It's the first post of July (besides SGS), and you know what that means! It's playlist time! This month I was inspired by how goshdarn hot it is outside all the time, so I figured I'd beat the heat by making a mix that completely embodies melted popsicles and sleepiness and swimming in a lukewarm kiddie pool, etc. Enjoy! Also, one or two of the songs may be a bit NSFW, so listen at your own risk.
1. Une Annee Sans Lumiere - Arcade Fire 2. Gasoline - The Airborne Toxic Event 3. Time - Blonds 4. Groovin' - The Young Rascals 5. Taxi Cab - Vampire Weekend 6. The Hours - Beach House 7. Black Treacle - Arctic Monkeys 8. Posters - Youth Lagoon 9. Summer Mood - Best Coast 10. So Lucky - Dana Buoy 11. (Don't Let Them) Cool Off - Peter Bjorn & John 12. Sun - Cat Power 13. I'm So Tired - The Beatles 14. You Make The Sun Fry - Ty Segall 15. Fireflies - Still Corners 16. Teenager - The Thrills 17. Window Blues - Band of Horses 18. Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks 19. At the Beach - The Avett Brothers 20. When Will You Come - Wavves
It's the first post in June, and guess what! I'm starting a new monthly feature wherein I post a playlist! Since summer starts this month, I'd say it's only appropriate for me to post my summer playlist, which I make every year to listen to in the car as I drive around, windows down, etc. So without further ado, Summer To Your Heart! (Note: Some of the songs on here are NSFW)
1. Demon To Lean On - Wavves
2. Ceilings - Local Natives
3. Look At the Light - Sin Fang
4. Leyndarmál - Ásgeir Trausti
5. Shadow of Love - She & Him
6. ay shawty 3.0 (feat. lakutis) - ♡kitty♡
7. White Dove - Jenn Grant
8. Ride - Lana Del Rey
9. Sure as Spring - La Luz
10. Try Me Out Sometime - BRONCHO
11. Passaway - Pomegranates
12. Young Lady - Kid Cudi
13. Lord Knows - Dum Dum Girls
14. Wildest Moments - Jessie Ware
15. My Love Won't Wait - Two Gallants
16. The John Wayne - Little Green Cars
17. I Belong In Your Arms - Chairlift
18. Get Lucky [feat. Pharrell Williams] - Daft Punk
19. I Love It - Icona Pop
20. Hands On the Wheel (feat. A$AP Rocky) - Schoolboy Q
21. Bare Feet and Summer Teeth - The Animals at Night
22. Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe - Kendrick Lamar
23. In The City - Caveman
24. Put Me to Work - PAPA
25. Midnight City - M83
26. Hard To Find - The National
You know what's awesome? Music videos. Music videos are AWESOME. I love watching VH1 when I wake up in the morning and yeah, a lot of the time the videos are pretty bad or boring or cliche, but sometimes you get really awesome and innovative videos that are essentially works of art (I'm looking at you, Björk). And you guys know me - I love cartoons. So when you combine awesome, innovative music videos with animation? I am SOLD. Here are my eight favorite animated music videos of all time.
8. Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks" - Okay, the animation in this video isn't particularly amazing, and it's not exactly plot-heavy, but I just love this video (and this song). It reminds me visually of classic comics like Ghost World and American Splendor, which I obviously LOVE because, y'know, comics. It reminds me of being in high school, too, in a nice, nostalgic way.
7. Fleet Foxes - "The Shrine/An Argument" - This video is so weird in such a cool way. I love the animation style. It feels like something you'd see while tripping in the desert, which, let's be honest, is so Fleet Foxes. It's almost a little disturbing in some parts, and it's super long, but you should still set aside some time to watch it!
6. The White Stripes - "Fell In Love With a Girl" - Okay, who doesn't love this song? It's so freaking fun!! And what a good idea - animating with Legos? Come on. You can't beat that.
5. Gotye - "Save Me" - Aww, Gotye! You guys know how much I love Gotye. This video is so sweet and sincere, and I love the smooth animation and the fact that the character's little squigglys look like bacon. It doesn't hurt that the assembly at the beginning of the video reminds me of The Iron Giant.
4. Daft Punk - Interstella 5555 - Okay, I guess this isn't TECHNICALLY a music video. More accurately, it's a whole album's worth of music videos put together to form a movie, which is kind of way cooler than just a regular old music video. Daft Punk teamed up with Leiji Matsumoto to make this movie as a visual companion to their album Discovery, and it's totally awesome. It's about aliens and corrupt music industrymen and intrepid heroes and you really just need to watch it and experience it for yourself. The video above is for "One More Time", one of the most famous songs from the album and also the beginning of the movie.
3. Britney Spears - "Break The Ice" - Hot damn, do I love this video. I remember seeing it for the first time on VH1 Top 20 Countdown and being completely enthralled, unable to stop watching the video over and over on Youtube. It's so badass! Britney Spears's character is just so cool, and when she makes out with that guy and corrupts his data? Oh man, SO AWESOME. I love this video so much.
2. Kanye West - "Heartless" - Kanye West is a really cool dude, because he has the same love of animated videos that I do. This is my favorite one, because I love the rotoscope animation involved here. The clothes all of the characters wear are so awesome and everything is so colorful. It's like pop art (which is appropriate, considering the Andy Warhol soup can cameo). My favorite part is the smoke off of Kanye's cigarette. For some reason, it's strikingly beautiful to me. Also Kanye's girlfriend's rainbow dress that she wears in Kanye's apartment. Where can I get that dress?
1. Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." - At first it was hard to pick just one Gorillaz video, but then I realized that there's really no competition. "Feel Good Inc." is not only a fantastic music video, but also just a great song in general. Oddly, this video TERRIFIED ME when it first came out (I was only like 11 though, I was skittish) but I got over it eventually. I'm a huge Gorillaz fan now, and if you like animated videos, you should do yourself a favor and watch all of theirs. The characters - Noodle, 2D, Russel, and Murdoc - are so recognizable, with their own distinct personalities, and I will pretty much love them forever. Yay animated bands! YAY ANIMATED VIDEOS!!
It's been a while since we've heard anything from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! I remember when the album art for "Mosquito" was released and everyone thought it was just a joke. That weird little baby still makes me deeply uncomfortable, which is a weird contrast to the actual music. Mosquito is echo-y and subdued, even on the tracks when it goes the hardest. It feels like a dark, weird movie with a very unusual plot structure - starts out with its climax, and the rest of the film is where you have to deal with the emotional aftermath. But I like that. I like the whole atmosphere of Mosquito. I like that pretty much every song is in minor key, and I like that it's drenched in reverb. I like it!
Although she's been around for a while, Kitty (formerly known as Kitty Pryde) has only just started receiving the amount of acclaim she rightfully deserves. She first got noticed when she worked with Riff Raff on "Orion's Belt", and her track "Okay Cupid" got her even further recognized, especially on Tumblr. Now, with the release of her new EP, D.A.I.S.Y. Rage, Kitty is finally becoming known, and I absolutely love it. There's just something about Kitty that is so sincere and endearing that makes her clever rhymes and sparkly beats irresistible.
Sooo, I don't have ten things this week for SGS. I've been really really busy with school, which means I haven't had time to really watch anything or read anything. It kinda sucks, to be honest! But I did do a few things, so here we go.
Alright guys, do you know what my favorite thing in the WHOLE WORLD is? End of the year lists!!! I love them soooooo much, and now that I have this blog, I'm going to be putting together 3 lists: My top albums, songs, and movies of 2012! So, without further ado, let's kick this off with my Top Five Albums of 2012!
First, let's look at the runners-up for my Top Five Albums of 2012. These are albums I really really liked, but not as much as some other albums! They're all excellent and I highly suggest you listen to them.
Runners-Up:
- 151a by Kishi Bashi
- Banga by Patti Smith
- Bloom by Beach House
- The Bloom and the Blight by Two Gallants
- The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers
- Electra Heart by Marina and the Diamonds
- Forever EP by Haim
- Fragrant World by Yeasayer
- The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
- Here by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
- The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit
- The Lumineers by The Lumineers
- The Paradise EP by Lana Del Rey
- Sun by Cat Power
- Tell The Right Story by Harriet
- What We Saw from the Cheap Seats by Regina Spektor
Yes, yes, I know I missed a week of Something Great Sunday. I'm not going to apologize, though, because no one really reads this blog anyway! Let's begin.
In case anyone thought it might not be the case after this album, know that I am still 100% a Lana fan. I actually don't know what would make you think that at all, because this album is wonderful! I was honestly terribly nervous about it, because I loved Born to Die so much and everyone knows how easy it is to be disappointed by follow-ups when you love their predecessors so very much. It was quite a relief to listen to this album and immediately be swept away to Lana Land with the opening track and single, "Ride," which is utterly fabulous. It sets the tone for the whole album: cinematic, restless, and intimate - much more so than BtD, which, after hearing this album, almost feels like Lana wasn't ready to let us into her head completely - or maybe she wasn't ready to go there.
Anyway, "Ride." I can't wait for the summer, so I can put it on my annual summer playlist. It evokes the feeling of being on the road, and makes me think of Spirit: The Stallion of the Cimarron, which, if you were an eight-year-old girl in 2002, I'm SURE you will remember. I especially love the line "I'm tired of feeling like I'm fucking crazy," because I think we've all been there before. Some other stand-out songs are: "Cola (Pussy)," which draws you right in with its spectacularly absurd opening line (WHICH I LOVE) and keeps you there with its sexiness and with Lana's vocal harmonies and falsetto bits; "Body Electric," which ascribes paternity to both Elvis and Whitman and which totally makes sense in doing so - it's dark and suspenseful and has GREAT drums and a totally bad-ass guitar; "Blue Velvet," which I haven't ben able to stop singing since I first heard it in that H&M commercial (not to mention, I'm a sucker for Lynch-ian influences); and "Yayo," which is so simple and beautiful, and breaks your heart every time you hear Lana sing "Let me put on a show for you, daddy."
It's not a perfect album, of course. I like "American," especially the tagline "Be young, be dope, be proud," and how easy it is to get into and sing along to, but it's pretty forgettable overall. "Gods & Monsters" is alright, and definitely gets better after the opening. I love that Lana vocalizes her own sexual desire, and I can't help but sing along to "Fuck yeah, give it to me," but the constant references to Jim Morrison worry me A LOT. If Lana Del Rey joins the 27 Club, I will be inconsolable, I can tell you that much. And "Bel Air" is a pretty song, and I like how it makes me think of a soap opera that takes place in a castle, but it's just not for me. Personal preference. Still, Paradise is definitely a winner, and I'm crossing my fingers that Lana wasn't serious about not writing another album, because I am totally and irrevocably in love with her and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself without any more music from Lana Del Rey! I COULD DIE, IN ALL HONESTY. However, her plans to start writing movies are pretty exciting for me, so maybe I could forgive her one day. Maybe.
Okay so, every Sunday I'm going to make a list of my favorite pop culture/media things from the previous week. It's going to be called Something Great Sunday and it's only going to be a list of 10 things that are GREAT. So, without further ado...
I am eternally grateful to my friend Kitty for showing me this song. I cannot. Stop. Listening to it. Also Macklemore is really fucking attractive and I can't handle it.
