PNAU - Embrace The opening builds nicely, as that one bass/synth note arrives out of nowhere and, along with slight percussion, creates a beat out of those chords. Great beat, nice electric riff. Pacing is nice and slow. The vocals sit on that major second, creating a sort of pivot, but it's not that effective. Chorus is awesome, good high notes bringing the progression into awesome land. I do really like the beat, and it's very danceable, which is a huge merit. New synth chords, broken down bassline, and 16th notes on the hihat all create a a sense of achieving, but again...it doesn't impress me or astound me much. Nice bridge, it's a sense of restraint that hasn't been present before. Builds back up again very well, they're influenced by techno tradition without succumbing to it. Strange choice of becoming a verse after that, but it's ok. Ok third chorus is badass with the drums. I turned up the volume and it got better. A lot of their music is lines sticking around the same few notes, and using deviations from that to create material: the vocals in that one interval in the verse and the high notes on chorus; repeated bassline; that same guitar riff on the verse, and a few other things. That's where the techno part comes in for me, since that's what a lot of techno is. This song doesn't really do it for me, but it's pretty cool. It doesn't need a real hook that it comes back to, which is an achievement.
PNAU - Freedom Acoustic and echoey sorta progression is SUPER COOL. The echoes create some nice syncopated / offbeat rhythms, and the acoustic texture adds a lot to the song: each 2 measures starts rough and ends soft. It was a good decision to have the vocals be softer, and start their line towards the 2nd measure. Really good balance...and then they send this strange falling vocal line over it. Nothing else is really changing interestingly, but that vocal line does quite a lot to sustain a piece. They're so groove oriented, which is a really cool thing to be doing...nice droning in the background, but it's sort of a cheap trick to fill in the parts where the percussion cuts out. Small bits of echoes here and there do the same thing. It's great and all, but I'd prefer they invest their energy in making a bit more happen. They're great at flow, and great at groove, but the song is missing a lot for me...direction, maybe. Or a hook. Then again, it's fine how it is, moving along nicely. It's not really my thing, but it's good!
Midlake - Head Home Flute and synth! Awesome. They're dancing around each other, one repeated and one orbiting it. Great sense of build when the drums come in, but it doesn't stop there; the progression has this strange chords that don't quite resolve, giving a greater sense of growth. Nice piano, but it's a bit obnoxious once the vocals come in. Vocals are sparse and subtle enough, like the basswork, to make it interesting, while the piano forms the real bass of things. Chorus brings intro-y part back. That's some good bass work. That bass pattern feels a bit too country-style for this song, but it creates a bit of a bluesy effect. Is that a bit of Thom Yorke in the vocals? I'm starting to love the way the piano keeps driving along. Great vocal harmonies. Nice drum cutout. Their form seems to breakdown a bit, and I don't know where I am, but it's cool! Great tonalities and playing and all. They keep on building things, although the drum fills under the guitar solo might be a bit over the top. Guitar solo is a bit self-indulgent as well, but it uses held notes nicely. I just noticed the synth part on the chorus (?), it's pretty sick. I think I'll head hooooooome. Hypnotic, and notice how so much of the complexity has been reduced for clarity? They're paying really good attention. This part, with vocals and piano unison is just fantastic. Sort of a breakdown / outro that refuses to die, just keeps building and evolving. Another guitar solo which sits nicely over everything. It had to end with a fadeout, with that kind of momentum. Really nice, I'll be glad to hear this again.
The Futureheads - Hounds of Love Great, more strangeness. Oh man, that's fun and also really cool. Intersecting lines which are inverses of each other sketching chords which the guitar takes and turns into awesome. Really effective drumming. I like how the vocals just keep going over the verse part. The 3-3-2 split for drum beats doesn't really drive me, but it's growing on more. When the electric really starts humming, that's really badass. I'll take my shoes off and I will be really enjoying this stuff. The drum builds nicely, to the ride and to these much larger beats. Vocals are interesting, I like it. Great rhythm and tone. Short and really cool!
