Norah Jones “Happy Pills”

Norah Jones is blessed with a gorgeous voice, but she generally errs on the side of singing material that does little more than frame her easygoing, honeyed tone. Her best material either gives her a top-shelf melody worthy of her vocal talent, like her breakthrough smash “Don’t Know Why,” or have enough emotional heft that she can understate the drama of the lyrics without draining them of urgency, as in “What Am I To You?” and “Stuck.” “Happy Pills,” from her new album produced by Danger Mouse, falls in the latter category. Its relaxed groove and bar room aura call back to the Pretenders’ “Brass In Pocket,” but Jones is too much of a sweetheart to put up a tough front like Chrissie Hynde. Still, it’s a terrific vocal performance that hits its emotional marks with a delightful ease. This is a song that benefits from her presence, both in tone and sentiment, as these lyrics about trying to force oneself into a positive mental state after a breakup ring true with this anodyne delivery.

Buy it from Amazon.

The celebration of the 10th anniversary of this site continues on with this collection of the best and most notable music of 2005. I went into this with the nagging thought that 2005 was kind of a so-so year, but this project has a way of proving to me that every year overflows with excellent music, it’s just the narrative that forms around it that is either inspiring or demoralizing, depending on your point of view. Anyone who can correctly identify the songs I slipped in that really should’ve been in the previous year and the one song I realized too late should’ve been in the 2006 mix gets a No-Prize. Here’s a Spotify playlist featuring most of the survey, courtesy of Sarah Peters.

The survey mixes for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010 and 2011 are still up. Check in on June 1st for a look back on 2006.

Also, out of curiosity, I would love to know what you are discovering or rediscovering in this or previous mixes. Please tell me in the comments or email me!

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Sleater-Kinney “The Fox” / Goldfrapp “Ride A White Horse” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Making Love in the Sunshine” / Amerie “1 Thing” / Girls Aloud “Biology” / The New Pornographers “Sing Me Spanish Techno” / Electric Six “Future Is In the Future” / M.I.A. “10 Dollar” / Beyoncé featuring Slim Thug “Check On It” / Four Tet “Smile Around the Face” / Celebration “China” / Vitalic “My Friend Dario” / Broadcast “Michael A Grammar” / Three 6 Mafia “Stay Fly” / Portobella “Vive La Difference” / Beck “Missing” / Jenny Wilson “Love Ain’t Just A Four Letter Word” / Jamie Lidell “Multiply” / Kanye West “Gone”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Fiona Apple “Extraordinary Machine” / The White Stripes “My Doorbell” / Stephen Malkmus “Malediction” / Hank “Ferox” / Bunky “Chuy” / Sugababes “Push the Button” / The Game and 50 Cent “Hate It Or Love It” / Mariah Carey “We Belong Together” / Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings “How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?” / Captain Comatose “To My Song” / Love Is All “Felt Tip” / A Frames “Black Forrest II” / Edan “Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme” / Scenario Rock “Skitzo Dancer (Justice Remix)” / Crime Mob “Knuck If You Buck” / The Rogers Sisters “Fantasies Are Nice” / Tender Trap “That Girl” / Weezer “Perfect Situation” / Nathalie Nordnes “Cars and Boys” / Lady Sovereign “Random” / Madonna “Hung Up”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Spoon “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” / The Russian Futurists “Our Pen’s Out of Ink” / Lilys “A Diana’s Diana” / Mike Jones, Slim Thug and Paul Wall “Still Tippin'” / Clipse “Zen” / Metronomy “Trick or Treatz” / My Morning Jacket “Wordless Chorus” / Dirty Projectors “Tour Along the Potomac” / Mary Timony “Friend to J.C.” / Busdriver “Lefty’s Lament” / Jenny Lewis “Born Secular” / Peter, Bjorn and John “Money” / The Pipettes “Dirty Mind” / Lil Wayne “Hustler Musik” / Young Jeezy “My Hood” / Caribou “Bees” / Dr. Dog “The World May Never Know” / The MFA “The Difference It Makes (Superpitcher Remix)”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

