56. Stars – “Fixed”
Not sure how this one fits into their ghost-centric concept album, but maybe I'm not paying close enough attention. I like this happy, upbeat Stars, but most of their new album is a bummer.
57. Toro y Moi – “Leave Everywhere”
Toro y Moi is actually just one dude, and he's one of the pioneers of the chillwave sound, a kind of laptop-pop, synth-heavy vibe which (as far as I can tell) is basically a big internet inside joke for hipsters. "Leave Everywhere," though, abandons that sound for a more traditional rock feel, and it works beautifully.
58. Freelance Whales – “Generator ^ Second Floor”
As the title implies, the second song on Weathervanes with the word "Generator" in the title, and you can tell the difference because this is NOT the one that Ilana makes fun of all the time.
59. Radio Dept – “Heaven’s on Fire”
Sweden Fun Fact: As of 2004, you can pay your taxes via text message.
60. Blair – “Kamikaze”
I like Twitter in theory, but I'm starting to see that, for me, it's where the internet hit the point of diminishing returns (or at least the point of information exhaustion) ... still, I never would have heard this song were it not for a tweet from Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy.
Work was slow so I had time to listen to each of these and provide my thoughts. I think "Heaven's on Fire" is a brilliant song. The quik break in the beat at the 1 minute mark prevents it from getting boreing on the way to the complete change in beat at the 2 minute mark. "Fixed" was pretty cool, but I have a problem with the background beat being left untouched for a full two minutes. If there was a little more variation (they even leave it behind the solo) I would have been happier. I listen to Ladytron, though, so this shouldn't really bother me. I will give it another try. The Blair song could have potentially been flat out amazing, but I feel the singer holds back. If she let some of the notes rip and hit some more highs it would have been spectacular instead of really good. "Leave Everywhere" from a notes on the page standpoint is great. The problem is in the mixing. There are no mids. The guitar sounds harsh and the rest sounds droning. If it was mixed more evenly rather than like a valley with all the mids cut out it would have been much more successful. Lastly I think the freelance whales song use of the banjo was aweful. I like a good banjo when you are picking notes, but it proves rather harsh to the ear when it is used in a consistant progression like in the song. I will probobly searchout Radio Dept's complete catalog tonight because they really impressed me.
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