Popdar! - 28/10/11

#41
"Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys"
Karen O


Apparently this is a cover of a Willie Nelson song from the 70s (ta NME), and this video was made, and subsequently this track to soundtrack it, for an American farming support organization. But take away all that context, and you've got a haunting, ethereal, piano 'n' pad led track with a beautifully simple vocal from Karen O, in a rare calm and collected performance, where her voice doesn't crack with emotion, and as a result, exuding even more.

Popdar! - 17/10/11

#40
"Reunion"
M83

Ok, ok, I've been slack with posts, I apologize, but I have a reet toon for you here.

Previously vague, ethereal and dense, M83's "Midnight City" was a total 180 in direction, an epic synthpop power ballad that The Naked and Famous would've killed for, with surely one of the hooks of the year, that startling falsetto screech, and a gleefully guilty pleasure of a saxaphone solo as the track stomped it's way triumphantly into the night.

But following "Midnight City" on M83's new record "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" is a whole new kind of 80s collosus. On the life-affirmingly bright "Reunion", guitars clang and echo like U2 and the melody hits the Chesney Hawkes rock anthem nerve like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. Sound awful? Maybe it is, but by god I love it.

 M-83 Reunion by ProjectX1

"Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" came out this week and I suggest you buy it. Truly exciting full albums are few and far between in 2011.