blindness (U2 cover) - Jack White.
Last year, Q Magazine marked the 20th anniversary of U2’s landmark “Achtung Baby” LP by commissioning several of the world’s most successful and respected recording artists (Patti Smith, Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, Depeche Mode to name just a few) to each cover one of the album’s tracks for the publication’s December cover-mounted CD. Jack White chose “Love is Blindness” and subsequently delivered a mighty, howlin’ blues-rock monster that might very well be even better than the real thing.
Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann recently used the track to stunning effect in the mightily impressive trailer for his highly anticipated film adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” (which racked up over 3 million views on Youtube in under 5 days). “Love is Blindness” was also used as a b-side to White’s recent single “Sixteen Saltines” (vinyl artwork pictured above).
Watch U2 performing the track live in 1993 here. In my humble opinion, Jack’s vocals trumps Bono’s hands down, but The Edge’s guitar solo, my God, it’s a thing of immense beauty.
Contributed by @lancedaniels.
Dream Of You - Matthew van der Want.
Only Matthew van der Want, one of SA’s relatively unsung talents, could rhyme “garden cottage” with “Shostakovich”. His first album, 1996’s Turn On You, is one of the great SA singer/songwriter albums, poignant, poetic and well-nigh perfect. His collaborations with (ex-Urban Creep) Chris Letcher are great too, especially the whimsically named EP Tombi (1992) and Bignity (2002). And now after a long hiatus, the man is back, with some fabulous songs. He’s also speaking with Letcher at my SLOWlistening evening in Sandton, June 19, so if you’re a fan of Noonday Tune, tweet me and I’ll invite you. This song is from Outstanding, released a few weeks ago.
Contributed by @chrisroper.
New Town - Life Without Buildings.
Life Without Buildings were a quartet of non-hit wonders, a band of Glasgow art school grads, who recorded one album in 2001 and then faded into the ether.
But the album remains, a mini-masterpiece of propulsive, snap-tight guitar rock, overlaid with the mesmerising mumblings and squawlings of Sue Tompkins, a singer who sure as hell knows her Patti Smith. See, even art school grads are good for something.
Contributed by @gussilber.
She Said - Plan B.
In 2010, hoodie-clad rapper Plan B (Benjamin Ballance-Drew) decided to turn in a soul album. And unlike other genre-hopping artists, The Defamation of Strickland Banks managed to rise into the top 10 in the British charts, much to the chagrin of critics.
The Defamation tells the story of a soul singer who is wrongly convicted of a crime and is sent to prison. There are gaping holes in the plot (thanks to the studio not allowing Plan B to make this into a two-disc album) and the end of the album ends abruptly (rather like a Danny Boyle film) without us ever discovering what exactly Strickland Banks is wrongly convicted of, why everyone in prison seems to want him dead, or if he ever gets out again. But Plan B’s honey-like falsetto more than makes up for the album’s shortcomings, not to mention that this is a damn good album.
Also, The Defamation is one of the more credible concept album produced in the last few years.
Contributed by ComradeSipho.
Treat Her Like A Lady - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose.
Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose was a family soul singing group who had two hit singles in the early seventies, one of which was Treat Her Like A Lady (it sold over a million copies when it was released in 1971). Unfortunately their fame was brief, but this song is still highly danceable.
Contributed by @miss_moss.
Hang Loose - Alabama Shakes.
I read a favorable review about these guys in Monocle last month, and then subsequently forgot about them until a pair of Twitter mates saw them open for Jack White at The Ryman last week. This is Mr. White’s first solo tour, kicking off at this most most historic music venue in Nashville, and he chose a pretty special band for occasion.
Brittany Howard heads up this four-piece band from Athens, Alabama (hence the name). “Boys & Girls”, their fantastic first album, was released just over a month ago and boasts not a single dud track. If you’re into music from Jack White, The Black Keys and Okkervil River, then you’ve got a new band to listen to.
