The First Love You Can’t Escape

The Raveonettes “The Beat Dies” – It’s only appropriate that so many songs of innocent, starry-eyed, sentimental love are awash in a sea of reverb — being in that state of infatuation can often seem like being stuck in a personal echo chamber. There’s certainly a sweet sadness to “The Beat Dies,” but it is trumped by the sound of hope and belief in Sharin Foo’s slight, girlish voice. She doesn’t betray all the much emotion in her performance, but it’s just enough to make it clear that she wouldn’t want to go on in a world without romance or heartbreak. (Click here to buy it for a ridiculously inflated import price from Amazon, but keep in mind that Vice is releasing it domestically very soon.)

Blur “I’m Just A Killer For Your Love (Live in 1997)” – The album version of “I’m Just A Killer For Your Love” can’t help but seem shambling and muted in comparison to this stomping, cacaphonous live recording from 1997. This may be one of the finest examples of Blur in their late ’90s peak, with Damon Albarn’s faux-glam tunefulness colliding with Graham Coxon’s knack for severe, seemingly haphazard guitar noise to create something that improves upon the music of their most obvious influences. Coxon’s wildly expressive parts are especially impressive because he makes it all sound so effortless, as though these precisely calculated noises are just happening spontaneously, or even accidentally. My favorite noise in this particular song is the rhythmic wrenching sqwuak that is so prominent on the verses — it comes off sounding like someone wringing out the blood from a heart with a cold metal vice, which obviously goes nicely with sentiment of the chorus. (Click here to buy the studio version from Amazon.)

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