You Never Really Knew For Sure

Maps “Lost My Soul” – My mind is already fast-forwarding to some point a year or two from now when this song is playing a thousand times a day as part of some tv ad aimed at the “indie yuppie” demographic. And I don’t mean to be snarky about this – this song is so incredibly effective at combining that sort of quietly melodramatic Mercury Rev-ish “I’m a man with a tiny voice singing about big emotions in the midst of a sweeping arrangement” thing with cool electronic textures and swelling strings that it’s almost impossible to resist if you have any love for that type of music at all, whatsoever. (Click here for Maps’ MySpace page.)

Umekichi & Otemoto Orchestra “Samisen Boogie Woogie” – Though the theatrics of Umekichi’s Geisha performance is lost on record, there’s still quite a lot to love on this bizarre little Japanese boogie number, which pulls off that wonderful trick of sounding comfortable, catchy, and slightly warped at the same time. (Click here to buy it (I think…) from Umekichi’s official site.)