november 2022
Spotify
Apple Music
About half way through this number a loud guitar riff thunders in out of nowhere and the first time I heard it I lost my shit a bit, I don't know the last time I've gotten so excited about a song.
Blistering, smart and vicious, with a little children's chorus near the end that's both really funny and kind of affecting.
The prettiest thing Big Thief has ever done or maybe I'm just a sucker for a flute solo.
I get that not everybody can deal with what even Dan Bejar calls "the usual Destroyer bullshit" but I dig it. Come for the Kenny G sax and stay for the drums 'cause they slap.
Jeff Tweedy loves the diminished C chord in this song and I agree but mostly I like that it doesn't bother coming back for a third verse, it careens out of the guitar solo and drives right over a cliff.
I'm definitely in the "Radiohead got better as it got weirder" camp but this sad and pretty ballad could've sat comfortably on The Bends and it sounds just right.
Strolling down Sesame Street in the 70s in a leather duster and sunglasses, giving a little nod to Big Bird and Mr. Hooper as I pass by...
The whole thing is easy on the ears but I especially like how the vocal escalates from nonchalant to anguished on a dime as the song comes around for a second pass.
Martin used to be half of the Walkmen and in the bridge he sings about hearing an old Walkmen song on the radio and not recognizing it and for some reason I find that really sad.
"Cowards!" Karen O barks imperiously, rightly condemning us for our lack of faith as she returns from the heavens, descending on a pillar of light.
New wave-inflected rocker that sounds like The Cars or maybe Moving Pictures-era Rush but then it gets all math-y in the middle and finally descends into a full-blown dissociative episode...quite a ride.
Sympatico weirdos Mitski and David Byrne singing the duet from a stoned-out Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that never was...spin up "Everything Everywhere All at Once" on Prime Video and watch it with the family, it's wholesome holiday viewing.