What's a near-global meltdown without a soundtrack? Well, less tacky than this, probably, but I am unphased. John Lennon gets some good primal screams in, Aerosmith's apocalypse sounds more prescient then they intended ("Too many houses on stilts!"), Lindsey Buckingham sucks it up and forges forward (this is an older track, but don't miss his new album if you're a fan), and finally David Byrne and Brian Eno offer something that almost sounds like hope.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 1:52 AM | Link | Comments (0)

I can't be sure where this mix is originally from. The "Kingdom" single(s) came out about a year ago, and the Booka Shade Club Mix even has a video, the visual hook of which seems to be that everything is lit in a way it should not be, including the inside of Gahan's mouth. This mix is new to me, off of a dubiously legal compilation of Depeche Mode remixes called Mutebank, volume 2. I prefer this mix of the song more than any I'd heard before. It's more, for lack of a better word, Shady.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 10:09 PM | Link | Comments (0)

A new Beck album isn't the event it once was, I don't suppose. He seems to have settled into a long career, occasionally making a great record, usually making a decent one, and sometimes missing the mark. At any rate, it's a 'walk, don't run' kind of affair. The latest album, Modern Guilt, is in the middle. But it does grow on you.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:20 PM | Link | Comments (0)

I heard of this album from magazines months ago, but I never actually heard it until the fine fellows at Sound Opinions mentioned it on their show. They did so only to ridicule it, but when they played the 30 seconds of the record that was supposed to demonstrate how intolerable it is, I thought, "Oh my god, this is great." After spending a week or so with the record, I've decided that neither of our first impressions were correct. It's not great. But neither is it garbage, and it's not dismissable. Johansson's voice is uneven and uncontrolled, but that's not a problem by itself, and she has a surprisingly deep and evocative sound at the low end of her range. It's true that the idea of an album of Tom Waits covers stinks of vanity and overstretching, but in large part thanks to the production of Dave Sitek (of TV on the Radio), the record never sounds like an under-talented starlet making a record of Tom Waits covers. Even when it's not working -- which I'd say is about half the time -- it's not because it's a put-on, or a pony show, or any of the other things that many people have accused this record of being. Johansson's main vocal touchstone seems to be Sinead O'Connor. The record oozes raw earnestness, from both vocalist and producer, and if that's sometimes a bad thing, it's not at all the bad thing that you expected to hear. Definitely worth a listen or ten.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:38 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Even the least of the Kompakt Total compilations is worth having, and Total 9 is not one of the least. I could have picked any of a dozen tracks off it, but in the last year or so, Gui Boratto has won me over in a special way. This track puts me in the mind of a grainy Michael Mann nightscape.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 5:25 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Since the fish are indeed jumpin' and the cotton is looking on the tallish side, here's 25 minutes of "Summertime" that will seem either tedious or pleasantly melancholy, depending on what you think of the Gershwin tune. First, an overlooked Willie Nelson version, from an album he did with Leon Russell. (The recent "Legacy Edition" of the album Stardust could have and maybe should have included this track.) Then there's the Janis Jopin version, which would be a definitive version of the song if that were possible, which I sincerely doubt. Then Greg Dulli does his blue-eyed-tortured-soul thing, making the song sound not only sad but also angsty, and then Booker T. and the MG's do a great soft/loud take on it. Then the cherry on top, John Coltrane's version from the My Favorite Things album. It might be too obvious to include, but it's too damn good not to.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 3:34 PM | Link | Comments (0)

While we're in the 50's. Am I crazy, or does this song seem a bit... well... kinky? The Daddy/Baby labels may be just old slang, but now that they're outdated it's easy to see the dominant/submissive dynamic that they only barely obscured. Thanks to Nat's light-as-air delivery, the whole thing sounds like a game, a little fun after Daddy gets home from work. "Has Baby behaved?" Because if not, she may be in for a spanking. Let's review quickly, Nat -- what's the safe word?

