Hattie Littles

See! Two days in a row! Nice job team, let’s take the rest of the month off.

Hattie Littles, “Conscience I’m Guilty”

Shuffle in a Motown mood! We’re in 1965, and you can really hear how much Motown has upped their game. This song isn’t that far from the previous one in terms of composition, but the arrangement and especially the production are so much more sophisticated. Of course, by 1965, Hitsville U.S.A. was really rolling, so it’s not really a surprise. It’s still fun to hear these back-to-back and hear the leap forward.

Still hanging in there on my streak. It’s been close for a few days!

Hattie Littles, “Here You Come”

I know nothing about Hattie Littles, but this song is such an exemplar of that early Motown sound, it’s hard not to smile. This comes from 1962, by the way.

Jets to Brazil, “Chinatown”

After Jawbreaker imploded, at least partially due to the pressure of their major label contract, Blake Schwarzenbach thankfully didn’t hang up his guitar for good. His next band, Jets to Brazil, continues in the same vein. While I think Jets to Brazil is a little more polished (and therefore I’m not sure I love them quite as much), they’re a worthy successor, and all three of their albums are worth looking up.

Kind of distant and/or futuristic there for a while, until we hit the last song.

Sigur Rós, “Untitled 8”

Icelandic post-rock group Sigur Rós make long, abstract songs that pretty much all sound like the soundtrack to something. Despite this theoretically being something I should be very into, this album (( )) did nothing for me, and I haven’t picked up any of the rest of their stuff. I’m not sure why.