My Girls February 10, 2009
Posted by awkwardworld in Music.trackback
It’s official: you can all stop listening to new music. The best song of 2009 has already arrived.
“My Girls” by Animal Collective will own you all over your face. Think the Shins at their peppiest harmonizing over the Knife at their trippiest.
I don’t typically care for Animal Collective; they usually make albums of screechy, random noise, somehow too abrasive and too cutesy all at the same time. But on their new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, they’ve organized some of that noise into things called “songs,” which feature both “hooks” and “coherent lyrics.” It’s just the right amount of abrasive, just the right amount of cutesy. It’s actually pretty great. And “My Girls” rules ass.
Listen to “My Girls” along with some other songs I’ve been digging recently. It’s short and sweet. We’ll call it the
Adobe Slats EP
1. Nicole Atkins – Neptune City
2. Animal Collective – My Girls
3. Dirty Projectors – Thirsty and Miserable
4. Los Campesinos! – Death to Los Campesinos!
5. Lily Allen – Back to the Start
6. The Beatles – I’ve Just Seen a Face
7. Neko Case – People Got a Lotta Nerve
8. Old Crow Medicine Show – Highway Halo
10. Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
I’d also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge one of my favorite singer-songwriters, the criminally underappreciated Nicole Atkins. I saw Nicole Atkins & the Sea at the Local 506 last spring, and was one of only about 20 people present. But dammit, the 20 of us were treated to one of the most memorable performances of my life: the kind of pure, powerful vocals for which her more-famous counterparts Neko Case and Jenny Lewis are well-known, with the charisma of a movie star and the amiability and approachability of a hometown hero (she’s from Springsteen’s neck of the woods, so I’m not surprised), and one of the best backing bands this side of E Street. I got to talk with her for a while after the show, and she was gracious, funny, and she not only signed my poster, she also sang an a capella song she had left out of her set just for me and the others who stuck around. Wow.
Check out her self-described “pop-noir” album Neptune City, and her excellent EPs, 2006’s Bleeding Diamonds, and 2008’s Nicole Atkins Digs Other People’s Songs.
Nicole Atkins – Together We’re Both Alone
Lily Allen’s new CD is pretty good too. Springsteen’s isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. Goofy-ass cover on that one. Lily Allen is sex incarnate.
Bruce Springsteen – My Lucky Day
man you suck. Your obscure perception of the purpse of music and it’s representation in our society disgusts me. Your sense of creativity is quite shallow. Depending on the conventional lyrics and hooks is a cop out.
Nicole’s album is beautiful,she deserves much more attention.