Contributed by @rowaneva.
Moving Pictures, Silent Films - Great Lake Swimmers.
Moody patchy beard - check. Remote recording location - check (abandoned grain silo). Affected French pronunciation of band name - cross (as you see it). Two first names - cross (Tony Dekker). Haunting voice - check. Multiple dubbings and backing vocals for own voice - cross. Worth a listen despite not being as cool as fuck - check.
Contributed by @GarethRosslee.
Winter Rose (Nicolas Jaar Mix) - The Bees.
Nicolas Jaar is an artist who has cast a spell over me over the last year. He makes magic moody Deep House beats with a classical ambience and a free jazz mentality. Pitchfork loves him - which means he’s about the only Deep House artist who the bearded folk of Hipsterville are allowed to like. His breakthrough album “Space is Only Noise” has all the arty gravitas of his NYC forefather, pioneering experimental house cellist, Arthur Russell. His recent BBC Essential mix is a fascinating listen. It goes from Jay-Z to Keith Jarrett (!) over a challenging – but rewarding – two hours. The Twin Peaks intro is the best thing I’ve heard in a while. I’ve decided to post Mr. Jaar’s remix for the ever-reliable Bees, as it’s the first track of his I ever heard…
Contributed by @djbadly.
Blank Maps - Cold Specks.
Cold Specks is a goddamned believer. And now so am I. She’s too good, too raw, not to be huge very soon. Under the moniker Cold Specks, Al Spx crafts earnest songs that offer achingly beautiful gospel-folk and southern gothic soundscapes. An old soul with a knack for lush arrangements and a powerful voice, her debut album I Predict A Graceful Expulsion is out now on Mute Records.
Contributed by @orchidhunter.
Wild - Beach House.
Dreamy, tender, immersive, otherworldly. These were the first words that popped into my head when I was recently asked to describe what Beach House sounds like. “Cool. Where should I start? Can you send me a link?” Well, if you visit this website *scribble, scribble* on Tuesday, just after 12pm…
Contributed by @lancedaniels.
The Group Who Couldn’t Stay - Grandaddy.
So my laptop, two iPods and backup music drive got stolen couple days ago, with all my music. I only have one cd in my office, and it’s Grandaddy’s Sumday. But there’s a song on it that I really love, “The Group who couldn’t Say”, which is about the futility of working until you drop, and of holding on to material possessions.
“And at the desktop there’s crying sounds/For all the projects due/And no one else is around/And the sprinklers that come on at 3am/Sound like crowds of people asking/’Are you happy what you’re doing?’
“Becky wondered why/She’d never noticed dragonflies/Her drag and click had never yielded/Anything as perfect as a dragonfly/And then the supervisor stood/Right in the creek and it felt really good/And that’s about the time he finally realised the importance of this day.”
Contributed by @chrisroper
One Drop - Public Image Ltd.
Thirty-five years ago, the voice came out of nowhere, scabrous, abrasive, sneering at God to Save the Queen. Somebody up there must have been listening, because Her Majesty, in her diamond jubilee, is alive and well, and so, God help us, is Johnny Rotten.
The Sex Pistol who grew up to be John Lydon is back at the helm of Public Image Ltd., the post-Punk project that proved his prowess at appropriating musical styles and producing a dark and dissonant brand of rock that manages to danceable in spite of itself.
Lydon has become a figure of fun over the years, a transatlantic C-grade reality TV celeb, but here he goes straight back to his roots with a muscular declaration: “I am John, and I was born in London! I am no vulture, and this is my culture!”
Over a clatter of percussion and a jangle of guitars that brings his Punk contemporaries, The Clash, to mind, Lydon sounds almost Shakespearian in his enunciation, but he is still playing the role of a scoundrel, a jester, ageless and undaunted, on a track that is just one of the highlights on a strong contender for comeback album of the year.
Contributed by @gussilber.
