Track of the Week: I Stand Alone by Theophilus London

This week’s track is I Stand Alone by Theophilus London, off of Timez Are Weird These Days. I think Theophilus is generally classified as hip-hop, I found this track while listening to Live 105’s Soundcheck show. I Stand Alone is half rock, half hip-hop, but more hip-hop in the Kid Cudi sense of the word. More soulful, and partly funky yet still rocking. Most of the Timez Are Weird These Days album is just so-so, but this track stands alone as the track of the album.

Track of the Week: Polish Girl by Neon Indian

This week’s track is Polish Girl by Neon Indian off of Era Extraña. That’s probably the most nonsensical combination of song, artist and album titles possible. That aside aside, Polish Girl opens up and wraps the listener up like a warm blanket, a familiar song and a familiar sound and a familiar story. It’s incredibly catchy and lightly moves through lovesick lyrics over a synthpop melody. There are a good number of tracks queued up for track of the week and the moment, and this popped to the top with it’s listenability.

Track of the Week: Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx

This week’s track is Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx off of the Drive soundtrack. It’s the opening track and the opening song in Drive and sets the mood for the movie right away. Opening with compressed vocals and a thumping and slow moving bass and synth line, it blossoms when Lovefoxxx’ vocals hit on the hook. A quick bit of Googling also shows that apparently the song has been remixed about a million times, with some particularly good ones such as this Breakbot one.

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.