urgencytobleed: (Default)
A few things. It was extremely hard for me to decide on these last five albums; honestly, I probably should have left it at fifteen because I've switched different ones out and re-arranged them so many times it's ridiculous. There was a lot of music I liked this year but, apparently, there wasn't a lot that truly wowed me because there's a massive difference in how passionately I feel about these lower five compared to the upper fifteen. I'm finally satisfied at the moment with the order I've decided on but, ugh, I'll probably look back on this in a few months' time and wonder what the hell I was thinking. Anyway, there I go dampening the mood already. I'll just get to the list now.

TOP 20! PART ONE! )
urgencytobleed: (ben whishaw so so fine)
So... I haven't posted anything here in quite a long time. Sorry about that. But I was in the mood to make a mix the other day so I'll share that. It doesn't really have a theme at all. Basically, the only thing these songs have in common is that a. I've been obsessed with them at some point in the past two or three months and b. I don't believe I've ever posted any of them here before. Other than that, they aren't really connected. I'm too lazy to upload the whole thing in one ZIP file so you don't have to listen to them in order if you don't want to (though I think it actually works extremely well as a whole) and you can pick and choose if you don't want/need every song. Enjoy. :)

And, oh yeah, I know it's sort of a "rule" not to have two songs by the same artist on one mix but whatever... I couldn't decide between the two and they both worked really well so I kept them. They are far enough apart that it doesn't seem like overkill. And anyway, they're both insanely good.

urgencytobleed: (jenny smile)
So the year's about half-over now and I'd like to have a halfway decent review written for every album I've really loved thus far. Since I've been slacking off a bit in that department lately, I've got about half a dozen or so from the last couple months that I haven't really mentioned yet. So here are the first two of those, the rest to come soon-ish so that I don't have the need to write about them bugging me while I'm trying to evaluate the albums coming up in the second half of the year (which, by the looks of what I'm anticipating so far, will probably be a lot).

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career


REVIEW )


Purchase the album.

Mandy Moore - Amanda Leigh


REVIEW )


Purchase the album.
urgencytobleed: (zooey deschanel)
Well, being addicted to the Internet certainly has its advantages... here are a few songs from some upcoming releases that I've managed to stumble across recently for your listening pleasure. Also, they are all legal - I've decided it's probably a good idea for me to post officially released mp3s every now and then; to keep my conscience clean or something like that, you know? ;) Also, of course, it's less work for me when I don't have to upload them. Anyway:

The title track from Camera Obscura's upcoming fourth album - due out April 20th - pretty much picks up right where 2006's excellent Let's Get Out of This Country left off. It's one of those lovely little retro, slightly twee pop songs that they're so good at; it's got an instantly catchy melody, a gloriously lush wall of instrumentation, cutesy-sarcastic lyrics, and of course, Tracyanne Campbell's sugary sweet vocals to top things off. It's no "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" but it definitely bodes well for the remainder of the album. Stream the track on their official website or sign up for their mailing list to receive an mp3.
Colonia has already been released in Europe but won't premiere stateside until April 28th so if you're much more patient than I and have decided to hold out until then, here's another tantalizing little taste. This is probably one of the album's weaker tracks, in my opinion, but it's still very good. The string arrangements are gorgeous beyond belief and the chorus is strong and memorable but really, the only thing it needs to be excellent is Nina Perssen's vocals. She's got one of those voices that can pull off anything and make it sound amazing. Sign up for Stereogum's weekly newsletter, The 'Gum Drop, to download it.Honestly, I am not a fan of M. Ward at all for the most part but when Zooey Deschanel's involved he becomes about a million times more interesting to me. I just find him insanely boring on his own (sorry to anyone who likes him; I've tried, believe me). Anyway, this song is actually pretty catchy, has got handclaps (yes!), and - you saw it coming - the goddess Zooey Deschanel on backing vocals. I'll admit, she's the only reason I care about this. But maybe someone else is a fan of him so Hold Time comes out next Tuesday for those interested.
I've never seen a woman with as many different projects as Orenda Fink has; I don't know how she hasn't dropped dead from exhaustion at this point. O+S is her latest musical endeavor and is a collaboration with Scalpelist (aka Cedric LeMoyne of Remy Zero). What exactly makes this different from any of her past releases? Says LeMoyne, "We'd take samples of sounds of Haitian rituals, street noises or whatever, then cut them into loops. We'd arrange them into forms and write songs with them, or she might have started a song and I would take some of these sound materials to create bodies of music around it." Based on this description, I was expecting the songs to sound a lot more experimental than they actually are - really, well... they aren't extremely different from her past musical adventures. They're slightly more abstract and spacier and spookier but if you like her solo record or Azure Ray or Art In Manila, chances are you'll like this, too. Orenda's got another one of those voices - I could listen to her sing forever; her voice is so sultry yet so vulnerable at the same time. And these songs have lots of vocal layering which just makes it sound even more delicious. Anyway, apart from the above song, you can listen to three more at their MySpace. And she's not done yet - apparently she's also just finished a new solo record.
urgencytobleed: (dresden dolls hot)
It's past midnight now, so I guess it's officially New Year's Eve and seeing as how I won't be here most of today and Tuesday, there's no better time to post some New Year's related songs, right? Right. The reason for most of these being here is blatantly obvious so I won't bother going into further details, but you may be scratching your head at the inclusion of "Troubadours". But wait - it has the sound of party noisemakers throughout and Jenny (or at least it sounds like her) shouts "Happy New Year!" randomly at the very end. Okay, so, it's not much of a reference, but you know me, always looking for an excuse to post some Rilo Kiley. And on a semi-related note, I just watched the movie Talk to Me which featured Jenny as a drug-addicted prostitute which was a bit odd to see. The movie was completely terrible besides her, unsurprisingly, but it's always fun to catch a glimpse of her acting past. Anyhow, before I veer totally off-course, here are some lovely songs for the occasion!

