« Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 12/22 - 12/28 | Main | Sissy Wish @ Hi-Dive, Denver 12.9.2008 »

December 22, 2008

Our Favorite Songs of 2008: #52-41

Ladyhawke - "My Delirium"

This arresting single by multitalented New Zealand songstress Pip Brown pulls you into the percolating psychodrama of a messed-with woman who isn't coy about the fact that she's losing it. The atmosphere is at once desperate and dangerous—and anchored by deadly hooks. And just when you think you've got the whole thing sussed, the bottom drops out into a languid, creamy near-silence. The Kim Wilde '80s synth-pop vibe is unmistakable, but when you strip away the smoky vocals and propulsive beat, what's left is a twitchy guitar figure that wouldn't sound out of place on a Gang of Four record. D. Klein

Marnie Stern - "Ruler"

The way Marnie Stern roars into action here, I'm willing to take her at her word that she hasn't slept for days. That nothing can keep her down, that she regularly grabs victory from defeat's jaws, and even that she charmed chaos into the beginnings of a beautiful friendship--fine, I buy it all. But boasts of time travel? Laws of physics circumnavigated through sheer pluck? Then again, consider her rise to acclaim, how she hunkered down in her bedroom for years before emerging as a full-throttle guitar virtuoso. She's got grit, good humor, and crackling positive energy to spare. Maybe she can crack the flux capacitor? Come to think of it, I remember a photo that nagged at me all throughout AP European History class. The one of the incongruously smiley blond girl sitting next to Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill at Yalta? Oh...my...GOD... J. Klingman

Diet Cola - "Sick Modern"

If Deerhunter's Josh Fauver has been mentioned much at all in the year-end morass, it's been for the perverted kraut bass line he laid square in the middle of that band's "Nothing Ever Happened." Though less surgically sinister, I've been playing this sloppy, obscure trifle he coughed out on the side even more often. There are lots of things happening in it. Constantly. The monicker "Diet Cola" conjures a sense of moderation, a tiny bit of self-denial with an effect more psychological than anything. It couldn't be less fitting. There's punk rock jet fuel in this can, and no one's bothered checking the calorie count. J.K.

Jay Reatard - "An Ugly Death"

There a good head fake at the beginning of this song, sold more efficiently by Jay's cloud of frizzed to death curls. Of course it was going to be a destructive DIY explosion, but he bought an extra long wick, tightly weaved of Spector drums and psycho strings. On the verses, he practically barks. "An!" "Ugly!" "Death!" "For A!" "Pret-ty!" "Girl!" The chorus' bursts of Clean-esque enthusiasm seems so carefree in comparison. When compulsively singing along, it's tough to put the pieces together. "For You, For Me, For All to See," I've sung happily dozens of times. But wait a second, is this track celebrating a snuff film? Those are some sophisticated creeps you've given us, Reatard. JK

Beyonce - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"

Through a shrewd series of moves, you've traded in your measly Midwestern governorship for a plum position managing one of the nation's most precious resources: Beyonce. Things are going to be different now. Sure, the pantsless-dance videos can stay--that's just good policy. And of course, there's a lot to like in the current Beyonce production bureaucracy. The departments of handclaps, nagging synth squeals, and taking no shit from Jay-Z are all performing admirably. But those diva breakdowns, the ones that derail the cool minimalism and make her songs seem more ordinary than they really are, those will go. This will be your legacy.

"Mr. Secretary, Beyonce's on the phone. She wants to know what happened to her diva breakdown."

You are in way over your head.

-JK

Air France - "June Evenings"

"Spring has arrived early here; a time for lovers. And it is as if the season mocks my sadness." The first line of "June Evenings" sums it up pretty well. The central vocal is tear-stained, fragile. But around it, everything's bursting into full-color life, sprouting magnificent plumes, bearing young, and getting drunk on standing pools of nectar. You'd think our gal might cheer up in the face of it all, but her melancholy is flowering into something wonderful as well. JK

Stereolab - "Three Women"

Even in the smallest corner of Dali’s brain that is labeled as “too weird for the public” you would be hard pressed to find an image that equates to the surreal line in “Three Women” that enchants, “quand le monstre des mers titille” or as the English would say, “where the sea monster is titillating.” Only in a Stereolab song could a creature like the Loch Ness Monster be transformed into a sexual object. “Three Women” is catapulted with breeze filled Motown-esque horn lines ushered in with poppy but dense layers of rhythm. In this animated dreamscape arguing that the sound of Stereolab is too familiar is like complaining that the plot lines of Tom & Jerry overlap. Just suspend some belief and enjoy the program. Y. Korngold

the Ruby Suns - "Kenya Dig It?"

