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"Red Cave"

09 - Simian Mobile Disco

“Hustler” – Simian Mobile Disco – Attack Decay Sustain Release

I enjoy blippy electropop like this, particularly when it has a compelling vocal track. I’m not sure shoplifting vinyl qualifies you for hustler status, but it’s an interesting narrative, and the song peaks when she asks an answers her own question in the same sentence: “What the **** is you gonna do about it nothing.”

08 - The New Pornographers

“Challengers” – The New Pornographers – Challengers

It took more listens for Challengers to sink in for me than any previous NP album. I think part of this is that it doesn’t have a centerpiece song for me the way their other albums have (“Mass Romantic,” from Mass Romantic, “The Laws Have Changed” from Electric Version, and “The Bleeding Heart Show” from Twin Cinema). You are likely to get a different “centerpiece” list from any NP fan, but my point is that with no such song for me on Challengers, all the songs were essentially growers. Grow on me they did, though, to the point where picking one for this playlist was based as much on YouTube availability as it was on which song I liked best.

I went with the lovely, subdued title track, but it could just as easily have been “Myriad Harbor,” the best Bejar-penned NP song yet, Kathryn Calder’s breakout vocal performance on the stuttering, droning “Failsafe,” the haunting Neko Case ballad “Go Places” (also a waltz, I might add), the Bleeding-Heart-Show-That-Never-Quite-Explodes of “My Rights Versus Yours,” the rollicking “All The Old Showstoppers” or the sweeping glory of “Mutiny, I Promise You” or “All Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth.”

Challengers may not have peaks that reach quite as high as on the previous three albums, but that is easily made up for in depth.

( Here’s a Rhapsody playlist of all the songs mentioned.)

06 - Bishop Allen

“Click Click Click Click” – Bishop Allen – The Broken String

Bishop Allen is kind of a Jethro-Tull-meets-Sleater-Kinney thing. The band name, not the sound—“Bishop Allen” isn’t a dude, it’s a road. The sound is really nothing like either, although a Tull-meets-S-K sound is, at the very least, an intriguing thinker. Anyway, I’ve had the “click click click click” chorus stuck in my head lately, so maybe putting it in the calendar will dislodge it from my brain and stick stick stick stick it into yours.

05 - Peter Bjorn and John

“Young Folks”– Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block

PB&J? I both love and hate that, depending on which part of my brain is processing it. All the parts of my brain love this song and the accompanying video though.

OK, new playlist theme: songs with significant whistling. “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard,” “Winds Of Change,” “The Stranger,” “Reba,” and…what else? Post your additions to the comments.

“Atlas” – Battles – Mirrored

Wow, it’s tough to compare these guys to anyone, and probably unfair to all involved, but I like a good challenge so I’m going to try anyway. “Atlas” is a recording of Primus, the sinister side of Pink Floyd, HAL 9000, and the Lollipop Guild storming Rush’s stronghold deep inside a synthesizer and staging a prog-rock coup d'état.

03 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

“Satan Said Dance” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Some Loud Thunder

KEXP played a live version of this song fairly frequently between the release of the first and second CYHSY albums. I was glad to see it on Some Loud Thunder, but the almost lighthearted execution of the “Said Dance!” line on the studio cut unfortunately betrays the otherwise unsettling, sinister feel of the track in a way the live version does not. I sifted through some of the live versions on YouTube, but—you’re not going to believe this—they were mostly just snippets of unlistenable quality. I know, I was as shocked as you are. Here, this one from Lollapalooza isn’t too bad. And hey, that version is on Rhapsody as well with nice sound quality.

Tangent: note the vocal flub at 3:12 on the Some Loud Thunder version, where Alec Ounsworth starts to come in early, but cuts himself off. It’s interesting that they went with that take. I was trying to come up with other studio tracks in which vocal flubs were left in, and all I could come up with was “Louie Louie,” where Jack Ely also comes back in early at 1:58 and then self-corrects. I figure the Kingsmen went with this take because they ran out of quarters for the “make your own record” machine before they could record another one; CYHSY had more choice in the matter.

D&B

Luna - 23 Minutes In Brussels (Tell Me Do You Miss Me)

Rag and Bone