Top 5: Current Playlist
Sometimes it seems that like all my favorite bands are between albums. In these times I swear I can’t dig up any new music that that is worth listening to more than the one time it takes to determine it’s terrible. However, this is not one of those times. An enormous number of albums worth their scratch have come out in the last few months. I’ll do my best to limit it to five songs off these albums, but it’s going to be difficult.
1. Stereophonics – Stone
I finally saw the Stereophonics in concert two weeks ago at the Showbox in Seattle and they blew me away. I had been waiting to see them for years and hearing Dakota live sort of marked the end of an era for me. In any case, Stone stood out as a quintessential Stereophonics song–hauntingly melodic and more often then not building into a giant climax. Near perfection.
2. People in Planes – Last Man Standing
These guys opened for the Stereophonics and are good enough to be the main act on any stage once their name gets out there. Last Man Standing is fresh off their new CD and is really raw and driven. Its reminds me of 30 seconds to Mars with a splash of Incubus, but less angry and less produced-basically remove the shit from these bands and you have People in Planes.
3. Santogold – LES Artistes
Santogold is true to her name and delivers a shining entry into the electro-pop arena; the genre hasn’t sounded this good since the Swedish first got their hands on it. This song in particular has all the needed fixings of an electro-pop hit- catchy vocals, a nice little treble arpeggio traversing the length of the tune and a driving bass line.
4. Counting Crows – 1492
The Counting Crows are back! Really a timeless band that had such a strong freshman album they were doomed to continually disappoint. The pop sellout in release of Hard Candy didn’t help matters. But, they have apparently come to their senses and put out an album on par with August and Everything after. 1492 is the very first track off the album and hits hard. It’s like Mr. Jones telling you about his bender last night- crazy as hell but sure to be on continual repeat in your mind for the next week.
5. MGMT – Electric Feel
So I have known about MGMT ever since I went on a ski trip with a bunch of crazy kids from Wesleyan. We had these epic dance parties that centered around the song Kids. I was told that MGMT was like the unofficial theme music to the Wesleyan experience. Well the finally got an album out and not just a bootleg. It’s called Oracular Spectacular. Kids is there along with this song, Electric Feel. Unadulterated, catchy, and you can’t help but dance to it. Think electro-rock, this band blends the genres seamlessly and doesn’t disappoint in the slightest.
Estelle – American Boy; Seriously catchy, seriously getting the play time it deserves
Gnarles Barkley – Run; Yeah it’s not that new, who cares it’s still great
Mudcrutch – Scare Easy; Did the Traveling Wilburies release a new album? Yeah, it’s that kind of Petty good