The Kills “No Wow” / Giant Drag “You Fuck Like My Dad” / Isolée “Schrapnell” / The Fall “Midnight Aspen” / Stereolab “Interlock” / Populous featuring Dose One “My Winter Vacation” / The Kings of Convenience “I’d Rather Dance with You” / Electrelane “Bells” / Faunts “Memories of Places We’ve Never Been” / Boards of Canada “Chromakey Dreamcoat” / Antony and the Johnsons “Hope There’s Someone” / Feist “Let It Die” / Mountain Goats “Dance Music” / Oasis “Lyla” / Daddy Yankee “Gasolina” / Róisín Murphy “Ramalama (Bang Bang)” / Paul Wall and Mike Jones “They Don’t Know” / Tom Zé “Ave Dor Maria” / Architecture in Helsinki “Do the Whirlwind” / Plastic Operator “Folder”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Fall Out Boy “Sugar, We’re Going Down” / Robyn “Be Mine!” / Metric “The Police and the Private” / The Long Blondes “Separated by Motorways” / Daft Punk “Robot Rock” / Mahjongg “Vaxination” / Animal Collective “Grass” / Hauschka “Two Stones” / John Vanderslice “crc7173, Affectionately” / Field Music “You Can Decide” / New Order “Krafty” / Death Cab for Cutie “Crooked Teeth” / The Fiery Furnaces “Evergreen” / Tegan and Sara “Walking With A Ghost” / Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.” / Nine Inch Nails “Only” / Missy Elliott “Can’t Stop” / Broken Social Scene “Ibi Dreams of Pavement” / Lemon Party “Spalding Grey Is Missing” / Edie Sedgwick “Sigourney Weaver” / Foo Fighters “Best of You” / Bright Eyes “First Day of My Life”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

LCD Soundsystem “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” / Spektrum “May Day” / Haunted House “Dramatic Beach House” / Vanessinha & Alessandra “Gira” / of Montreal “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” / Kevin Blechdom “Invisible Rock” / Tiger Tunes “Kirsten Is A Fuck Machine” / Queens of Noize “Indie Boys (Don’t Deserve It)” / Art Brut “Good Weekend” / Basement Jaxx “Oh My Gosh” / Rihanna “Pon de Replay” / Deerhoof “Wrong Time Capsule” / Wir Sind Helden “Nur Ein Wort” / The Rosebuds “Blue Bird” / Slow Dazzle “Fleur de Lie” / Beanie Sigel featuring Redman “One Shot Deal” / DJ Quik featuring B-Real “Fandango” / The Oohlas “Small Parts” / Brakes “You’ll Always Have A Place to Stay” / Sufjan Stevens “Chicago” / Andrew Bird “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Gene Serene and John Downfall “I Can Do Anything” / Ladytron “Destroy Everything You Touch” / Out Hud “It’s for You” / Crossover “Apples On A Stick” / Fannypack “Seven One Eight” / R. Kelly “In the Kitchen (Remix)” / Avenue D “You Love This Ass” / Alan Astor “Dragons and Beasts” / Cadence Weapon “Oliver Square” / Enon “The Nightmares of Atomic Men” / Clor “Love + Pain” / The National “Lit Up” / Wolf Parade “Shine A Light” / Child Ballads “Cheekbone Hollows” / Chad Van Gaalen “Chronograph #1” / Final Fantasy “This is the Dream of Win and Regine” / Au Revoir Simone “Back In Time” / M83 “Teen Angst” / Masha Qrella “My Day”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Franz Ferdinand “The Fallen” / Sons & Daughters “Taste the Last Girl” / Junior Senior “We R the Handclaps” / Rachel Stevens “I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)” / Rinocerose “Bitch” / Ol Dirty Bastard “Dirty Dirty” / Cassidy “Get ‘Em” / Weird War “See About Me” / James Rabbit “Spring Breakdown” / The Decemberists “16 Military Wives” / Liz Phair “Stars and Planets” / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah “In This Home On Ice” / The Hold Steady “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” / Robert Pollard “The Right Thing” / Carter, Chestnut, Jackson and Veal “Blue Hawaiian” / Devendra Banhart “I Feel Just Like A Child” / Kate Bush “King of the Mountain” / Magnétophone “…And May Your Last Words Be A Chance To Make Things Better” / Coldplay “Fix You”

Squeeze @ Roseland Ballroom 4/28/2012

Take Me I’m Yours / If I Didn’t Love You / In Quintessence / Revue / Model / The Knack / Who’s That? / Is That Love? / Points of View / Melody Motel / Heaven / Bang Bang / Cool for Cats / Up the Junction / Another Nail In My Heart / Goodbye Girl / Annie Get Your Gun / Hourglass / Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) // Slap and Tickle / Tempted / Black Coffee In Bed

