First of all, apologies dear readers for our slight silence as we’ve all been quite preoccupied this week! To make up for lack of articles and mp3s, all which shall return next week again, here’s a little batch of things I’ve been powerplaying recently whenever I’ve had the chance to powerplay anything. They might not be as fashionable choices as Mag’s mathnoisetechnojanglepaganindierock delights or as immense of a treasurepile as Ipequey’s weekly chest of indie pop diamonds from today and the past, but they sure are gooood.

First of all, we have a little piece of the Finnish quirky pop group Regina. They released their third album Puutarhatrilogia recently and, well, it’s not really my cup of tea. Regina’s debut Katso maisemaa still charms me with its goofy, naïve-ish attitude but after the debut the band’s decided to grow up and take a slightly more mature, and a bit artsier, approach to their music. Which is great! For them anyway. They continue to develop as artists and that’s a good thing, and I can definitely see why people love their more recent albums, but I just kinda miss that fun little novelty charm that got me into buying the debut in the first place.

Anyway! “Saanko jäädä yöksi?” is Puutarhatrilogia’s centerpiece focus and the album’s best track, an artsy little pseudo-dance ditty driven by an irresistable piano melody, chopped vocal clips and Iisa Pajula’s quirky singing, mixed together with a brilliant burst in intensity as the drums finally hit the stage fully and interspersed with a random dancehall interlude. It’s quirky, it’s brilliant.

MP3: Saanko jäädä yöksi?
Puutarhatrilogia on Recordshop X

Kashmir is a Danish rock band who started off as some sort of funk-rocksters, if I’m reading my Wikipedia correctly, and then drifted into a more melancholy, melodic rock act. Zitilites is widely regarded as their best album and whilst it suffers from slight overlength mixed together with a bit too similar tempo all the way through, it’s an enchanting and good listen that’s been keeping me in its grips lately. The lead man Kasper Eistrup sounds like he’s been taking vocal lessons from Thom Yorke which makes the music occasionally sound like a long lost off-shoot album from Radiohead’s OK Computer era, but you know, that’s a good thing.

“Rocket Brothers” was a big hit in Denmark and a fairly audible thing elsewhere in Scandinavia too when it was released, and for a very good reasons: great melodies, excellent atmosphere, good chorus. It’s one of Zitilites’ best tracks and even if the rest of the album isn’t one’s cup of tea, Rocket Brothers is a brilliant song worth keeping anyway.

MP3: Rocket Brothers
Zitilites on Amazon

Right, let’s crack open that Manic Street Preachers chest a bit more now that Journal for Plague Lovers is pretty much out. “Virginia State Epileptic Colony” got a brief mention on my Journal for Plague Lovers review and now I’m gonna share the brilliance that it is. Mopeyman Richey’s indecipherable and sloganeering-filled lyrics featuring such amazing lines as “pig pig piggy!” are set upon a hilariously upbeat jangle pop backing that sounds like it’s taking the complete piss out of anyone who thinks the song was going to be something deep and serious. The chorus is pure awesomeness in its almost humorous singalong tone, and check out that plinky-plonky piano interlude! Journal’s got a strong lighter side and and VSEC’s a great example of that.

MP3: Virginia State Epileptic Colony
Journal for Plague Lovers on Amazon

Finally, something from that Danger Mouse / Sparklehorse / kitchen sink collaboration album Dark Night of the Soul that’s now making itself famous by all the legal dispute news that might prevent its physical release. Fortunately, it’s out there digitally already and let me tell you, outside the Black Francis / Iggy Pop -twofer weakspot around the middle-ish, it’s very very good. Mr Ipequey of our wonderful blog establishment might give you a bit more indepth account on the album’s bliss at some point, being an even bigger Sparklehorse lover than I am, but I shall give you a sample MP3 in the form of the album’s opening track – the Flaming Lips collaboration “Revenge”. It’s five minutes of chilled out, hopeful, dreamy orchestrated bliss and beauty, not too far from the brilliant Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Easily one of the best songs of 2009? You bet. Just check out that sweeping beauty of a chorus. And mmmm, the atmosphere…

MP3: Revenge (feat. The Flaming Lips)

This was Flint’s random MP3 moment, hope you enjoyed this brief dabble in me making an mp3 update for a change!

Tags: Danger Mouse, Flaming Lips, Kashmir, Manic Street Preachers, mp3, Regina, Sparklehorse

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Other, Song Ramble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.