Mere musik

Remember that long post I said I was going to write, uh, the day before yesterday? Obviously it didn’t happen. Initially, I decided I was probably never again going to be traveling by bus through the Danish countryside between Roskilde and Helsingør, and I’d rather look out the window. And later, by the time I’d written it, my internet connection was gone. But here it is now.

The past several days I’ve listened to several new albums. To be fair, two were compilations, and contained a lot of previously released tracks -- but also some new ones. In either case, I’d never heard most of them.

Let me start where I started: Tuesday. I finally listened to the new Sigur Rós album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. (No idea what it means, sorry.) It’s okay. I didn’t like the first four songs -- to me, it sounded like Sigur Rós on happy pills, and I’d rather listen to Takk. However, from track five on, things pick up (or perhaps I should say slow down) and the latter half of the album is really enjoyable, in the old way. I especially liked Ára bátur. You can stream the full album on last.fm.

A while after going through the album a few times, I watched the video for Gobbledigook, even though I hadn’t particularly liked the song. It’s interesting, I’ll say -- and I’ll leave it at that. However, it did make me like the song itself a lot more. And if I ever get a tattoo (I won’t) I now know where I’m putting it.

Anyway. Moving on. The other day in the (e)mail a special present arrived from Labrador: The Summer 2008 sampler. 30 tracks from 17 different artists, all current and/or former Labrador affiliates. Talk about good.

You can download the album in full (here, as a zip file) and a lot of the songs can be downloaded individually as well (check Labrador's sounds site). There are a couple I want to particularly draw attention to. One is Explosions, by the Mary Onettes. I’d listened to the band a bit before, and wasn’t impressed. But this time around, something about Explosions really clicked with me, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the comp. Sort of a Jesus and Mary Chain feel, I think.

Another nice track is Club 8’s You and Me. It’s older (from 2001's Summer Songs EP), but I’d never heard it before. Unfortunately, like many of Club 8’s songs seem to be, it’s rather short (exactly two minutes). It’s not my favorite Club 8 song, but let’s be honest -- it’s Club 8. I’m happy.

Also awesome is Her Breasts Were Still Small, by Tribeca, who I’d never even heard of before. It’s the kind of song I imagine would be played in a very small, very dark, very sweaty club where everyone is wearing black, at like four in the morning. It also reminds me of that Blue Swan song Scene I – Just Like You Don’t -- but for entirely different reasons. It isn’t a lot like what I usually listen to, but I really, really like it.

Okay, and then something which you’ve probably already seen, if not downloaded, if you’ve read any indie pop mp3 blogs at all in the past few days: the Eardrums Summer’s Here! 2008 compilation. (Download here, also as zips.) 48 songs in two volumes and... wow. About half the artists are from Sweden and Norway (with the rest mostly from Australia, the UK, and here and there). I got it about 36 hours after finishing downloading the Labrador comp, and it was kind of overload. (Of course, it probably would have been anyway, but, well…) What good overload, though.

My favorite song on the compilation actually comes from the US: Our Time to Fall, by Fireflies. I don’t know what it is about this guy. The song is pretty simple; very crisp and clean. Also, he sounds like he’s whispering, which is really hard to successfully do. The words themselves are very good too. But now it’s time to talk about Scandinavian pop, so…

There’s also a remix of the newest Club 8 song, Take Me Home, but it’s rather disappointing. I like the original version far, far better. If you’re not already aware, that can be streamed at last.fm, too.

Instead I’ll focus on two other songs, one by a Norwegian band -- or, actually, just one guy, called the Little Hands of Asphalt. The song, Blue & Green, is very lo-fi and low-key, and kind of weird (lyrically, not sonically). To be honest, it sounds pretty much like it could be Fireflies, which may be why I like it. I’ve never heard anything else by the band, unfortunately, so I can’t say what their other stuff sounds like or even if further listening is worthwhile. (I no longer have very regular internet access, and probably won’t until I return to the states about a week and a half from now. I also have no headphones, and, when in a public place, streaming stuff online with my speakers is not really an option.)

I also liked The Summer’s First Kiss, by Celestial (from Sweden), which nearly closes out the comp (second to last). It sounds a lot like the others -- not particularly summery, I guess -- or rather, more like a slow-motion summer. It makes sense to me. It sounds good to me.

Anyway, good albums; good -- and mostly free! -- songs. And since I feel bad about the lack of mp3s available to download the past few weeks, hopefully this will do a bit to make up for it.

--DL--
Explosions (the Mary Onettes)
You and Me (Club 8)
Her Breasts Were Still Small (Tribeca)
Blue & Green (Little Hands of Asphalt)
The Summer’s First Kiss (Celestial)