Before I begin my next review, just wanted to say congrats to Barack Obama for getting elected into office for another four years!! :) (My apologies if you disagree here, as I realize some of you reading this might). Now that I've said that, here are this week's songs:
"Cry For Judas" by The Mountain Goats: Though the only other song I know from The Mountain Goats besides this one is "This Year", I remember that something about that song made me fall in love with it immediately! The same could be said (perhaps more so) for The Goats' latest song, "Cry For Judas". Beginning with an acoustic guitar strumming a similar sounding chord progression (and rhythm) to Joni Mitchell's "Help Me", with muted horns, a thumping electric bass, and a percussion section kicking in immediately afterwards, "Cry For Judas" is neo-folk-rock at its finest! Beneath the triumphant sound of "Cry For Judas" are scathing, cynical lyrics, such as "Long black night, morning frost, I'm still here, but all is lost", but even with that known, the song still doesn't lose its "innocent" flavor. At least for me it doesn't.
"Pigtail" by Trey Anastasio: The daddy of post-Grateful Dead jam-rock decides to amp it up once again after his mostly acoustic previous hit, "Let Me Lie". Lyrically, Trey sounds almost as "psychedelic" as he does musically in "Pigtail", with the imagery he creates with pigtails being dipped in ink, becoming conscious again, and stars lining up in the sky. As if the song's words weren't tasty enough, we are treated to a horn solo towards the end of the song. Have a groovy time listenin' to this song, cats and chicks!
"Ride" by Lana Del Rey: For a pop star, Lana Del Rey sure is melancholy! No song of hers seems to illustrate such emotion like her latest song, "Ride", though. It demonstrates more depth than her previous material as well, especially during its chorus, which consists of four chords and an upward/downward progression of the chords. As "Ride" goes on, bittersweet lyrics like "Dying young and playing hard/That's the way my father made his life in art" are sung over soaring string sections. A very sad song, but still well worth the listen!!
