urgency to bleed

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.

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:

• Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

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.

• A Camp - Love Has Left the Room

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.

• M. Ward - Never Had Nobody Like You

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.

• O+S - We Do What We Want To

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.

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.