here they are:
"Best Kept Secret" by case, lang, and veirs: What happens when three solo female performers of folk-rock get together to form a group?! Well, they become case, lang, and veirs, likely written all in lowercase because k.d. lang writes her name that way (she is the "lang" in this group). The other two are Neko Case and Laura Veirs, both folk-rockers of the indie era. Case is from the state of Washington, Veirs is from the indie-nerd town of Portland, Oregon, and k.d. lang isn't even from the States, yet their song "Best Kept Secret" isn't about any of those places. Instead, it is an ode to someone who lives in none other than my hometown, Los Angeles. More specifically, it is about someone who lives in hipster haven, Silverlake, which is where my dad currently resides. Laura Veirs is the lead vocalist for this track. She projects her quirky Portlandian ways onto another city full of neo-bohemians in "Best Kept Secret" (which, I guess, is no longer a secret!)
"There Will Be Time" by Mumford and Sons (featuring Baaba Maal): This is not a song from Mumford and Sons' latest album, and is instead a song that is currently being released only as a single. Times have not been easy for M & S, for although they have been well-received by general audiences, they have not been taken very seriously by "real" rock fans who probably think that rock history ended with the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994. Thankfully, "There Will Be Time" has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response so far on YouTube. Perhaps part of the reason why is because it features Mumford and Sons going in a new direction with their music while still keeping relatively true to the sound they've become known for. In regards to how the song sounds, all I can say is that some member(s) of M & S must be big Paul Simon fans. A few years ago, they covered the Simon and Garfunkel song, "The Boxer", and this time around, they're going for a sound that is evocative of Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. "There Will Be Time" features African musician Baaba Maal on backing vocals, making it even more like a "Graceland" song than it already seems to be!
"Trouble" by Cage the Elephant: Cage got their rock 'n' roll groove back in fall of last year with "Mess Around"! It felt like that song was never gonna go away, but like all songs, its popularity eventually faded away, and a bit quicker than I thought it would, too. In its place is the much calmer, more dreamy sounding song, "Trouble". The song seems to be about the hope for love to right all the wrongs in the lead singer's romantic life. Amidst both the weariness of the lyrical theme and the lightness of its sound, though, there is still some cleverness within "Trouble" during the part when Matt Shulz says that "the wicked get no rest", a reference to CTE's first big hit, "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked".