Posted by SoGlitchy at 4:48 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Depending on your point of view, this is either a joyous celebration of love and its fruits, a quaint throwback to a more naive time, or a grim cautionary tale. But there's no getting around it -- it's damn catchy.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 4:41 PM | Link | Comments (0)

I'm not much of a God-fearing man, but that doesn't stop this from being a favorite song of mine. The simple yet ineffable truth of the title is (to appropriate a John Lennon quote) bigger than Jesus.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 6:54 PM | Link | Comments (0)

I knew this record was something special the first time I heard it, but the more I listen to it, the more it's... whoa. Hot new audio love affair. Don'tcha love those? I picked this track because it's the longest, not for any better reason. The whole record is amazing.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 10:01 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Call it dubstep, call it what you will, but young Alan Myson of Brighton, England, has made a helluva long-playing record here; shaking, stuttering, and brooding in roughly equal measure. I can't get it off my iPod.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 5:01 AM | Link | Comments (0)

I don't know much about this Swiss duo (I don't think anyone does -- they're famous for not giving interviews), but I know they always put a nice spit-shine on a downtempo track. This is nice stuff. Goes down smooth.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 3:59 AM | Link | Comments (0)

In spite of the rather serious question, and talk of war and chaos, this song makes me happy, like the sound of kids playing on the sidewalk outside. Wherever we're going, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Could it?

Posted by SoGlitchy at 1:17 PM | Link | Comments (0)

I don't know that I've read a review of this album yet that didn't mention Tom Petty, and I think it's a bit unfair, because at a glance you'd assume the record sounds like "American Girl." There's so much more going on than that. This track, for instance, makes me think of Animal Collective more than anything else.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 6:39 AM | Link | Comments (0)

OMG dance pop! They don't make it like this anymore. (Um... except when they do.) These guys seem to have taken to the form in a big way.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:37 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Seems like all the indie kids want to make grand, lush dance music nowadays. And god bless 'em for it, if it's this good. I was shamefully late to this album.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:34 PM | Link | Comments (0)

The fact that this "album" is actually 13 remixes of the same song doesn't hurt its listenability at all. Beautiful ambient dub.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 12:07 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Just a little jazz, nothing to panic over. Some Sunday morning going-to-get-coffee music.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 5:28 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Listen for James Brown sounding more and more sinister with every break, until by the end he's advocating... killing white women? Holy shit. (And it's still a great song.)

Posted by SoGlitchy at 1:58 AM | Link | Comments (0)

A great track off of his difficult-to-find 1956 self-titled album; also featured on the import-only Island in the Sun box set. Both will cost you a pretty penny in the states, where apparently the man has fallen out of fashion and out of print, save for the hits. That's a shame.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 7:17 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Minimal techno in the Villalobos vein, with a sneaky way of feeling warm. Resident Advisor went nuts over it.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 6:43 PM | Link | Comments (0)

A much more subdued record than Movements, but stay up late enough, and you might find something very nice hidden among all that not-dancing.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 4:14 AM | Link | Comments (0)

The new box set, One Hell of a Ride, is some really essential stuff. This version of this song is not on it. (heh.) Happy 75th, Willie.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 11:33 AM | Link | Comments (0)

If you can just make it until next winter, you'll be ok.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 2:45 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Floaty and fluffy as a cloud. One of my favorite XTC songs. One of my favorite songs, full stop.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 8:42 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Beyond warm.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 7:16 AM | Link | Comments (0)

It's been a NASTY goddamn winter here in Chicago. Let's act like that never happened, ok?

Posted by SoGlitchy at 7:16 AM | Link | Comments (0)

I'm gonna give it to ya. On the rooftop, apparently.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 3:13 PM | Link | Comments (0)

The long version, for maximum cowbell.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 3:38 AM | Link | Comments (1)

A smooth killer from Kompakt Total 8.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 10:34 PM | Link | Comments (0)

One of the records I've been hooting about all year, and it's still with me at the end of it.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 7:58 PM | Link | Comments (0)

On the double.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 7:54 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Theme song for fluxion.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:36 AM | Link | Comments (0)