Adele's "Someone Like You" VIDEO

With nothing else but a firm skeleton of a somber piano accompanying the British songstress in “Someone like you“, Adele soars with her powerful deep voice that never dilutes and remains exceptionally constant throughout the entire 4:45 heartbreak ballad.

This song is an amazingly well handled curtain call for a failed relationship that leaves stupidity and immaturity deeply forgotten and brings out a mature person that accepts reality and moves forward in the best way possible.

Mature, intelligent, sensitive and excruciatingly vulnerable like a recent wound, this unique jewel is probably the best example of how a love song, let alone, any pop song should really sound; stripped, honest and with the less synths possible.

Single Review: Zola Jesus's "Avalanche"

While comparisons between Florence Welch’s haunting vocals and Evanescence’s gothic atmosphere are undeniable, the american-russian songstress surely channels her somber European heritage through her songs, especially on this very one “Avalanche“.

An emotionally histrionic and somewhat dramatic single, an “Avalanche” of mixed feelings that when combined with Zola’s powerful opera-like vocals, sweep the listener completely away. There is no doubt that the background of constant threatening beats and arranged synths lead this track into a state of near collapse,  a strange way to completely immerse the listener into the core of the song, both in an unusual and amusing way.  So head on over right here and download it for free. Thanks Daytrotter!

 

Kanye West drops "Mamma's Boyfriend"

“When I became my mama’s boyfriend?” asks around a half-confused, half-bemused Kanye West. In his newly dropped track “Mama’s Boyfriend”, Nye raps about his strong relationship with his mama, late Donda West. People are hyping this track for many reasons. One, this was supposed to be included in Good Ass Job (which later became Dark Fantasy), with Kanye rapping it a-cappella when he visited the Facebook offices months ago. So I guess a Pitchfork 10.0 album’s ghost song that was rapped about in Facebook is hype material. Two, it sounds beatastically soulful, so it gives people the opportunity to drop the ”this sounds like classic kanye” cred-raiser most people listen songs to in the first place. So, I guess jacking off to one self’s knowledge of “classic Kanye” on the internet is hype material. Three, he is rapping about Old Spice wearing niggers that want to fuck his mama, so I guess oedipian ghetto vibes are universal enough to being hype material. Four, he is rapping about his mama. Donda West, mythical beast in the Kanye lore: the public heartbreak that her death (complications of an unnecessary cosmetic surgery) caused has been a recurring theme in Kanye’s songs. A new song about that relationship, so intense, so sick fairytale, is hypeable. Also, it’s catchy as hell, with some funky grooves going down. The kind of music you can sing along to when you’re cruising town thinking about how complicated human relationships are. Because that’s the point of Kanye’s public persona: noting how complicated human life is, and then making a catchy sing-along about it. Life has always been complex,  I’m just thankful we don’t over-think it. Greeks used to do hour-long tragedies about it. I’m glad we got four minutes hype .mp3s instead.

UPDATE: Download this song for free over at G.O.O.D. Music Blog right here.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F17106183 Kanye West – Mama’s Boyfriend

Guest post by: @pixelemputado

Shining Light On: Discovery's "Swing Tree"

Discovery is an American indie rock, electronic, funk band, project of Rostam Batmanglij (keyboradist for Vampire Weekend) and Wesley Miles (vocalist from Ra Ra Riot). In my opinion the good thing about the band is that it’s made by friends! You can feel in their music how much they enjoy working together, making it very easy for them to communicate with each other. When you compose a song you need not intelligence to intervene but soul. These two really put their souls into their music.

The band was created in 2005, but they released their debut LP on 2009 which also features contributions from Ezra Koening (Vampire Weekend). My favorite song of the album is Swing Tree, specially because the lyrics are great. I recently went on a road trip in California, we went to Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Malibu, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, this was the perfect song to play on the vintage covertible we rented. We had the sun in our face, our hair blowing with the wind and the most amazing views along the California Highway 1 Scenic Drive. I believe I repeated this song at least 15 times. You could see the surfers on the beach, thousands of seagulls flying making “V” lines, the perfect weather, perfect place and perfect company, my friends: my soulmates.

