The Playlist is a weekly column where staff writers and occasional guest musicians will have the opportunity to put together a Spotify playlist of songs which they’ve been listening to recently.
* “Stare and Fallin'” from Zacarocha and “The World is Full of Angry Young Men” by XTC are unavailable on Spotify. Soundcloud and YouTube links have been substituted.
01. Sigur Rós – “Sæglópur”
“Sometimes you just want to hear something without worrying about what it means and Sigur Ros are usually perfect for that. Last years Valtari was brilliant but nothing can really compare to Takk and ‘Saeglopur’ is one of the best from that album.” ~Leslie Fernandez
02. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse (feat. The Flaming Lips) – “Revenge”
“Dark Night of the Soul, the collaboration between Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse and the final recorded album Mark Linkous left behind for us, has never really blended in for me with the rest of the Sparklehorse catalog. As much as I’ve wanted to warm up to it, I never have. But this song is absolutely incredible and remains a propped open gateway to the other songs on the album. So long as I keep coming back to this one track, Dark Night of the Soul will keep getting chance after chance to click. I’m hopeful that one day it will.” ~Andrew J. Bailey
03. Zacarocha – “Stare and Fallin'”
“Like a chopped-and-screwed James Blake on steroids, Portugal’s Guilherme Lopes takes ambient and future garage tropes and infuses them with a loving dollop of haunted soul. Great stuff, especially for a first release.” ~Josh Becker
04. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “More News From Nowhere”
“The back catalogue of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is a wonderful, glorious thing, and the closing track on Dig Lazarus Dig! is full of violent, stirring poetry from an ace storyteller. Cave sure goes to some weird parties.” ~Brendan Frank
05. Future Bible Heroes – “Losing Your Affection”
“Stephin Merritt’s intentions for the direction of his Future Bible Heroes side project (a collaboration with ex-boyfriend Chris Ewen and Magnetic Field Claudia Gonson) can best be summed up by the fact that he once contributed three covers, with three separate aliases, to a Human League tribute album and saved “Don’t You Want Me” for this one. The collaboration just dropped the first single from their newest effort, Partygoing, so now’s as good a time as any to acquaint yourself with this excellent opening cut from 2002’s Eternal Youth.” ~Ryan Stanley
06. Thanksgiving – “Thanksgiving”
“I’ve spent some time lately delving into the weird secluded world of Adrian Orange. This self-reflective cut is culled from Orange’s 2005 self-titled effort as Thanksgiving, released when he was only 19. Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie called Orange, around this time, the writer of the greatest songs in the world, and Orange’s sonorous voice and fumbly acoustic guitar ramblings don’t do much to shirk that assertion.” ~Colin Joyce
07. Bonobo – “All In Forms”
“Bonobo’s new album, The North Borders, is out in a couple weeks and I’m pretty excited. This track’s a gem from his 2010 album Black Sands. I love when he holds the drums from coming in a few seconds too long before letting them crash in. Pure escapism, this one.” ~Will Ryan
08. Iceage – “Ecstasy”
“I’ve been too busy to listen to numerous new releases, but finally got around to hearing the latest Iceage album, in anticipation of their show this Saturday. The ferocious heedlessness of the song feels like an antidote to the annoying two-week old pain I’ve been experiencing from nerve/tissue -related damage. I’m sure I’ll be feeling ecstasy on Saturday night instead of pain.” ~Autumn Andel
09. XTC – “The World Is Full Of Angry Young Men”
“XTC’s songs have a way of being somehow even more relevant 30 years later. This is one such song, whose sentiment has, with the advent of the internet, become far too apparent.” ~Harrison Suits Baer
10. Yo La Tengo – “Cast A Shadow”
“I’d always enjoyed Beat Happening for tunes like “Indian Summer” and “Tiger Trap,” but it was “Our Secret” and “Cast a Shadow” that made me love them. Yo La Tengo’s cover of the latter trades in the original’s frayed beauty for something more traditionally pretty, but it never loses the heart of the song’s charm. As such, it might just be the perfect window into Beat Happening’s world for anybody initially put off by Calvin Johnson and co.’s often unabashedly ugly style.” ~Ryan Stanley
11. Zomby – “Strange Fruit”
“Predating both studio releases that brought the Anonymous fiend to wider attention, ‘Strange Fruit’ is a seemingly endless rendering of warped Game Over melodies, hefty knocks and welterweight bass that adds up to one of the most energetic tracks in Zomby’s repertoire, and one of the best to boot. Over the weekend I watched a DJ drop this in a packed club at peak time; no-one had heard it in years but it proved absolutely revelatory, a full half-decade after release.” ~Gabriel Szatan
12. Phosphorescent – “The Mermaid Parade”
“With Matthew Houck having just released his latest record as Phosphorescent this week, I found myself going back and forth between his latest, Muchacho, and his previous record Here’s To Taking It Easy. The absolutely stunning apex track on Here’s To Taking It Easy, the deceptively laid-back, yet emotionally devastating tale of marital collapse that is “The Mermaid’s Parade,” plies much of its intensity and wrought-iron integrity from Houck’s honestly effective and plain spoken lyrics. And when he sings “But god damn it Amanda, oh god damn it all,” it just kills me.” ~Joshua Pickard
If you enjoy any of these tracks, please support the artists by purchasing their respective albums.
