Monday, April 21, 2014

Monday Mix Tapes: A Gunshot, A Breakdown, An Interlude

My main squeeze Lykke Li has a new album, I Never Learn, coming out May 5th, and of course I am over the moon about all of the singles she's released thus far. (Listen to "Love Me Like I'm Not Made of Stone" and "No Rest for the Wicked" for evidence.)

This latest one, "Gunshot," is my favorite. Partly because only Lykke Li can sing "I am siren, I am ivy / I'm no one, I'm nobody" and make it sound like perfection. But also, as another writer put it at Consequence of Sound, she "pairs emotionally-gripping lyrics with surprisingly bombastic musical accompaniment."

Give it a listen:



It seems that yet again, May is going to be the month all my dreams come true. Because along with a new Lykke Li album, Sharon Van Etten is also coming out with a new one, Are We There, and if that's not enough, Little Dragon is too, titled Nabuma Rubberband.

Is it too soon to predict that all 3 of these albums will make it to my top 10 list for 2014? Probably not. I mean:



As much as I'd like to go on and on about my girlfriends Sharon, Lykke, and Yukimi (and co.), we have to talk about PRINCE right now. He just released a new single, which starts off, "This could be the saddest story ever been told," and that's really not much of an exaggeration. I've never been so utterly delighted to fight off the urge to cry silently at my desk, which is what happened today at work when I first heard it and then proceeded to listen to it six times in a row. 

Listen to "The Breakdown" here, because due to what must be some sort of Prince magic spell, the Internets is not letting me embed it.

So not only does Prince have a new album on the way, we can also get ready for a digitally remastered, deluxe 30th anniversary edition of Purple Rain. Are you listening to me right now? A new Prince album AND a remastered Purple Rain??? Dear Universe, what did I do to deserve these beautiful gifts?

Finally, here's a little something from a new artist I discovered today, Rachel Foxx. Lawwwd. Yes. I had no idea a mere one minute and 47 seconds could be so much.  

"What the fuck she got on me?"