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DOWNLOAD: Memoryhouse - Walk With Me
(Photo: Vanessa Heins)
On "Walk With Me," Memoryhouse sound like they built a studio in the prettiest cloud they could find. Airy, plodding, tastefully orchestrated and with just enough anthemic indie elements to soundtrack college evenings, the track serves as an intriguing sample for the group's full-length Sub Pop debut The Slideshow Effect. Look for more February 28.
DOWNLOAD: Beach Fossils - Shallow
"Shallow" is unashamed to be a glistening piece of dream-pop. It's like Beach Fossils just got out of the pool before recording it. Guitars jump and ping around, bass bounces with sprightly intuition and the drums form a distinctive motor. It's the A-side to a new single that band is putting out via Captured Tracks on February 21.
DOWNLOAD: Elephant & Castle - En Memoria (feat. Tune-Yards)
Elephant & Castle, aka David Vincent Reep, is something of a wanderer, which bodes well for his sonic cameleon sensibilities. Take this one, "En Memoria," which features Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards) on vocals and seems to pluck natural sound from all over the globe with an intensely spiritual focus. Atmospheric, lush and dreamy, flutes flicker while hands pound away on the rawhide of drums and keys hang in the wind – a great introduction to what will go down on Elephant & Castle's debut, Transitions, which comes March 13 via Plug Research.
DOWNLOAD: Xiu Xiu - Hi
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No matter where he's gone, Jamie Stewart's Xiu Xiu always brings an unparalleled emotional intensity. "Hi" features his distinctive vocals over a relatively accessible 8-bit-teasing club roller. Snares attack, junk synths croak away, bells pop like flashing bulbs and there's lots of great counter-melody. "If you are wasting your life," teases Stewart, "Say hi." There's no doubt we will when this track gets packaged with 11 others on Always, which comes March 6 on Polyvinyl.
DOWNLOAD: Silver Swans - Let It Happen
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People look at how flippant pop stars are today, and they blame it on the 1980s. "The 1980s," they almost always think to themselves, "were a simpler time – but not in the same way as the 1930s were a simpler time. It wasn't a golden age, people were just sociopathic wankers. That's why they listened to synthpop then and every pop song now has a synth in it because everyone now is a sociopathic wanker, just like they were in the 1980s." And then you listen to Silver Swans' Ann Yu using the clear, sparkling lines of "Let It Happen" to try to find a pathway through the mazz of her own emotions, and you realize who the real sociopaths are.
STREAM: Andrew Bird - Eyeoneye
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Hyper-melodic, orchestral, innovative, experimental, indie and emotional, Andrew Bird is all those things to different people, and he's back with a new record, Break It Yourself, set for March 6 on Mom + Pop. "Eyeoneye" is more than enough to whet your proverbial whistle (gross sentence, I know). With its sharp turns and pointed scoring, this one could have gone in a different, more difficult direction, but Bird puts songcraft first to create a pop number filled with fluid beauty. It feels, like, alive.
DOWNLOAD: Field Music - A New Town
Field Music makes some tangly anthemic pop for a band so steeped in minimalism. New one "A New Town" takes an accordion fugue into a pointy funk that's so tight you might want to squeeze it. With a falsetto lead vocal that would make Pharrell proud, this is wobbly pop wrapped in nylon. Hear more on the band's new album Measure, which comes Valentine's Day on Memphis Industries.
DOWNLOAD: Cate Le Bon - Puts Me To Work
Cate Le Bon practices a perfectly lazy late-night rock that exudes optimism for a new day on "Puts Me To Work." At its core, there's an out of tune piano that sounds like it was just dusted-off. A slippery guitar barely falls into place to hit the right notes. And it's so poppy! The carefree, comfortable warmth of Le Bon's voice makes this one sit nicely alongside some of my favorite '90s indie-pop. Hear more January 17 on the Welsh songwriter's new album CYRK via The Control Group.