I’ve been a Squeeze fan for many years now – I didn’t investigate the catalog until my early 20s, but “Pulling Mussels” and “Tempted” were two of my favorite radio songs as a kid – but this was my first time seeing them in concert. It was worth the wait! The current version of the band is comprised of very talented veterans, but the performance wasn’t blandly tight and overly professional. This was especially notable during “Tempted,” a song they have been obligated to play at every gig for over 30 years – there was a lot of swing in the performance, and Glenn Tillbrook in particular seemed absolutely thrilled to be singing the song. Everyone just seemed very present and fully engaged, which was very inspiring given that they’ve been doing greatest hits shows focused on their 1978-1982 heyday for quite a while now.

It was very interesting for me to observe the distinct Chris Difford/Glenn Tilbrook dynamic in person. Their body language and personalities match their voices – Difford is as reserved and droll as his icy monotone would suggest, and Tilbrook is as outgoing and cheerful as his singing voice is bright and amiable. The band’s signature trick is to add dimension to their songs by having them both sing the same part simultaneously, with Difford’s more sinister tone contrasting with Tilbrook’s conventionally appealing and broadly expressive vocal. Difford writes all the lyrics, which adds another layer to it – Glenn fills in all the emotion and soul, but the man who actually penned the words and has a closer connection to the themes comes off distant and aloof. (Funny enough, this closely mirrors the Tricky/Martina Topley-Bird dynamic, but without the extreme sexual tension.)

Squeeze “If I Didn’t Love You (Live at the Fillmore, 2010)

“If I Didn’t Love You,” one of my top favorites, is a great example of this approach to songwriting and vocal harmony. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2007:

The full line is “If I didn’t love you, I’d hate you,” and the more I hear this song, the more I realize that ultimately the singer is erring on the side of the latter. The woman being addressed is a total cipher — an object, an objective, a source of unending sexual frustration. He fumbles through these forced, cliched romantic scenarios — all of which seem distinctly early 80s to me; I’ve always imagined this being played out by Sam Malone and Diane Chambers — but for a song about trying to get laid, it seems rather short on lust. Glenn Tilbrook normally sounds warm and friendly, but here he’s chilly and aloof, especially when he stutters like a broken robot on the hook.

Buy Live at the Fillmore from Squeeze.

Carly Rae Jepsen “Call Me Maybe”

It’s sort of amazing that Max Martin is not responsible for Carly Rae Jepsen’s surprise smash “Call Me Maybe,” but even if he wasn’t involved in its creation directly, it certainly taps into the spirit of his greatest successes. There’s a wonderful innocence about the song, with highly efficient structure and production flourishes creating a thrilling, effervescent sound at odds with its own scientific precision of craft. Maura Johnston was exactly right when she pointed out that the rapid, graceful escalation of the composition perfectly mirrors the “love at first sight” sentiment of the lyrics. “It’s the sonic equivalent of a cartoon character’s eyes turning into big pink hearts immediately upon seeing someone who came out of their dreams,” as she puts it. This is the pop song to top in 2012.

Buy it from Amazon.

Fiona Apple “Every Single Night”

Sometimes a singer tells you exactly what they’re all about in one perfect, crystal clear line, and that happens in this song as Fiona Apple repeats “I just want to feel everything,” wringing out every syllable until it drips with emotion.

“Every Single Night” has a typically ornate Apple melody, but its arrangement is strict and skeletal. She’s gone minimal before, but this is a different approach – she drops a linear, conventional accompaniment in favor of carefully selected tones that support a vocal melody that would hold up just fine as an a cappella performance. The chords have a music box delicacy, but other sounds arrive with a gently measured yet unmistakably blunt force, and some tones have a pointed sharpness. It’s as if she’s finding a beautiful utility for things that could just as well be physically threatening.

This approach and subtext suits the lyrics, which meditate on a cycle of strife and discomfort. Apple’s images focus on the body in ways that highlight its fragility and limitations, imagining second skeletons forced under the skin, and picturing a broken chest in ways that come disturbingly close to how you’d describe food. She sets up that image just before singing “I just made a meal for us both to choke on,” getting the most out of a visceral, unpleasant line.

Pre-order it from Amazon.

