here they are:
"If I Don't Hear From You Tonight" by Courtney Barnett: If the sardonic, deadpan Courtney Barnett is going to give us a love song, you know it's not gonna be an ordinary love song. Such is the case here with her latest song, "If I Don't Hear From You Tonight." With lines like "stars in the sky are gonna die" and "all my fears collided," you can tell that negative emotion fuels this deceptively sunny jangle-pop influenced track, but these lines are really just a venomous veneer for Courtney's vulnerability in the song. She's fragile and emotional just like we all are, and on this song, she lets that all hang out!
"Like Exploding Stones" by Kurt Vile: No, this is not a cheeky answer to Bob Dylan's already infamously jagged "Like a Rolling Stone," despite how the title of this song might sound to some. Kurt Vile takes a far loftier and spacier path than Dylan for this 7-and-a-half minute psych-folk-rock epic. The title of the song is actually a creative way to describe either Kurt's mental state, his mind on drugs, or perhaps both. Combining a swirling, sprawling electric guitar, a mellow acoustic guitar, and a warbling synthesizer to tie them together, "Like Exploding Stones" is one of Kurt Vile's headier moments. Why it needs to be as long as it is is anyone's guess, but perhaps part of that has to do with wanting to evoke a "jam band" and/or prog-rock vibe into this trippy tune.
"Ride or Die" by Hippo Campus: After two loosely folk-influenced songs, we find ourselves ending this week's blog with a more modern-sounding electro-pop song. Hippo Campus have been a synth-reliant band for a while now, but with "Ride or Die," they appear to be attempting to sound more mainstream than their previous stuff was. The lyrics to this song also seem somewhat repetitive, and it doesn't really seem to have a lot of chords besides A or D. For a once quirky band, "Ride or Die" is somewhat of a disappointment, but perhaps it'll propel Hippo Campus to more widespread fame than they had previously.