  • Asobi Seksu - New Years
  • Camera Obscura - Happy New Year
  • Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year
  • The Dresden Dolls - New Year's Day (live U2 cover)
  • The Good Life - New Year's Retribution
  • Rilo Kiley - Troubadours
  • Stars - A New Year (live)

And... yay for rapidly developing obsessions! I present:

Los Campesinos!



So, after dismissing them as annoying in the past, I have totally discovered how crazy awesome these guys are. I swear, this always happens to me! I guess I really need to start listening to things with a more open mind the first time. But I guess that's one of the good things about being music-obsessed: a band you hated in the past you can suddenly adore without any obvious reason for the change of opinion. It kind of proves that your taste is always changing and evolving slightly, even if you can't tell. Anyway, so, yes Los Campesinos! rocks. Their songs are really energetic and fun and make me want to dance and sing along at the top of my lungs. Even though I barely know any of the words. And I think I have a thing for rock bands with strings, ala Stars, and obviously, Los Campesinos! as well. Those violin melodies are so damn infectious. The male lead singer's voice is kind of irritating at first but I got used to it pretty quickly. I can now add them to my list of highly anticipated 2008 releases. They don't have many songs right now, but their upcoming full-length, Hold On, Youngsters..., is due out February 25th in the UK and April 1st in the US as of currently, and it definitely seems promising. Here, have some songs! Be warned, they'll get stuck in your head almost immediately.

  • Death to Los Campesinos!
  • The International Tweexcore Underground
  • Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
  • We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives

(Meanwhile, that 2007 mix is coming along slowly. I've kind of completely abandoned the original and have decided to go back and listen to some albums I never gave proper attention to and cram in a few that I never got around to listening to at all. I'm probably taking this way too seriously, but it gives me a good reason to listen to things I would've kept putting off otherwise, so I guess that's good.)
urgencytobleed: (matthew gray gubler)
Woohoo! The 50th song of the day (if you're counting the posts with more than one as a single unit) - pretty impressive, I must say. Here's a song that has caught my ear recently. It's very simple but beautiful and extremely sad. Tracyanne's tender voice just makes it all the more heartbreaking.

Song of the Day!



Camera Obscura - Let's Go Bowling

LYRICS )

DOWNLOAD
urgencytobleed: (jenny smile)
The idea for this mix was spurred by my current Stars obsession but my weakness for boy/girl duos started around the time that I first got into Tilly and the Wall and Mates of State, probably a year or more ago now. It's great to find a really unique and affecting male or female voice but to me, it's even more powerful when you put them together. So that's the idea behind this mix and it's definitely my favorite so far. I think the songs flow really well and they're all just awesome songs, to put it simply. Three things I feel like you should know:

  1. The song the title is from (Ingrid Michaelson's "Breakable") is not on the mix because, well, it's not a boy/girl song. I'm just not smart enough to think up a witty title on my own so all I could think of was this and "Scream loud, all you girls and boys" from Tilly and the Wall's "Nights of the Living Dead". I figured there was less screaming and more vulnerability/sadness on it overall, therefore I went with this title.
  2. I really dislike Johnathan Rice's music and the song on here is the only one I can stand, mostly due to the presence of Jenny Lewis' lovely voice. I don't know why I feel the need to say this; I guess to justify to myself that it's okay to have him on here or something, ha.
  3. The Slow Club song is kind of low quality since it's just a MySpace rip and the single containing it is only available in 7" format right now but I love it so much that I used it anyway. It's not completely unlistenable, just a bit tinny compared to everything else.
Okay, there's that, now to the music! Oh, in case you don't keep up with the introductory post thing, I'm starting to post all links as hxxp instead of http, to keep them safer or something I guess, so just make sure to change that part when you open one.

We are a pair of apples. )
Download entire mix (71 MB)

Apparently, my last mix got downloaded more than 20 times yet I got no comments on that post. Don't get me wrong, I love that so many people have found their way here and a comment isn't required, but it is much appreciated, even just a few words. By the way, if anyone knows of any similar bands, let me know because I seriously can't get enough of the boy/girl thing!
urgencytobleed: (Default)
I meant to post this a few days ago and, not surprisingly, didn't actually get around to it until now. Anyway, this is the final set of "color" songs - basically all the leftovers, colors with only one or two songs and songs that qualify for more than one color. So, enough with the talk, let's get to the music!

urgencytobleed: (Default)
Here are my favorite, as I like to call them, "singalong" songs. Basically, any songs that have some sort of group vocals in the "hey, I just invited anyone who happened to be around to join in" vein. And hey, they're pretty fun for the listener to sing along to as well.

Profile

urgencytobleed: (Default)
Shannon

January 2020

S M T W T F S
    1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 04:17 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios