New songs for April 12th 2017

here they are:


"Don't Take the Money" by Bleachers: An indie-pop band led by Jack Antonoff from 2010's alt-pop group, fun., Bleachers debuted in spring 2014. They took the new wave influences fun. had and ran with 'em in songs like the bubblegum-y, infectious, "I Wanna Get Better" and the Springsteen-goes-new-wave sounding song, "Rollercoaster". Three springs later, Bleachers have returned with yet another new wave influenced indie-pop tune, "Don't Take the Money". What's interesting about this song isn't the sound so much as the subject matter! It is actually about his relationship with "Girls" actress Lena Dunham. Here's another bit of music pop culture trivia behind the song that might just throw you for a loop. It was written by New Zealand alt-pop songstress, Lorde (best known for "Royals"). Being that Jack and Lena's relationship is a movie star/music star one, I dunno how long it's gonna last, but I guess one can always hope for the best!


"Love" by Lana Del Rey: The title of Lana's latest song might be a positive emotion, but the song itself is more of a bittersweet flavor, as are its lyrics. The four chords the song uses are very common in rock and pop music by now, particularly in songs like Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and U2's "With Or Without You". Not even "With Or Without You" is this melancholy, though. Why is this? One reason is because of Lana's whispery, emotional vocals, which don't ever go from being passionately sweet to passionately loud like Bono's has been known to do. Another might be because fans of hers, such as myself, have come to associate her music with sadness. No song I have known of hers so far has been upbeat, and "Love" is not an exception to the rule.

2 Girls, A Blog, and October

How much better can you get?! Anyway, here are this week's songs:


"Emotions And Math" by Margaret Glaspy: Emotions and math?! I thought those were two completely different things!! That's like saying "chemistry and Shakespeare" to me. I guess the concept of two radically different heads being better than one is a good way to describe "Emotions And Math", the second single from raspy, angst-ridden indie gal, Margaret Glaspy. The song would fit pretty well lyrically with any song from Liz Phair's "Exile In Guyville", yet it also has a funky bass line that one might not typically associate with a musician like Phair. The title comes from Glaspy's description of what she thinks her love life is in the chorus of the song: "an ice cold bath of emotions and math". In other words, love is confusing and hard to handle. Yeah, we hear ya loud and clear, Maggie.


"Not Gonna Let You Walk Away" by LoLo: No, the name "LoLo" has nothing to do with "LOL" or any other sort of Internet slang. It is actually a nickname for the name "Lauren", singer Lauren Pritchard, specifically. LoLo's sound is as memorable as her unique moniker. Her debut single, "Not Gonna Let You Walk Away", mixes Alabama Shakes-ish distortion and alterna-soul vibes with the choppy syncopation on every even numbered beat that reggae music is known for having. LoLo's smoky, husky white-girl-with-soul vocals are the cherry on top of the cake that is "Not Gonna Let You Walk Away", a yearning mid-tempo ballad that put's LoLo's ex in a corner of guilt in a way that sounds more lovesick than it does accusatory.

Let's hear it for the gals!!

I think this is the first time my blog entry of the week has focused entirely on female performers! And what great names they have, too, Imelda May and Lana Del Rey (hey, that rhymed!!) Anyway, enough chatter, and on with the show!!

"Inside Out" by Imelda May: In the summer of this year, the sexy, jazzy, black-haired Irishwoman known as Imelda May caused a lot of "Mayhem", and this time around she's up to more of her old tricks with the saucy, slinky, seductive, soulful (and somewhat subversive) song, "Inside Out"!! The instrumentation of this song (and Imelda's steamy, passionate vocals) make "Inside Out" catchy enough, as though Gwen Stefani joined the Brian Setzer Orchestra, but it's the lyrics to the song that just crack me up and are worth mentioning!! Throughout the song, Imelda not only says she loves the subject of her song "inside out", but also describes why, pointing out how she loves each part of her subject's body on the way. It starts out relatively innocent ("I love your eyes, blue as the skies/I love your lips to your fingertips"), but it gets weirder as the song goes on, ultimately resulting in lyrics like, "I love your nails, even your entrails", and "I love your wits and your wobbly bits" (Whoa!! TMI, Imelda!!) She even admits that the way she loves the person in question is "kinda creepy", but that, at the same time, the person she's addressing "loves it deeply", and that he "know(s) (he)'s gonna keep (her)". Catchy AND funny (and attractive)?!? I think we got a winner here!!!

"Video Games" by Lana Del Rey: A good song about a subject I've never been crazy about (though practically all my friends are). Or so it would seem. Though "Video Games" might be the title of this song, that's not exactly what it's about. In fact, the term "video games", in this song, is probably more of a metaphor, suggesting either masculinity and/or an example of an activity Lana Del Rey doesn't like but is willing to endure to keep her boyfriend company. Lana tends to deliver the lyrics of "Video Games" in a rather dry manner, but with sweet, benign vocals, and instrumentation similar to acts like Feist, Florence and The Machine, and Joanna Newsom.