Track of the Week: A Night Like This by Kyau and Albert
This week's track is A Night Like This by Kyau and Albert. I heard this song featured on the #2 spot on Corsten's Countdown from July 20th (I'm a bit behind on podcasts, a chronic problem). I've had a recent obsession with trance and dance tracks that have really light vocals over treble-y melody's (like Dev's Dancing in the Dark). This song has that same kind of structure, and after having listened to most of Kyau and Albert's catalog it's by far the most fun song of theirs.
Track of the Week: Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5
This week's track is Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5, featuring Christina Aguilera. It's fun, it's poppy, it's easy to dance to and you can't argue that Adam Levine doesn't kill the falsetto. Okay, I'm done defending myself and going back to enjoying this fun summer song.
Track of the Week: Miami Showdown by Digitalism
This week's track is Miami Showdown by Digitalism off of I Love You, Dude. Another 40 in 52 show, I hadn't heard of them but after going to the show I quickly bought their albums. This track has a Daft Punk, Tron-era feel to it which is quite different than the rest of the album. Most of the album is more vocal and less pulsing instrumental. I picked this track since it's a brooding 92bpm electronica track. Different than the rest of the album, but a solid listen.
Track of the Week: Murder to Excellent by Jay-Z & Kanye West
This week's track is Murder to Excellent by Jay-Z & Kanye West off of their Watch The Throne album. I'm still working my way through all the tracks on this new album so this is picked solely on how catchy it sounds. I think the lead single on this may be No Church in the Wild which features Frank Ocean (who makes two appearances on the album), but I haven't heard any of the tracks on the radio yet.
Track of the Week: We Swarm by The Glitch Mob
This week's track is We Swarm by The Glitch Mob, off of Drink The Sea. Over the last few years I've heard a lot of Glitch Mob tracks in passing and in friends cars, or at Burning Man, but it wasn't until I went and saw them at a show about a month ago that I took a serious listen to their music. This track, We Swarm, is a killer glitch/electronica song. Opening with strained synths and breaking in to a bounce after that, the real hook for me comes in at about 2:15 where a syncopated back beat comes that's joined with an explosive percussive sound at 3:05. Listen to it in your car with the volume up and the windows down and you won't regret it.
Track of the Week: Freak You Out by Blip Blip Bleep
This week's track is Freak You Out, by Blip Blip Beep off of Like Track Stars. I saw BBB perform at Mercury Lounge in NYC a few weeks back with a friend as the second band in a three act lineup. Super energetic and straight up electropop their sound is super fun and poppy, with a dash of rock. This song was (I think) their closer in their set which included an amazing electrodub cover of Michael Jackson's Beat It. Like Track Stars is definitely worth checking out, it's better than their prior EPs, and this track is the most fun out of all of them.
Track of the Week: Escape 700 by The Chemical Brothers
This week's track is Escape 700 by The Chemical Brothers, off of the Hanna soundtrack. I haven't heard much from The Chemical Brothers in a while and haven't seen this movie, but the album randomly crossed the desks of Track of the Week. Escape 700 is a pulsing, yet brooding electronica track, perhaps best described as electronica/house meets Middle Eastern beats. There's probably a whole label out there that specializes in this genre of music. Of all the tracks on the Hanna soundtrack, this is maybe the one that's most "song"-like, as many of the others are ambient mood setting types of sound. It's a great track in an otherwise good album.
Track of the Week: I Want the World to Stop by Belle and Sebastian
This week's track is I Want the World to Stop by Belle and Sebastian off of Belle and Sebastian Write About Love. I've had this song in my library for a while and have kept putting off sending it out, mostly because it feel out of my Recently Added list. I've never been a huge Belle and Sebastian fan and Write About Love their first album I own. When I first heard of them in the early 2000s, folks might have described them as folk music but as I listen to them now after the indie revolution (is that a thing?) I would probably call them indie pop. The sound of this specific track harks back to The 5th Dimension's Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In but at a slower BPM with a somewhat mid-late-60s sound.
Track of the Week: I Put a Spell on You
This week's track is I Put a Spell on You by Nina Simone, mixed by MiM0SA. There's so much to say, yet so little. I think the best way to approach this song is historically. Originally recording by Screamin' Jay Hawkin in 1956, then covered by various people over the years in various styles. From Nina Simone in 1965, to CCR in 1968, to the first dance versions by Sonique in 2000. This week's track is a 2010 remix of Nina Simone's take, mixing Simone's classic vocals and haunting intro with banging dubstep breaks. It's worth taking a run through all the covers of the song, they're all so different and specific.
Track of the Week: The Bay by Metronomy
This week's track is The Bay by Metronomy off of English Rivera. Surprisingly, this is Metronomy's first appearance on TOTW. I'd originally come across them with a free iTunes download of Heartbreak from their Nights Out EP. Half lo-fi, half electronica, they have a very unique and original sound that is hugely different from album to album. The Bay may not where you want to be right now as it's the middle of May and it's raining, but hopefully this little track will help get you through the day. As seems to be the tradition on track of the week, The Bay is the most upbeat and high tempo track from the album. I'm not entirely sure what the song is about, but it's totally possible it's about the San Francisco Bay Area since the lyrics are quite clear what it's not.