Songs! Individual songs! They’re everywhere! The motion tracker is going crazy! Oh god, they’re everywhere! Game over man, game over!

Viola’s March Melancholy

Faithful as ever, the oh so lovely Viola have released a new song just as the new month turned its leaf. This one’s called “Fade to White” and it’s inspired by the bucketloads of snow we all first went all “ooh” and “aah” about but then it started delaying trains, crashing cars and canceling flights like crazy and all the beautiful magic of pure snow was forgotten in favour of it being damn cold and fairly annoying in long exposure.

Anyway, the song’s rather good and it’s all wonderfully moody. Free to download from Viola Music Club as always and if you want a direct link, a direct link you shall haveth.

They’ve also got a poll about your favourite track of theirs from the past year so if you like tickboxes (yay!) or wish to aid the duo in their ominous unknown goals, frolic here.

Foals return, are good

You remember Foals from a few years back? The one with the really ugly debut album cover? It’s ok if you don’t, they were pretty boring and fairly unexciting, just another quirky indie band among the billion others. Although I remember fellow IP member Mag liking them, or at least that’s what his RYM rating says.

Anyway, they’re back with a new album this year and much like The Horrors last year who surprised everyone by moving from a wonky debut into an “album of the year” topper (although I wasn’t that impressed by it), Foals have the making of being the surprise act of the year. The new tune’s called “Spanish Sahara” and it’s all wonderfully pretty, atmospheric and dreamy. And when the inevitable rock break finally happens, the song retains all those qualities. It’s also got quite a good video, starring beards and barren snowy landscapes. Check it from here.

And if you give your email in exchange for spam letters, you can also get a free remix of the song. I don’t know what it’s like, I didn’t bother.

Squirrelhouse continue being pretty damn cool

A still fairly unknown name that’s probably already established itself into the heads of everyone reading this blog because I keep going on about them, Squirrelhouse are a band who keep trickling songs from their upcoming sophomore album and everytime deliver something pretty great. This is the case again. There’s a couple of new songs up in their Myspace: one’s called “Jolene” and it’s a mid-tempo festival of gorgeous guitar melodies and tightly grooving bass, and the other one is titled “All That Shit” and sounds like a slightly less loopy version of what Midlake were doing back in their debut album days, filling itself with fuzzy synths, a monotonous disco beat and ethereal guitar breaks to the effect of sounding like a deep space alien dance band.

These days I’m pretty wary of overhyping myself because it’s more than common for even trusty artists to release pretty great preview songs and then come up with something not-as-exciting (see: 2008), but Squirrelhouse’s second album seems like a firm guess for being a pretty damn good album when it comes out because all the countless songs trickled out so far (okay, three. Or five if you count the two-part “Monster” from way back) have all been yay in the scale from yay to nay.

Laura Marling! This month!

Okay so this is fairly old news already but might as well add it to the same slop as all these others because we’re in the habit of linking to songs today and I’ve been in a fairly heavy Marling-inspired kick lately (both through her solo debut as well as the two Noah and the Whale albums). The songstress is releasing a second album “I Speak Because I Can” late this month and while there was that Christmas-time single “Goodbye England”, a lead single proper appeared a fair while ago. “Devil’s Spoke” is rather strikingly different from her older material, relying far more on percussion and rhythm and sounding rather storming and aggressive when compared to the fragile ballads of the debut. It’s also awesome. Roll on March 22nd!

Her PR team are a bunch of party poopers and forbid embedding so click an old fashioned link for the official video, featuring exotic locations and campfire singalongs.

Still continuing with their “song a month” project, it’s Viola! And to brighten up the cold February, here’s a doo-do-do-do-doo-riffic piece of sunshiney pop rock about the joys of love and how your heart seems to as if burst into a song when the big crush happens. The song is called “Heart Breaks Into a Song” and it’s all kinds of awesome – awesome sounds, catchy choruses, brilliantly self-aware-of-inherent-silliness lyrics (”what the hell is going on?”), and all that! It’s a must listen.

Download it from here.

And in case you missed it last month, because I wasn’t here to post it, Viola welcomed us to the new decade with a song called “2010s (Maybe the World Won’t End)” that opened up the new year with a suitably groovy synthpop feel. Check out that awesome string sample!

MP3 here.

2010 is approaching soon. Twelve new months full of brand new music, from old veterans, young bands and complete upcomers. Just to go up-to-date on what’s happening with the artists that pleasure Flint’s tastebuds, it’s time to give a little checkaround to 2010’s possible offers by artists I’m intrigued about. Rumours, confirmed news, it’s all here.

Not keen on the artists I display? Give a sly prod at the other writers, maybe they’ll reveal their musical stalking results as well?

After the cut, a big list of various names.

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Merry early Christmas!

Viola’s December giveaway, a self-proclaimed sequel to their 2004 Christmas single, oozes the sort of wonderful warmth and magical happiness only Christmastime can bring. When the depressed verses switch to the ridiculously, almost tongue-in-cheek lovely choruses where soft drum machines tap-tap-tap along and bells and sprinkles fill the air, the duo manages to perfectly capture the wonderful fluffy feeling of the gorgeous season.

