Author: Gareth

LOTS of good stuff this week — so much, in fact, that I’m postponing my usual Friday Music XMas Album until next Friday, Christmas Eve. So yeah, you’ll get your yearly collection of cool yule tunes, compiled and with cover art, but it will be a last-minute prezzie.

On to this week’s gold:

More sneak peeks from the new Duran Duran album, which will be out next week. Seriously — go to iTunes and pre-order this sucker. Mark Ronson has done a *brilliant* job as a producer — he’s led DD back to their classic sound. Check out these two tracks:

Duran Duran – “Girl Panic.” Roger Taylor’s drumming on this track is very reminiscent of “Girls on Film”, in my opinion — and that’s a GREAT thing. But its all there — the funk bass of John Taylor, the reedy synth chords of Nick Rhodes…. and of course Simon Le Bon, sounding like he hasn’t aged a day.

Duran Duran – “The Man Who Stole A Leopard (feat. Kelis).” This one is more from “The Chauffeur” side of DD’s sound — and they’ve brought in some guest vocals from “Milkshake” alterna-diva Kelis. Sexy. I’m really, REALLY looking forward to this album.

Here’s a track that the Dastardly Best Friend introduced to me this week — Hurts is a Manchester-based synthpop duo. Listen to this. It’s 1985 all over again: Hurts – “Better Than Love.”

I’m quite glad that the 25-year nostalgia cycle is reviving interest in the synth sound of the 80s. A lot of newer groups get it very, very right. Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts debuted in 2007 with this single, and they just released their second album this past spring. This track has a great ELO-meets-David-Bowie vibe: Midnight Juggernauts – “Into The Galaxy.”

Speaking of Bowie — this track, released this past summer by LCD Soundsystem, has a very “Scary Monsters”-era Bowie sound to it, which I consider to be a very good thing indeed: LCD Soundsystem – “I Can Change.”

I discovered this track when I started catching up on Season 4 of HBO’s “Big Love” — they replaced the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” with this track for the new opening theme. To say that the song grew on me is an understatement. Engineers – “Home.”

Danish former-ballet-dancer-turned-model-turned-popstar (seriously — look at her.) Nanna Øland Fabricius, records as Oh Land, and I’m loving the sound: Oh Land – “Sun of a Gun.”

Lastly, a great track from Patrick Wolf, whose music (which I’ve featured here before) has been called “baroque pop.” Insert “if it ain’t baroque” joke here. Seriously good stuff: Patrick Wolf – “Time of My Life.”

So there you go, kids. Enjoy. Copy-and-paste if the links give you trouble, be sure to check out the albums of the stuff you like. Next week, on Christmas Eve — this year’s Friday Music XMas Album (which still needs a title — suggestions welcome).

Here we go — stuff that I’ve been listening to recently, that I think you might dig.

First of all, there’s this little indie film coming soon — you’ve probably not heard about it. It’s called TRON: LEGACY. To be honest, some of the early reviews I’ve heard have used the phrases “mediocre” and “disappointing” — but even if the film is flat-out awful, I expect that the score, created by electronic-music superstars Daft Punk, will be part of my writing-accompaniment repertoire for years to come. It’s a brilliant mix of orchestral and electronic and well worth your time (currently available on Amazon MP3 for 8 bucks). Check out this track, which you might recognize from the trailer: Daft Punk – “Recognizer.”

My son introduced me to this track over the Thanksgiving holiday — it’s a German artist doing some driving club-electronic hip-hop. German is an… interesting language for rap. You’ve gotta love any track that starts with “I’m going to burn down my studio and sniff the ashes like coke.” Peter Fox – “Alles Neu.”

I wish this song was by ANY. OTHER. BAND. I loved it when I first heard it — a bluesy hard-rock riff, some classic ‘rrraaahhh let’s get fucked up, it’s Friday night and I’m a workin’ man’ lyrics — fun stuff, and almost genetically engineered to grab American males by the hindbrain. Then I found out that it was by Nickelback. FUCKING NICKELBACK. My soul died a little bit. It doesn’t sound like their usual stuff — a lot more raw. That’s the excuse I’m giving myself. Nickelback – “Burn It To The Ground.”

Duran Duran has a new album coming to iTunes before Christmas. The first single is available now — and it’s FREE. Go grab it. The new album is produced by Mark Ronson, who, as a long-time DD fan, has decided to return them to their classic sound. The samples I’ve heard of other tracks are all as good as this (and some even better). Stay with this at least until the refrain — when suddenly it’s 1984 all over again. Duran Duran – “All You Need Is Now.”

Anna Calvi is one of the BBC’s “Sounds of 2011” artists that we should keep an eye on. I give a listen to their entire list every year, and this year, she really stood out for me. Her lead single is a cover of an old Edith Piaf tune, which she turns on its head into a dangerous flamenco-esque dark romantic pop song. Anna Calvi – “Jezebel.”

This one doesn’t link directly to the file — it links to a flash-player-and-download-button combo, which isn’t my usual style, but I really liked this song and wanted you folks to hear it. It’s a remix — but really a complete, from-the-ground-up rework, mixing two Wu-Tang Clan tracks (well, one Wu-Tang track and one ODB solo track), along with a few other odds n’ sods. I *love* this. Wu-Tang Clan – “Daytona 500/Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Bossasaurus Remix)”.

OK, there you go. Hope you like what you’ve heard.