Two songs I can't get enough of in the past couple of days, & have been listening to somewhat obsessively—through headphones at the office, through my somewhat tinny computer speakers while sitting around at home, through another pair of headphones on my iPod while walking down the street to the grocery store tonight.
Destroyer, "Rubies" (listen) [1]
I've never really heard any Destroyer before, & really my only context was from a quote from PopMatters' review of last year's Tenement Halls album, which I remembered because I thought it was really funny [2]:
And even if I was a huge Rock*A*Teens fan from back in the day, how many Tenement Halls records would me and my seven fellow fan club members realistically buy? ... So even if Dan Bejar of Destroyer thinks Rock*A*Teens were the bloody Herman's Hermits of North Carolina, that won't do much for someone who's listening to Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells right now.
But so the first time I heard "Rubies"—which song is, btw, 9 and 1/2 minutes long—I was kind of non-committal about it, because it just felt too long & meandering. But then I found myself thinking about it, not in the way that a really catchy track gets stuck in your head, but in this somewhat nagging way that made me want to hear it again.
& so I listened to it again, and now I actually really love it. Bowie-esque intro + incessantly recurring guitar part == very, very fine by me. And then there's my favorite part, at about the four-minute mark, that "... your blues" that almost sounds like it's sighed, rather than sung.
Girls Aloud, "Biology" (listen)
Oddly enough this is another song that I didn't really love at first. Which is, frankly, incredibly odd, because it's one of the most immediately appealing pop singles of 2005 [3] (I was much more into "Models" last year, is my excuse). But "Biology" also almost suffers from multiple personality disorder, & that may be what put me off at first, but is now just why I love it so:
It starts as some sort of bluesy stomp, heavy piano, &c.—and at about a minute in, it turns into this amazing dance pop, all shuffling drums & keyboards, leading up into the shimmering chorus. In fact, I don't know why I'm even bothering to describe it, as this review in Stylus does a much better job:
Beginning like Meg trying to convince Jack White to go to a lap-dance bar with her, it then crashes head-on into light-as-air Europop, the song is about menstruation or pheromones or something, and OH MY GOD THAT CHORUS is exactly how I imagine ascending into Heaven to feel like, floating yet forceful, it nearly snaps your neck with its little finger.
And yes, that's basically it. It's incredible.
[1] Note that the two "listen" links in this post link to The Hype Machine, which is just an awesome resource for finding streamable music along with song reviews on music blogs.
[2] The context for this particular quote being that Dan Bejar (who, as I understand it, basically is Destroyer) wrote the promotional copy for Tenement Halls that appears on the Merge Records site.
[3] And, as luck would have it, it appears on an album that's seen only UK & European release as of yet (Chemistry). I find it absolutely fucking maddening that albums by some of the best current UK pop artists—Sugababes, Rachel Stevens, Girls Aloud, &c.—don't generally get US release.
Have you seen the video for Biology? The "dancing" is absolutely mesmerizing and completely bonkers. There are copies floating around Google Video if you're so inclined.
Posted by: Brian W | January 22, 2006 at 07:57 AM
Thanks for the pointer! I found it at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=105294937481196610 for anyone else who's interested.
And I'd agree that "completely bonkers" is a fairly apt description. :)
Posted by: btrott | January 22, 2006 at 12:30 PM