Wolf Parade - It's a Curse Yay wolf parade. Love the rising noise going into the serious drums. Piano one measure vs. dropping guitar line is very cool. Wonderful flow. Vocals are really good, using strong notes to accent the beat. Bass notes are really cool chords, grunting and driving. After the chorusish part (which is strangely loose), they mix everything a bit more. Synthy bass takes more focus, and it's awesome. I see why these guys are compared to Arcade Fire a bit, the way they build is very simple but very well thought. I'm not feeling the chorus, until oh major key stuff. Piano finally fits in nicely. Still love how the vocals drive the beat along. It just stays on the place they've gotten to...they're all about this really cool build and just making it more awesome and different and nice. Synthy stuff in the last 4 measures even, and even though I don't exactly where we went, it was really fun and I liked going there!
Peter Bjorn and John - Let's Call it Off Nice beat. Drives forth. Nice rhythm guitar, really smooth and creates a nice chord structure. It's a strange choice to have steel drum and echoey guitar mimicking their line. Very good use of drums to drive into the verse. Vocals are strange, and don't really fit in the tonality of the song. But it's exciting because of the bassline, which is nice. They throw in this great hits, just like at the beginning of the verse, and now into the chorus. I love the chorus, very nice chords. Great songwriting, it all fits together wonderfully. Great offbeats on the acoustic in the chorus, that's why I love it so. That set of three beats at the end of some drum beats really drive things forward nicely. Haha, referencing the intro with all this momentum now. It's fun, I realize; even though the verse is heavy and all, this lick is really light. And then that one part of the intro is the chorus, oh man! I'm not being too clear, but I guess suffice to say I love their tone, the way they build, and their songwriting. Good call.
My Morning Jacket - Lay Low There's a really good flow in the drum beat: the bass is at either side of it, so the middle part of it is like coming up for air. Great guitar work, setting up the rhythm, and then working a melody off of it. It's a simple, really great grove. Vocals float along, perhaps a bit out of place. Bass rounds things out, piano is cute. It took me a moment to realize what time signature or whatever. But it's polyrhythmic and cool and bright and energetic...while still maintaining a really good beat. It doesn't need to be hypercomplex, since they have such great attention to detail already. It's so damn tight. Bluesish, I guess. Rising chords at the end of the chorus are really great, supported well by drum hits. They play only as much as they need to. That's a pretty good guitar solo, actually relating to the flow of the song. The solo just goes on. Those piano chords are like...arches in a cathedral, I dunno. But the groove keeps on hopping along, getting more creative, sometimes adding doubled solos, changing drumbeats and flow. It's exciting, it's energizing. What are they going to do next? And even if the solos just go on and on, they're wonderful to listen to. Nothing about this is boring, and that's real feat.
Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About The opening vocals are creepy but hypnotizing...took me a while to realize they're English. Nice beat to draw it off, and then they put a few sonic hits and goodies over that one groove for a few measures. And you know? That's fine. I love their pacing, they really know when to slow down. Nice bass work. Great groove, they put a lot of stress on the onbeats and it's awesome. I've got nothing to worry about just drives down to one of the drum hits...that's really exact. I love all the little stuff they throw in, it's interesting...but it's not like they're substituting for material. And behind all that, that...what's the adjective for that guitar line, wavy, wiggly? The one behind the entire song that comes in after the intro? Nice. Cuts out and only the guitar and some goodies. Short and tight and really cool.
Ratatat and The Notorious B.I.G. - Party and Bullshit Nice buildup to add in the guitar. Whole thing is a good beat, nice and syncopated, cuts out nicely. I don't really like BIG's rhyming, but I like his rhythm. Ratatat is paying a lot of great attention to the beat, so it all flows nicely. They do cool creative things with the aabaabaabaab pattern that is modern rap. I love ratatat's little touches, the tiniest cut-out riff really adds to the flow. They're really creative. BIG does great work too. All around, a good track...BIG's narrative is a bit flat, a bit stupid, and his rhyming isn't that creative, but it has its moment. But the pretty good rapping with the very good beat work make this a really good cut. Gotta love Ratatat.
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