Mp3 over here from Fluxblog:

I am getting totally hooked by this new single (release date February, 16th) of Blonde Redhead which is very different from the noisy and arty stuff similar to Sonic Youth they have made before. They have signed to 4AD and Elephant Woman has this dreamy ethereal flair which stands for 4AD artists like Cocteau Twins or Lush. It is an opulent pop tune descending right from heaven with Kazu Makino's angelic soprano. Her vocals are extraordinary. Hers must be the purest most innocent voice in pop music and at the same time it is extremely erotic. This may be a cliché-ridden male phantasy but I can imagine her uttering those high-pitch tones when making sex. There is a screaming quality to them though they do not feel out of tune at all. On past albums her voice used to be more like Yoko Ono's shrieking; now it evokes the sensuous Jane Birkin in her prime time. Makino's singing sounds as if she was having a permanent orgasm. In the second half of the song there is this keyboard sequence going higher and higher. It is like a carpet moving up towards the sky rolled out for her voice to return back to where it came from. The new album Misery Is a Butterfly will be out on March, 9th.

Another brilliant pop song of theirs: In Particular featuring an amazing clapping intro from the last album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons at Epitonic.

Mp3 (live at Ted's Wrecking Yard 2002) and lyrics.

This is one of the songs which you think you have heard before when you listen to it for the first time. It's an infectious irresistible tune sung by Joel Gibb, the leader of the Hidden Cameras from Toronto.

Gibb's voice is rather high-pitch in the same vein as Jimmy Somerville from Bronski Beat or the Gibb brothers from the Bee Gees. It is full of soul and melody. The guitars, keyboards, drums and the xylophone are just providing the perfect rhythmic bed for this incredibly beautiful voice blossoming like a rose in winter.

P.S. Thank you for making me discover this, koalarama.

P.P.S. Over at Said the Gramophone there is another (slightly overproduced) version of this song and Sean wrote about it and a concert he attended.

Do you know this setting? You hear a song for the first time and it clicks immediately. But it is still more an intuitive grasp than anything else. You have to listen to the song again and again and again. To discover every tiny detail. Till every little distortion makes sense. But then because of exterior circumstances you have to stop listening. The song is still in your head when you do some profane everyday conversation. You feel deprivation. You have to listen to the song again. Now. You cannot go on with normal business. There is a hole in you which has to be filled. You have to play the song to death (which I fortunately haven't yet after about ten listens). Here is the song and here is the review which made me discover it. Think shoegazing in the Midwest or something.

Guy Chadwick repeats one line about twenty times in this song:

And I always have the impression that he sings this line 3/4 of the time and once in a while he sings

Is this me or Guy?

By the way House of Love were one of the greatest British bands which came after The Smiths. They never had the success they merited. Life is unjust. But they are back, Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers are playing kind of secret shows in tiny London clubs with balconies obscuring the vision of the stage. Check their unofficial home page by a Swedish fan. Just ignore and/or close the shitty pop-up. What did you expect of a fan page of a loser band like that?

P.S. Yes, I am really disappointed that you never ever commented on my blog, Andrew.

Pacific from Hem, sung by Sally Ellison. There is no better way to end the day. Lyrics here. Infos on the NY band at the All Music Guide.

One of the outstanding songs on the new Swell (French fan site) album Whenever You're Ready. The album is pretty good though a tad too long. A return to form after the disappointing last record, 2001's Everybody Wants to Know which was basically David Freel solo on guitar and electronic devices. For those who know nothing about Swell their music could be best described as westcoast guitar pop psychedelia in the tradition of Dream Syndicate with a spacy cinematic component.

Next to Nothing (mp3) has Swell's typical warm and wistful acoustic guitar sound which always makes me think of the San Fransico fog with the sun rays slowly piercing through it. On top of that is a dreamy keyboard line and Freel's slightly raspy baritone which reconnects the song to the earth. Sean Kirkpatrick who lives in Santa Barbara now is back on drums and is also responsible for the lush CD artwork always close to postcard/poster kitsch but still gorgeous. David Freel sings here in a duet with Cory Sipper, a folkish singer/songwriter from Santa Barbara. Considering that I am not a fan of duets I find this one works amazingly well.

There is a telephone ringing during the whole of this song from Swell's chef d'œuvre, their third album 41 from 1994, named after the street number where they recorded the album, in a warehouse in in Turk Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco.

It's ringing in the far distance, in the beginning there is hardly any music and there is just the telephone. And it is so important that no-one ever picks up the phone. The ringing is just there for the song. It is stripped off its original meaning, i.e. to signify that someone wants to talk to someone else. For the sake of art. Its sound is telling me that if someone really wants something from me he bloody has to turn up himself and not use such a stupid technical device ;-). It's a very relaxing sound, in the background, going on forever. Without anybody taking care of it. That's so swell.

I just read over at The Age (via the null device) that the fourteen songs on the new Radiohead album Hail to the Thief all have subtitles.

In the article the subtitles of two songs are mentioned: Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky (Sail to the Moon) and Judge, Jury & Executioner (Myxomatosis).

Does any of my readers have the complete list of subtitles (especially the one for Sit Down, Stand Up)? And could she/he post them in the comments if possible? A Google search yielded zero results. I ordered the album but it won't arrive here before Tuesday I'd guess.

The end of said article is about the album title and adds an ex-post (self-fulfilling prophesy?) explanation of it:

Thom Yorke can say what he wants about the meaning of the title and the lyrics of Radiohead's new album Hail to the Thief. For me and for the wide public this will always be a political album criticising the fraudulent practices of the current president of the US and the people behind him. And that is all that counts. Maybe Yorke did not intend it as a protest album. In that case it is his unconsciousness speaking. Which actually would make the political statement even stronger. In any case the lyrics are ambiguous enough to provide clues for this interpretation.

The title of the first song for me symbolizes the new world disorder. The end of rationality and logic, the beginning of despotism and chaos. Whoosh is only in power as two times two votes have been counted as five. The maths has been twisted. The new calculus of power: the powerful decide the rules of arithmetics. Concerning the official reason for the Iraq war, the so-called WMD, the equation was equivalent. It read 0+0=1. Dumbsfeld said so.

Musically 2+2=5 is the most dynamic song on the album. Things pick up slowly. We can hear a low-key succession of notes of an acoustic guitar. Yorke sings in a normal tempo, volume and non-falsetto voice:

A melancholic guitar theme appears. The "vibrato" guitar play builds up the tension. Yorke sings:

Up till the peak when Yorke starts shouting and the song explodes into an up-tempo hard-rock number. The guitars are loud and fast now, the real drums kick in with all their ferocity. Lyrics:

After that middle part there is another change of level. The guitars jangle (think Unrest) for a short while before they change again and start sounding like a very fast car trying to brake. Yorke repeats the album title line which when written out always makes me think of the German Heil Hitler. One has to admit though that Hitler got elected by the people and not by the judges:

and all of a sudden the car comes to a stop and everything is over. As if it had only been a bad trip. Let's hope that this be the truth concerning current American politics as well.

An amazing opener going straight into the centre of things. Yorke et al. do not beat about the bush, they hit us right into the head. The listener has no time to reflect about this track, it passes by with an enormous speed and leaves only distant memories.

Thread on this song at I Love Music.