Lots of fuss has been made over song’s title/ lesson in bad puns but let’s just be happy Ryan McPhun’s explorations in sound didn’t take him to other countries on the African continent, or we could have ended up with a song called “Shake Djibuouti,” or “I’m Ghana Make You Dance!” or even a desperate “More rock, oh?” With a whimsical dreamlike beginning, the song winds from the thrusts of a drinking song for those toasting on a Yellow Submarine into powerful and elegant phrases of beauty. The ending is so strong that the most circulated video of this number contained only of the song’s last two minutes. In these last two minutes there is a build up under the spell of chime crashes that march into an ethereal dialogue of “what the kid’s don’t know/ just let them go” or as Pete Townshend would say, “the kids are alright.” - Y.K.

the Ting Tings - "That's Not My Name"

Part cheerleader-type call out, part lament, "That's Not My Name" demonstrates the Ting Ting's attention to detail. Starting out with a simple bass drum backbeat, Katie White glides in with a straightforward, slow-moving verse, before the chorus leads to an indignant anthem about what a travesty it is that such a memorable person is oft wrongly stereotyped and forgotten. Enriched by little flourishes like a simple ascendant guitar at the end of each chorus stanza, and Jules De Martino's subtle backup vocals, the song enjoyably chugs along briskly. K. O'Brien

Hot Chip - "One Pure Thought"

"One Pure Thought" is what Wyld Stallyns would have sounded like if Bill and Ted had spent their high school days adoring New Order and Talk Talk instead of Slaughter and, inexplicably, Enya. And wouldn't that have been way better? All the time listening to Cheap Trick and David Byrne would still be evident, but the end product would have been a whole lot cooler, and a bit more accurately futuristic. That Hot Chip so effectively combine their influences without showing the seams is a testament to the common ground of fun and sincerity, even if the occasional Austin audience totally doesn't get it. R. Monty

Lil' Wayne - "Got Money"

"I don't write rhymes, because I don't have time" – Lil Wayne, "A Milli"

Perhaps we're all well served by that. Because what he writes in his blog for ESPN: The Magazine makes even less sense than some of his lyrics – "Let's say you're a goon. Well, what's a goon to a goblin? Nothing. They're the same thing. So are the Raiders goons and the Titans the goblins? No, because the Titans are having an amazing year and the Raiders have been not so amazing. If you're going for a goons and goblins reference, I would say if you're calling Oakland goons I would use Jacksonville or St. Louis as goblins."

Onto "Got Money", which barely beat out the blistering, braggadocios "A Milli". This song is the epitome of what is right about most music. While I do enjoy my lugubrious music (Low, anyone?), this song represents pure, untainted fun. It's as if T-Pain and Weezy just unwrapped an auto-tune near the Christmas tree and decided to compose a song right then and there. That is not to say it's not tight. With a chugging Miami-bass riff and Wayne's smart decision to have most of the verses unaided by the now-ubiquitous auto-tune, it's a smart, fierce song. He knows when to create space and give the music its due, and knows when to take over and blow everything out of the park. What could have been a drop in the luxe lifestyle rap bucket is one of the most enjoyable songs of the year. K.O.

Fight Bite - "Swissex Lover"

Though it's sworn in the midst of the track that the singers will "never, never love again," I can't believe it for a second. This song is too lovely to have sprung from hearts forever closed. But it does create a plausible womb in which to think that you just couldn't go on. The beautiful cruelty in Leanne's reading of the line, "...some leave you for Swiss ex-lovers," can vicariously stop me in my tracks for a few minutes. Imagine what mental images of your beloved, manhandled by some cuckoo clock on the ski-slopes could do. JK

Posted by Jeff Klingman at December 22, 2008 03:50 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1920

Comments

Posted by: withknivesout at December 31, 2008 07:05 PM

Posted by: withknivesout at December 31, 2008 07:06 PM

Posted by: withknivesout at December 31, 2008 07:08 PM

Post a comment