Listen on Spotify or as a YouTube Playlist (except "Find a Way to Keep Me" by Field Music and bonus tracks "Shades of Blue," "You Are Here," and "She May She Might" by Yo La Tengo). 1. "Always Ascending" – Franz Ferdinand 2. "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs" – Wye Oak 3. "Out of the Pool" – Yo La Tengo 4. "Lemon Glow" – Beach House 5. "Don't Move Back to L.A." – Okkervil River 6. "Under the Wheels" – Calexico 7. "This Is That" – David Byrne 8. "Mr. Tillman" – Father John Misty 9. "Wait By the River" – Lord Huron 10. "Algernon" – A Beacon School 11. "Leave It In My Dreams" – The Voidz 12. "Runnin'" – Wajatta 13. "The Ceremony of Innocence" – Moby 14. "Emerald Rush" – Jon Hopkins 15. "Find a Way to Keep Me" – Field Music 16. " More" – Jamison Isaak
Compiling this year's Romantic Songs Playlist for Valentine's Day was an easy task, considering all the great new music lately from fave bands. Here are tunes that pull at the heartstrings by LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, The National, Beck, Spoon, Washed Out, Mew and more. And check out the gender-balanced cover of Interpol's "PDA" by Daywave and Hazel English. Whether coupled up or single at the moment, it's all music to feed the soul.
Listen to my Romantic Songs Playlist for Valentine's Day 2018 on Spotify here. For further inspiration, visit my posts from past years: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
Listen on Spotify or as a YouTube Playlist (except "Chico's Radical Decade" by the The Go! Team).
1. "Everybody's Coming to My House" – David Byrne 2. "Fluoresecent Light" – Stars 3. "Severed" – The Decemberists 4. "Gotta Run" – Lea Porcelain 5. "Listening In" – Dr. Dog 6. "Hand It Over" – MGMT 7. "Music Snob" – De Lux 8. "Taste" – Rhye 9. "Echo" – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 10. "Sunday" – Geowulf 11. "Chico's Radical Decade" – The Go! Team 12. "Can't Stop My Dreaming (of You) – Jono Ma & Dreems 13. "Can't Get It Out" – Nada Surf 14. "The One to Wait" – CCFX 15. "The Deconstruction" – Eels 16. "Friday Morning" – Khruangbin
What a difference a year makes... I combed through the lists of upcoming releases looking for reasons to be hopeful about 2018 and found just a few: Moby, Franz Ferdinand plus all those unreleased tracks by the Gorillaz promised ahead. Then yesterday one of my top musical heroes David Byrne not only announced a new album in 14 years (!) American Utopiabut he also gave a talk in NYC entitled "Reasons to Be Cheerful." I tuned into the online stream (archived on Facebook and YouTube), hanging on every word from this wise and witty shaman. Byrne espoused about his latest project, Contemporary Colors, along with answers to world problems large and small. His talk was set to carefully chosen, although some completely random, visuals just like those at groundbreaking concerts as frontman for The Talking Heads.
Check out the first single from the album "Everybody's Coming to My House" via the video below with fitting artwork of the artist by Doug Henders. This tune produced by longtime pal Brian Eno features danceable beats, poetic lyrics – stream of consciousness, about ordinary but which say much more – and those unmistakable vocals that have been copied, but never exactly replicated. As if 2017 wasn't awesome enough musically with a new album (after many years) from another all time fave band LCD Soundsystem, with this new music on repeat for my ears I am not only cheerful, but one extremely happy music fan. It's simply the same as it ever was!
UPCOMING NEW RELEASES IN 2018: January 19 – De Lux, More Disco Songs About Love (Innovative Leisure) January 19 – The Go! Team, Semicircle (Memphis Industries) January 26 – Django Django, Marble Skies (Ribbon Music) January 26 – Calexico, The Thread That Keeps Us (Anti-Records) February 9 – Franz Ferdinand, Always Ascending (Domino) February 9 – MGMT, Little Dark Age (Columbia) March 2 – Moby, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt(Mute) March 9 – David Byrne, American Utopia (Todomundo/Nonesuch Records) March 9 – of Montreal, White is Relic/Irrealis Mood March 16 – Yo La Tengo, There's a Riot Going On (Matador Records) March 16 – The Decemberists, I'll Be Your Girl (Columbia) April 6 – Wye Oak, The Louder I call, The Faster It Runs (Merge) April 27 – Dr. Dog, Critical Equation (Thirty Tigers) April 27 – Okkervil River, Rainbow Rain (ATO) Gorillaz – TBD Arctic Monkeys – TBD Vampire Weekend – TBD
So I broke my own rule here – I usually run over the total of twenty songs to represent the year but this time I allowed a double helping of two of my very fave bands Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem. (And keeping the choices down to just two songs was not easy to do!) But beyond songs from my Top Ten Releases of 2017 heard on repeat, there are some singles on the list that became instant ear worms in a very good way. The upbeat approach of Phoenix's "J-Boy" along with the optimism of Woods' "Love Is Love" and Poolside's "Everything Goes" were just the antidote needed during this calamity of a year under the Trump Administration. Here's to weathering another year ahead with another soundtrack of sanity.
Listen on Spotify or as a YouTube Playlist below (except "Wave Is Not the Water" by Wye Oak).
