My Morning Jacket, “Outta My System” find it on Circuital I have to say, it’s pretty refreshing to have someone look back on their life of crime and drug abuse gladly. I mean, I’m not endorsing it, but there’s something kind of ridiculous about people like, say, Motley Crue talking about how insane and fun [...]

Los Campesinos!, “By Your Hand” find it on Hello Sadness (2011) It’s a stressful time for us music obsessives. The end of the year means a sudden panic of trying to catch up with the music of the last year before the next year’s new releases start flowing in. And while most of what I’ve [...]

Lana Del Rey, “Video Games” find it on Born To Die Remember the episode in Parks and Recreation where Leslie gives Ann a bunch of books to research and includes Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom only because “I’m dying to talk to someone about Patty”? That’s kind of how I feel about “Video Games”. It’s a song [...]

AlunaGeorge, “You Know You Like It” find it on You Know You Like It (2011) Okay. Now this is more like it. Dubstep with a purpose, neosoul that’s really just neo, and top-shelf, quality pop without the unnecessary sugar. There’s at least four solid hooks in here, and while the vocals verge dangerously close to [...]

Florence + The Machine, “Shake it Out” get it on Ceremonials Every now and then, a band comes along that makes you use the phrase “every now and then, a band comes along”. Florence + the Machine (does anyone know the sum of that equation? I’m bad at math) is one of those bands, but [...]

Megafaun, “You Are The Light” get it on Megafaun (2011) Things I’m a sucker for that are present in this song: Horn swells. In fact, if I was to start up a band, I’d probably call it Horn Swells. You can use it on your own band, but only if you’re really awesome. A hymn feel. [...]

The Go! Team, “Buy Nothing Day (feat. Bethany Cosentino)” find it on Rolling Blackouts I slept really hard on this new Go! Team record. It was put out in January, but I just never bothered picking it up for some reason. Okay, so Proof of Youth didn’t really do much for me, but Thunder, Lightning, Strike [...]

DJ Shadow, “Scale It Back (feat. Little Dragon)” (2011) find it on The Less You Know, The Better Remember back in the 90s when the ubiquitous guest vocalist was Michael Stipe? Then, around 1999, Stipe passed on his mantle to Thom Yorke, who seems to have passed it on to Little Dragon. Seriously, this band [...]

Slow Club, “Two Cousins” (2011) get it on Paradise “Two Cousins” has been floating around me for a couple of months now, coming up on shuffle and lumped in with the rest of the album, but it’s only been recently that it’s seriously stuck in my head, and I find myself constantly wanting to hear [...]

Veronica Falls, “Wedding Day” (2011) get it on Veronica Falls Gossip! So. There’s this guy named Stephen, apparently, who one or more of the members of Veronica Falls have kind of a flirty, it-might-happen thing. The catch? Stephen is married. I know! Yeah! Married! Now, there may be some romantics in you that would actually [...]