Duran Duran - "New Moon On Monday": "All this press about the recent vampire entertainment craze (largely focused around HBO's True Blood and Twilight: New Moon)...really just makes me think about "New Moon on Monday" by Duran Duran instead. I hope someone figures out how to get it on the New Moon soundtrack so the tweens can discover it's awesomeness. Besides, I hear that the Twilight vampires sparkle...not unlike Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes."
Shakira - "She Wolf": "I can't get over how there is now a pop song whose lyrics include 'this is lycanthropy' - and doesn't automatically kill the flow of the song. I even kind of like the disco-club vibe of the song, even if I still somehow prefer parts of in Spanish. (Perhaps someone will mix the two versions together...) I just wish she didn't actually howl in the song, in either version."
Sarah Michelle Gellar - "Teen Horniness is Not a Crime": "I stumbled onto this track completely by accident - I had no idea it was on the soundtrack to Southland Tales, the convoluted-yet-fascinating (if in a train-wreck kind of way) movie by Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame. SMG performs this track as her character in the movie, Krista Now, a porn star/recording artist/talk-show host. Even if you haven't seen the movie, just knowing that it's SMG performing this song should make it entertaining enough."
Gladys Knight & The Pips - "I've Got To Use My Imagination": "Miss Knight gives it to you rough and the Pips give it to you smooth. The music is taut, using lush strings and horns in what is largely an economic arrangement, all as a perfect stage for Gladys' raw-but-strong lead vocals."
Servotron - "I Am Not A (Voice Activated Child Identicon)": "Following up on yesterday's 'robot' track, here's another. This time, evil-Devo-on-speed rockers Servotron become a murderous version of pre-teen humanoid robot Vicki from television's "Small Wonder" - now plotting the death of all humans, chanting "HARRIET TERMINATED! HARRIET SHALL DIE!" while hunting the show's precocious red-headed neighbor. Twisted and brilliant."
Royksopp - "The Girl And The Robot": "Pulsing Giorgio Moroder synths back Robyn's glorious vocals for a tale of girl-on-metaphorical-robot love and drama. I don't like the way she says the song title, for some reason, but everything else sounds terrific."
Culture Club - "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me": "I will always love the video for this song, where Boy George:
- emerges out of a pool completely dry!
- wears a shirt with Hebrew on it, but only to be different!
- is thrown into jail after harassing stuffy old rich men for some reason or another!
- is then freed from jail by 'magical' Caribbean women who open his cell by simply holding onto his cell bars and dancing. Boy helps by looking at them and pouting.
Then again, he is hurt.
Of course, it helps that this is a great song, equal parts soul and pop, with a touch of island rhythm."
I Was a King - "Norman Bleik": "This album reminds me of Olivia Tremor Control's retro vibes turned back in a more straight-forward manner, but this song specifically echoes 60s California pop, with its Byrds-y jangling and energetically hushed androgynous vocals."
Messiah - "Temple Of Dreams": Remember when rave culture seemed like the biggest trend ever? This song can't help but make me think of that time, but also listening to KROQ in LA, circa `92. I'm pretty sure the "stomp your feet" sample is the 'Spirit Child' from Prince's Lovesexy album, but the real sample gem is - obviously - Richard Dawson from The Running Man movie. Survey says 'awesome'."
The Human League - "The Lebanon (12" Extended Mix)": "I know that I've already posted about "The Lebanon" before, but this version is even more Lebanon-y than the original - which means a few extra go-arounds of the bass line that I love so well."
Spoon - "Got Nuffin": "A new, lean, mean rocker from Spoon. I got a little worried on the last record when we started getting horns and stuff, but this is a good blend of their older, angular tunes with their newer sound."
No Knife - "Academy Flight Song": "Even though there is a Jimmy Eat World-meets-Jawbreaker quality to songs like this, No Knife keeps up the rock while working in some less obvious instrumental shifts. (I also can't help but wonder if this is a nod to Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song", since No Knife does also recall MoB in some ways.)
The album as a whole (Fire In The City of Automatons) is a under-appreciated slice of straight-forward modern rock mixed with subtly adventuresome song structures and instrumentation."
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