This Year Will Be Different also marks the end of Viola’s 2009 music club. Come January 2010 and we’ll be treated to a whole new year of wonderful little Violabits. I’ll remind you!

MP3: This Year It Will Be Different

One of those cases where the artist themselves describe the song much more adequately than any random blogger ever can:

“The song has 9 parts but not a single one of them repeats the same vocal melody. Furthermore, the instrumentation is built with the idea that once an instrument enters the picture, it has to stay in until the end of the song, building layer after layer after layer of intertwining melodies and harmonies.”

More lovely melancholy moodiness from the lovely Finnish duo, perfect fit for this miserable rainy month.

MP3: No Connection

Another month, another new Viola song.

October’s treat is called “Beautiful Lost Things”, described by the duo as “a song about things lost in life and the ontological dilemmas involved”. Awesome synth sounds and a softly rolling beat accompany most of the track, while the chorus is spiced with one of the most stylish accordion parts this blogger has heard in pop music.

The best way to judge it yourself is of course by listening to it yourself, so click the linky and grab the file.

MP3: Beautiful Lost Things

Another month, another new Viola song. It’s September (or will be in a few hours as I’m typing this), the rainy autumn is coming up, schools start, the world is returning to its usual routine flow as the plants begin to wither away and animals start preparing for the winter. Autumn is a season that thrives on melancholic beauty. Such is also Sea Curtain, September’s Viola treat. Six and a half minutes of crushing guitar crunches and deep sadness, ever-so-slightly harkening a bit back to the sounds of their debut Tearcandy. Except with more heart-wrenching guitar solos.

Nab Sea Curtain from here. And if you haven’t already, check the rest of the discography too.

Old news for those who have followed this blog for a while: Finnish synthpoppers Viola decided to release a new track every single month. As August rolls in (blimey, time sure does fly doesn’t it?), the duo decides to record and release a cover – something they’ve only done once before a couple of centuries ago.

The duo tackles Finnish band TV-Resistori’s song Näen tanssivan sun uudestaan ["I See You Dancing Again"] and while doing so, they’ve inverted the great Finnish covering tradition of translating songs from other languages to Finnish by doing it the other way around. The Viola track is called Oh How You Dance, and that’s about the most indepth thing you can read about it from me because I’ve never heard the original song and thus can’t compare. However, they’ve managed to make the song entirely their own, sounding exactly like the band’s own material. If you’re a Viola enthusiast, this means a must-have download for you. It’s good stuff. For everyone else, there’s the entire discography for completely free.

MP3: Oh How You Dance

(look it’s a new Viola article header. I kept my promise)

Viola continues their song-a-month career, and as the summer is now properly hiring up with insane heat all around the world (except the cold places), it’s time for an official summer song. “Shimmery Summery (Sha-la-la-love)” is a tribute to all those mindless, upbeat one-hit-wonder pop songs that play endlessly throughout the summer, only to be replaced with another ingeniusly addictive fluff of a song the following year. Glimmery and upbeat pop soarings, wacky backing whoops and oowaaas, fashionably cool meta/self-ironic lyrics and Coco Jamboo namechecks (ah, how I miss the 90’s).

MP3: Shimmery Summery (Sha-la-la-love)

For the June offering of Viola’s decision to release a new free song each month, we’re getting some really special and different. This year, and June in particular, marks the special occasion of the Finnish stargazy popsters turning full ten years. As a celebration of a full decade’s full of work, the duo gives us “A Decade”, an eight-minute tour de force that not only goes through the band’s history lyrically but also musically.

The lyrics are the band’s history directly, dripping with band member names, descriptions of events, references to album names, you name it. The music follows the theme: starting with a demo-like, minimal touch (the early days), turning into an energetic rocker with live drums and wistful string lines (the band’s debut where the lineup was filled with an actual drummer), before changing into a synth-disco dance hit just as the band first crafts their first Melancholydisco remix album and turns into a duo heading towards a more synth-driven direction. And then after a short breakdown (where the now-duo pays respect to their passed away friend), the song’s final two minutes are spent listing every single person and band ever associated with the group as grand thank you. A moment that could possibly be cornily heart-string tugging is ingeniously turned into booty-shakingly groovy club breakout in a fashion much like the new tracks of last year’s Melancholydisco 2.

In short, it’s nothing short of brilliance and it’s a wonderful celebration track. Happy birthday Viola! And don’t forget, you can get the group’s whole discography for free from here.

If you live in Finland or are a hardcore fan ready to do some traveling, other interesting news: Viola will be doing their traditional Viola’s Day celebratory concert once again on June 3rd in Helsinki, but this time the idea is to dedicate each part of the three-section concert for one of the group’s main studio albums. More details here.

MP3: A Decade

(I swear I’ll change the header image for next month’s offering)