Thoughts and Fantasies

Glass Candy “Beatific” – When I say that Ida No sounds like a voice from the past on this song, I’m not simply trying to place an emphasis on its retro quality, though it most certainly feels like a vintage disco tune done up with thick, modern synthesizers. I’m being literal: Her voice does not sound as though it belongs in this era, and her voice — if not her body — seems as if it has somehow been displaced in time. “Beatific” has the same effect as looking through photographs of glamorous people taken long before you were born — so much of the past belongs to the realm of fiction (in one way or another) that it can seem a bit unreal, and entire lives can seem weird and impossible. Glass Candy are clearly aiming for an out-of-time quality in this production, but as Courtney Love used to sing, they fake it so real, they are beyond fake. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Meanwhile, At Fair Game With Faith Salie: I recommend checking out the White Williams session that aired last week on the show. You can hear the entire thing with the interview here, but if you only want to download the songs he and his band played in the studio, here you go. Also, we had Pitchfork’s Marc Hogan on the show yesterday to talk about the use of appropriation in contemporary Swedish indie-pop. Lastly, in tonight’s show, I’ll be talking to Faith about what happens when people try to make Christmas music cool. If you’d like to hear the show, you have a few options: you can subscribe to the podcast here, check your local public radio listings, or go to “radio” in iTunes, go to the public section, and tune in to WNYC-AM at 8:00 PM EST.