Pop Will Eat Itself

Cosmic Analog Ensemble, “Pourparlers”

Set everything else aside: listen to how good this song sounds. Just the quality of the recording, the way the instruments sound, the space between them. It sounds amazing, just incredibly appealing.

Blackalicious, “Jada’s Vengeance”

This is from a label sampler, Quannum Spectrum, featuring the likes of Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Latryx, and Mack B. Dogg. Uh, I guess if you list everybody, it’s not “the likes of”. Anyway, good lineup of artists, so this is a fun little comp. Discogs tells me it’s a promo release, so I have no idea if it’s even findable.

The Monorchid, “Abyss”

The Monorchid brought back together a couple Circus Lupus alumni in a new band, but this record isn’t quite the continuation of the noisy post-hardcore of that first band. In some ways, it’s sort of the Hot Snakes to Circus Lupus’s Drive Like Jehu. A comparison that absolutely made more sense in my head than it does when I write it down, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to go back and replace it. Editing is for quitters and professionals, and I’m neither.

Pop Will Eat Itself, “Bulletproof!”

After the anarchic fun of Cure For Sanity, which got some popular attention particularly on dance floors, their followup (The Looks or the Lifestyle) came out the next year trying to cash in on the popularity. But while there was a surface similarity, it all felt kind of pro-forma. Lots of chanting, repetitive lyrics gestured at being anthems, but nothing really lands on the record, and it should really be ignored.

Hey, a quick note here before we get to the main act - we went all of November with a post every single day! NOT BAD

Nickel Creek, “Somebody More Like You”

One of my favorite Nickel Creek songs, with the acid lyrics really carrying things, and of course the lovely harmonies are as fun as always. One of the things that I really like about Nickel Creek is how percussive the playing is, so you don’t even really notice that there’s no drums.

The Reindeer Section, “If Everything Fell Quiet”

The Reindeer Section is a Scottish supergroup, featuring members of Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Arab Strap, Mogwai, and others. The resulting album actually sounds a lot more coherent than what you normally expect from a supergroup, primarily because the songs were all written by Gary Lightbody (of Snow Patrol). The rest of the folks here fill out the roster, and they do it quite ably.