1. "Andromeda" (featuring DRAM) – Gorillaz 2. "Hot Thoughts" – Spoon 3. "Everything Now" – Arcade Fire 4. "Put Your Money on Me" – Arcade Fire 5. "Dreams" – Beck 6. "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" – The National 7. "call the police" – LCD Soundsystem 8. "american dream" – LCD Soundsystem 9. "Mourning Sound" – Grizzly Bear 10. "Wave Is Not the Water" – Wye Oak 11. "All About Waiting" (featuring Camila Grey) – Dhani Harrison 12. "How It Feels" – Ages and Ages 13. "Everything Goes" (Instrumental) – Poolside 14. "J-Boy" – Phoenix 15. "Hard to Say Goodbye" – Washed Out 16. "Noise Pollution" (featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Zoe Manville) – Portugal. The Man. 17. "Love Is Love (Sun On Time)" – Woods 18. "Shine" – Mondo Cozmo 19. "Magnificent (She Says)" – Elbow 20. "Name for You" – The Shins 21. "Call It Dreaming" – Iron & Wine 22. "Carry Me to Safety" – Mew 23. "Leven" – The Octopus Project
Here I go again gushing about how this year was an awesome year of music... But really when your very fave bands come out with releases full of listening goodness, what other proper response is there? With plenty of new tunes from Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, and Spoon, plus those long
awaited Beck and Gorillaz albums, 2017 had me in music fan heaven. Add in beloved indie veterans (The National, The Flaming Lips, Mew, Elbow, Grizzly Bear) along with newcomer Mondo Cozmo, and it was a blissful, busy time catching up with everything across the calendar.
1. LCD Soundsystem, American Dream
The LCD Soundsystem songs on American Dream continued the Brooklyn band's musical thread after a long seven years – this is the fourth album since 2002 – like they never lost a beat! They also toured extensively and appeared all over the place (seen here confidently presenting "Call the Police" on the U.K. television program Live on Later... with Jools Holland) as if to make up for lost time and appease all the fans who were more than willing to buy tickets.
3. Spoon, Hot Thoughts
Austin band Spoon returned super strong with its ninth album since 1993, acknowledging many female fans mindset by the title Hot Thoughts. Frontman Britt Daniels exhibits why during this smoking hot performance of the song, "Do I Have to Talk You Into It," to open their sold out show at Brooklyn Steel December 8th.
4. Beck, Colors
Beck's 13th studio album Colors arrived in the fall with stylish songs across the spectrum to showcase yet again his musical prowess, but all contain the artist's mantra of group catharsis. He also toured widely and continued to be eager to please his fans with hits old and new. Here Beck brings the single "Dream" to life in a session for his L.A. hometown station KCRW.
5. The National, Sleep Well Beast
Cincinnati-raised quintet The National is now dispersed across the country, but gathered in a newly built recording space in an upstate New York barn to create the seventh album since 1999, Sleep Well Beast. The songs seemed even stronger live, with the power of this band's groupthink exhibited on stage. Check out "The Day I Die" at the Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2017.
6. Gorillaz, Humanz
Six years passed between albums for the animated U.K. band Gorillaz, as Humanz landed with a host of featured artists in cameos almost distracting the mission. Damon Albarn is still the mastermind behind it all, seen here leading the way with the song "Andromeda" in a live session at New York City's WFUV.
7. Mondo Cozmo, Plastic Soul
L.A. artist Josh Ostrander, a.k.a. Mondo Cozmo, appeared on KCRW late in 2016 after the strength of a few well played singles. This new band quickly went from small venues (I was lucky to see him at the tiny Mercury Lounge in January) to playing festivals and headlining concert halls. Witness Ostrander's gritty determination here, singing the title track of his debut album "Plastic Soul."
8. Grizzly Bear, Painted Ruins
The quartet Grizzly Bear has expanded from its Brooklyn base, but the band's tightly layered sound remains in sharp focus for the fifth album since 2002, Painted Ruins. The group dynamic is on full display here during "Mourning Sound" at the Electric Lady Studios in NYC for WFUV.
9. Elbow, Little Fictions
English alt rock band Elbow released its seventh album since1997, Little Fictions, full of trademark emotional depth and lush textures. Guy Garvey's rich vocals provide the passionate porthole, as witnessed on the U.K. Graham Norton Show with "Magnificent She Says."
10. Mew, Visuals
Another transfixing voice that transcends our mortal coil is that of Mew's Jonas Bjerre. Angelic yet immediate, he leads the quartet into a singular space of musical brilliance for the seventh album since 1995 Visuals, as evident in "Carry Me to Safety" performance at Seattle's KEXP.
Honorable Mention: The Flaming Lips, Oczy Mlody
One more shout out to The Flaming Lips, for releasing a whopping sixteenth album since 1983 in dreary January with the title Oczy Mlody (that roughly translates to a Polish expression meaning eyes of the young) with wacked out pysch rock that still keeps us on our toes. My favorite tracks are "The Castle" and "We A Family," but this video of "There Should Be Unicorns" shows frontman Wayne Coyne's willingness to continue playing the rock star.
Listen on Spotify or as a YouTube Playlist (except "Find a Way to Keep Me" by Field Music and bonus tracks "Shades of Blue," "You Are Here," and "She May She Might" by Yo La Tengo).
