here they are:
"Anna Sun" by Walk the Moon: Anna SUN by Walk the MOON?! Did they title this song the way they did on purpose?! Well, anyway, "Anna Sun" is one of those songs that took a little while to catch up to the adult alt airwaves, but after about 3 months or so of being on regular alternative stations, "Anna Sun" has finally made an impact on adult alternative stations. It is a catchy song with melodic vocals. Never have lyrics like "this house is falling apart" sounded so infectiously vibrant! I recall that I heard the chorus to the song somewhere long before I reviewed it, so perhaps it was on a commercial somewhere. Not sure who exactly "Anna Sun" is, but the title of the song fits its mood. It's a very sunny, danceable song, and it's arrived (for me, at least) just in time for summer!!
"Give It Away" by Andrew Bird: Not to be confused for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song of the same name. This is, after all, a song from the quirky, orchestral indie-pop musician Andrew Bird, not a rock 'n' roll anthem good for parties. After the angst-ridden, orchestra-less "Eyeoneye" from earlier this year, it's nice to hear Andrew Bird get back to his classical-meets-folk-meets-rock sound he's known for on "Give It Away". There's a neat little twist to this song that makes it sound almost like a "Pet Sounds"-era Beach Boys song, though. The chorus of the song is fast and bouncy, where as the verses are more subtle and slower. Almost like the typical Moody Blues song, only here, the electric guitars and classical string instruments seem to "converse" with each other, instead of leaving one instrument section for one part of the song, and the other section for another part.
"Who" by David Byrne and St. Vincent: "Who?" "Who", indeed!! You could say that, together, the Talking Heads frontman and indie-pop-ster St. Vincent make the "Laurie Anderson connection". Byrne seemed to influence Laurie (the avant-pop musician best known for her charmingly odd song, "O Superman"), and St. Vincent seems to be influenced BY her. "Who" seems to be much more of a David Byrne song than a St. Vincent one, though, in which jazzy saxophones mingle with more contemporary, electronic sounding instruments. If this track were more St. Vincent-focused, it would probably be a lot more moody and/or ethereal sounding than this song. Pretty much the entire song is a series of questions, beginning with "Who will be my Valentine?", and ending with "Who is going to be my friend?", with the questions in the song getting increasingly more interesting towards the middle of it. Your question is "Who?", the answer is "People who are awesome!!"