What I would describe as a good album is an album which you can listen too thousands and thousands of times and every time you hear it you discover new sounds and new things about the music, specially new feelings. This is one of those albums.

Check out Swing Tree below and let me know what you think… Oh, almost forgot, I’m @DanVelasco a new contributor. Nice to meet you all, ENJOY!

 

TV on the Radio's "Second Song"

TV on the Radio have given us a taste of their upcoming album Nine Types of Light (out on April 12). After hearing Will Do and Caffeinated Consciousness I am extremely excited about their new record, even more after hearing the ironically named album opener “Second Song“. Head on over here and check out this new single which keeps on proving that this might be TVOTR best album yet!

Oupa's "Forget", for all of the Bon Iver fans out there!

Oupa is the solo project of Daniel Blumberg from Yuck. He has yet to release his debut album Forget on July 2011. This is his first single, it reminds me of Bon Iver, of course this guy is light years behind, but it’s a very nice start for a genre that is usually crowded with Bon Iver wanabbes who never make it past  a couple hundred views on YouTube. We hope the rest of the album is as inspiring as this first single! Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11463222

Album Review: Julianna Barwick "The Magic Place"

Julianna Barwick is the ultimate indie “zen” musician. Ethereal ambient music with dreamy vocals and layers of nature is what The Magic Place sounds like. This is no album you’ll want to listen to with your friends or during traffic. This is the soundtrack to introspection, contemplation, meditation and rearrangement of thoughts and ideas, this is the album that will take you to your “magic place”, the one some psychologists, yogis and philosophers may talk to you about. This music is the gateway between your world and that ideal place of yours. In your world there is traffic, stress, pressure, upbeat music, yelling, excesses and people, in that ideal world you can have whatever you want, you can be wherever you want and with whoever you want. Julianna Barwick makes this possible and enjoyable. Spin this record and time will go slower, wind will blow lighter, air will touch gentler, water will be fresher, sunlight will burn crispier and plants will begin to surround you. Enjoy the album below. Also, you can head over to NPR for a video of her SXSW performance.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/widget.swf

Track Review: Metronomy's first two singles From "The English Riviera"

Metronomy is back! After taking some time off after the release of “Night’s Out”, the English four piece band released the first single from their forthcoming album entitled “The English Riviera“. This first single entitled “She Wants” is awesome, and compared to their old material, they seem to have acquired a deeper side to their music. Whether the lyrics have a deep meaning or not, the song is amazing nevertheless. Listen to the bass, it gives the song a whole new meaning. The song’s video is just as good as the song itself. Check it out:

More recently they released the second single from their long awaited second album. The song is entitled “The Look”, and it really brings out the bands potential as it did on “Night’s Out”, a relaxing melody behind chilled beats and catchy lyrics.

Can’t wait to listen to the whole album, it will surely blow our minds. We’ll see each other at “The English Riviera”.

Track Review: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. "Morning Thought"

Update: Download this song for free in exchange for an email right here, it’s worth it!

Check out the first single of the upcoming debut album by indie rockers with “just a hint of electronic here and there” Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., they recently shared “Morning Thought“, the first single of their upcoming LP “It’s a Corporate World”  which will be released on June 7th. And lets just say if the whole record goes on with the same energy, arrangements and their distinctive subtle change in tempo, this is going to be one of the best albums of the year! Hear for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments below:

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11707981

You can also hear and download other tracks from his first EP The Horse Power here. And check out our interview with them here.

The Strokes unveil new video and song

Yesterday, The Strokes released the official video for the first single “Under cover of Darkness”, off of their upcoming LP “Angles” (watch it below). Also, we recently had the opportunity to preview each track from the new album, which left us wanting for more details, fortunately, you can now listen to a new song in full called “You’re So Right”. It is very different to any of The Strokes previous releases. This is what J. Casablancas told NME about the song: “I had some early REM vibes for a minute or two. It’s a darker one. It counters some of the happy vibes on the other tracks. I like dark things!”

Tell us what you think about both the video and the song.

“You’re So Right”