Songs of the Week #19- Editors Pick
“Sometimes all you need is a voice and a body”
CARRIE:
"Lemonade" -- CocoRosie
CocoRosie performs as the two-headed psyche that hides in all of us. Two sisters, one distinct sound that has become comfortingly recognizable over the years, like talking to yourself, seeing two sides of the story. One head plays the harp and one still plays with children's toys. One head has a dark throaty voice, one sings blues and opera. Barely entering their thirties, they have been making albums for 10 years. These women are so talented, and I love how they are always dressing up in the most backwards costumes with mustaches and beards and rags. They are beautiful and leaving the gold bikinis and airbrushing behind! Extra points for featuring an elderly woman lip-syncing in this video.
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SHENYAH:
"Blue Skies" -- Lady & Bird
Lady & Bird is a concept album written by Keren Ann and Bardi Johannsson. If you're not familiar with either of these artists, then its time! It's like pairing a French-pop Joni Mitchel with a suspenseful dark film score - when the two collide, your heart lifts and sinks all at once. The concept of the album is two young spirits trapped in the bodies of grown-ups. They cannot communicate with the world, only with each other, this drives them to the unthinkable. An amazing dark fairy tale full of surprises. The album even features 2 covers that cannot be missed!
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REYNA:
“Sunday Morning” -- Margo Guryan
Never mind Sunday morning. I want to wake up to this song every morning. It harkens back to the naïve girlhood fantasies my best friend and I would share about living with a significant other: Nothing but lazy mornings lying in bed, wrestling and giggling, coffee and brunch, running around in cute underwear all day, everyday.
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ROY:
"Let's Be Dogs Tonight" -- The Dream Scene
Much of the music made in the 21st century in Athens, GA, feeds off a neon 1980s aesthetic. The epitome of this is Javier Morales’ project, the Dream Scene: the sound of old VHS recordings of MTV hits and morning children's shows, left in the trunk of a car for years then dumped to a modern hard drive for some digital shimmer. They're strange and fun, but Javier doesn't sacrifice popcraft for goofy experimentation. This song in particular has a great groove that begs for dancing, a catchy flute hook, and a smooth and sexy chorus. It coulda been a hit in 1983, and it should be now.
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STEPHEN:
"Same Old Tears" -- Willis Earl Beal
Sometimes all you need is a voice and a body. And if you have that and you just go for it, you pull pain right out of the Earth. This is what makes the city perfect, because you know you have to fight it with its own weapons: it's loud so you have to be louder. It's hollow and echoes everything so you have to fill yourself up and be twice as resonant. This song wouldn't sound nearly as hurt if it weren't bouncing around in a world of concrete - if it was feeding into the soil it might hurt still but it would be an older hurt, a green hurt. In Mr. Beal's hands it's gray, the kind of hurt with no explanation, the kind that can't be solved, isn't rational. The sort of hurt the we live with every day. The one that only comes out belting and beaten. The one you need a voice and a body for. And then only those two things.
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