song reviews

May 15, 2012

Kitty Pryde

"Okay Cupid"

High school-age mall employee and avowed Justin Bieber obsessive Kitty Pryde is this millisecond's internet-rap brush fire. But the Floridian's debut single is arresting well beyond its novelty appeal. Over a sumptuously screwed beat from Lil B and A$AP Rocky producer Beautiful Lou, she floats a drowsy, giggly love letter to her cigarette-breathed, drunk-dialing boyfriend ("you got my simpin' and singin' the Frank Ocean"), mixing adorkable lines about writing his name on h... | More »

May 14, 2012

Crookers feat. Style of Eye and Carli

"That Laughing Track"

From the dudes behind that toasty remix of Kid Cudi's "Day 'N' Nite" comes this electro-house ruckus. Built around insane laughter and rubbery beats, it targets that wee-hours moment in the club when you think your head might explode. Then the DJ drops this, and it does. Listen to Crookers feat. Style of Eye and Carli's "That Laughing Track": Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »

May 11, 2012

Metric

"Youth Without Youth"

Glam sugar with a bitter core: Perennial indie crush Emily Haines drops a wasted-youth anthem with scarred poetry like "We played blindman's bluff till they stopped the game," over a bleak- bubblegum stomp. Listen to Metric's "Youth Without Youth": Related• Metric Play Acoustic 'Youth Without Youth' | More »

May 10, 2012

Lana Del Rey feat. Azealia Banks

"Blue Jeans (Smims and Belle remix)"

The original was a nice idea – ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" made into a trip-hop ballad, even if Del Rey is too thin a singer to pull it off. This remix proves you can save anything with the right flavor of disco thwump and a tight freestyle – in this case, from hip-hop comer Azealia Banks, who storms in blazing hotter than Jamaica. Listen to Lana Del Rey feat. Azealia Banks' "Blue Jeans (Smims and Belle remix)": RelatedLana Del Rey Talks 'SNL' Performance | More »

May 9, 2012

Gaslight Anthem

"45"

Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem has been in a kind of Tom Waits-meets-Billy Joel phase of late, especially in his side band the Horrible Crowes. But the title of the Jersey group's new single suggests Gaslight's forthcoming album will be a return to their sincerity-drunk heartland-hardcore basics. "45" is, of course, the RPM speed of a punk seven-inch single, as well as something you flip over when you want a fresh start. Fallon shouts about how his friends helped him get over a... | More »

May 8, 2012

Florence and the Machine

"Breath of Life"

Inspired by Charlize Theron's evil-queen character in the new Snow White movie, this song from the film's soundtrack is Flo at her most toweringly gothed-out. All doom-drum rush and endless-midnight orchestral sweep, it sounds like it was produced by Sauron the Dark Lord of Mordor – but in a good way. The wintry tumult sets the stage for a display of primal vocal acrobatics and white-knuckled emoting. Flo goes looking for "a little touch of heavenly light/But all the choirs in... | More »

May 4, 2012

New Order

'Elegia' (long version)

"Elegia" first appeared in 1985 as a majestic five-minute waltz. The full version is a 17-minute-plus epic that threatens to fade, rebuilds around tortured guitar bursts, and gives up the ghost in a final feedback gasp. Unintelligible voices flicker, but what's being expressed is clearly beyond words. Listen to New Order's "Elegia": Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »

May 2, 2012

Major Lazer

"Get Free"

Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman voices this dubby jam from Diplo's reggae project – a politicized lovers' rock ballad evoking post-Katrina New Orleans. "Never got love from a government man/Headin' downstream till the levee gives in," she coos. "Now we gotta swim." True, that. Listen to Major Lazer's "Get Free": Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »

April 30, 2012

Big Baby Gandhi feat. Das Racist

"Blue Magic"

Riding with Queens buddies Das Racist, this 21-year-old "terrorist with no turban, lyricist with no sermon" sounds both skilled and spazzy over a dope, Zenned-out groove. "Y'all sound like Coldplay/Y'all sound like Oprah," he yelps. "Me, I sound so dope-rah." Listen to "Blue Magic": Related• Photos: Random Notes | More »

April 27, 2012

Yuck

"Chew"

These U.K. kids unspool a hymn to the Smashing Pumpkins school of slacker grandiosity. From the chorus – "We chew it together," where the "chew" might as well be a slurred "do" – to the warmly melancholic tone of the big guitar solo, it sounds like Clinton-era gold. Listen to Yuck's "Chew": Related• Band to Watch: London's Yuck Revive the Sound of Nineties Indie Rock | More »