Listening Post

One of the most annoying things for me about the all this Edward Snowden crap is that now I can't help thinking about that idiot every time I hear the name of this song. And there simply aren't words for now much I love this song and this band.

Here's Doves -- Snowden.

Happy Monday, hamsters. Back to the wheel with you.

Listening Post

There just aren't words to describe how much I love this band. Again, I apologize for the absence -- my deadline is fast approaching and I'm still a little behind the 8-ball on this project, but that should all change by this coming Friday. I plan to bring this little experiment of mine roaring back to life in the next couple of weeks.

I really am eager to get writing again -- and we have much to talk about.

Until then, here's Doves -- Winter Hill.

Listening Post

I'm pretty sure I posted this once before, quite a while ago, but I woke up this morning just feeling like hearing it. Besides, if you don't own everything these guys have ever done -- you should.

Here's Doves, with the gorgeously cinematic Snowden.

Listening Post: The 20 Best Singles of 2009 (18 & 17)

18. Doves -- Jetstream

Over the last decade, Doves -- like their Mancunian musical counterparts, the more melancholic and dramatic Elbow -- have very quietly made some of the most surprising, alluring music anywhere. Songs like Catch the Sun, Caught by the River and Snowden are lush pop masterpieces, pure and simple -- so it's no surprise that their 2009 album Kingdom of Rust continued the trend of recording the kind of material Coldplay only wishes they were capable of. While the title track from Kingdom of Rust was the first official single from that album, the band released the record's lead track -- the hypnotic, propulsive, seemingly New Order-inspired Jetstream -- on its website as a free download and the fans, having their say, took over from there. The response was so favorable that alternative radio began adding the song and that, thankfully, brought one of the best songs of the year to the masses.




17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Heads Will Roll

When Karen O shouts "Off with your head!" about fifteen seconds into Yeah Yeah Yeahs' furious dance-art-punk anthem Heads Will Roll, it makes you want to run for cover. The track was the second single off their all-around spectacular 2009 album It's Blitz! and it shows the New York City-based band doing what they do best: delivering a cool-as-hell sonic blast that you can practically feel emanating like a clarion call across a crowded Lower East Side dancefloor -- the kind typically packed with people who try hard to look like they don't really give a shit what they're listening to. Both Heads Will Roll and the single that preceded it, Zero, actually stood out as being the only songs on It's Blitz! that really resonated with punk fierceness, but that's quite alright -- a jolt of adrenaline like the one Yeah Yeah Yeahs regularly provide is the kind of thing you want to be careful not to O.D. on anyway.



Tomorrow: 16 & 15

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 19. Mos Def -- Quiet Dog; 20. Florence + the Machine -- Kiss With a Fist

Listening Post

I've been waiting for new music from these guys for four years. Here's the title track from the forthcoming Doves album, Kingdom of Rust.

Listening Post

Every time I hear this, I stand in awe of what a perfect pop song it is.

Here's a live version of Doves' Catch the Sun.