The Flaming Lips featuring Ke$ha and Biz Markie “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)”

If you had never heard Sleigh Bells but read their most fawning press, you might expect them to sound a like Ke$ha’s song with the Flaming Lips – pop girl vocals, ultra-distorted guitar riffs, loads of energy. That’s basically what’s going on here, but not really, because both Ke$ha and Lips go much further out, landing in a place far removed from the hyperactive metal-dance-pop milieu of Sleigh Bells. Ke$ha pushes her pop-sleaze brat aesthetic to the max, while the Lips push the song off on spooky psychedelic tangents, and mess with the tone of their central riff to the point that it barely sounds like music and registers more like a malfunctioning nuclear reactor alarm. I would be lying if I told you I wouldn’t like this better if it was reined in a bit, but I love the brazen quality of this track – it’s violent, hostile music created by people utterly unafraid to be supremely annoying. Obviously, this isn’t totally new ground for the Flaming Lips, but it’s proof that Ke$ha is willing to get very weird. I can’t see her abandoning straight pop in the near future, but this track gives me some idea of what she’d do if given enough creative capital to truly do whatever she wants.

St. Vincent “Krokodil”

Annie Clark is a ridiculously versatile musician, but increasingly, everyone just wants her to rock out. It’s not so much that her other music is lacking, but rather that when she goes full on rock, she delivers intense, unrestrained performances. For most of her career to date, those rocking moments have been bits of cathartic release in otherwise mannered and finely crafted songs – her material on Actor, in particular, dramatizes the tortured inner world of someone trying to seem calm and composed.

Her new single, released as part of Record Store Day, is the first time Clark has gone off the deep end into full-on heavy rock – “Krokodil,” the a-side, is two and a half minutes of crazed industrial punk with Clark screaming about a Russian synthetic opiate that eats away your flesh, and the b-side, “Grot,” is sinister doom metal laced with a loop of angelic vocals. Both songs are amazing, and leave me desperate for more. This is a great use of the 7″ format – it’s either a quick detour, or a harbinger of things to come. I’m really hoping it’s the latter, and it’s a “Strawberry Fields Forever” b/w “Penny Lane” warming us up for a Sgt. Peppers-worth of heavy pop down the line.

Florence + the Machine featuring Josh Homme “Jackson”

I attended this MTV Unplugged taping a few months ago and had to keep my mouth shut about this Johnny Cash and June Carter cover for a long while. It wasn’t easy! Florence Welch and Josh Homme don’t seem like an obvious pairing, but their voices go together very well, especially as Homme does a pretty reasonable Cash impression. Covering big classics like this can be a thankless task, but I think there’s a lot of charm and heart in this performance, and the singing benefits greatly from the natural reverb of the Angel Orensanz space. You can hear it in the recording – there’s something wonderful about the way those voices fill the room. She really ought to just record everything in a church from here on out.

Buy it from Amazon.

Beck “I Only Have Eyes For You”

Beck’s rendition of the Flamingos classic is extremely reverent, and goes a long way to approximate the distinct atmosphere of the original recording. But as much as Beck does to capture that mood, this cover is astonishing mainly for how much of himself he puts into it, and how that part of himself is something we’ve rarely heard from him over the course of his career. This may be the single most beautiful vocal performance of his career to date. The specific adjective that comes to mind is handsome – it’s a particularly masculine sort of beauty; stoic and gentlemanly. He’s always had the capacity for this as a singer, but kept himself at a distance from it in one way or another. Between this recording and his duet with Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan on “Let’s Get Lost,” he’s giving us a new version of himself – let’s call it Romance Beck. I would be thrilled if this is where he goes on the next album.

Find out more about the SONG 1 project at Pitchfork.

Action Bronson “Double Breasted”

Action Bronson’s natural vocal timbre and rhyme style closely resemble that of Ghostface Killah, but as he goes along, his quirks become more apparent. The foodie references in the lyrics is the most obvious thing, but I like the very slight rasp in his voice and the way he speeds up his meter at the end of some lines. Bronson is especially interesting in the way he raps about bodies – it’s always vivid and visceral, often in the most literal sense. Sometimes he goes for gross out humor, but whether he’s talking about himself or a woman, there’s this sense that he’s totally comfortable with what bodies are, even if he occasionally hints at some anxiety about his appearance. He’s also good with matching the energy of a track – in this cut, he switches between two different beats within two minutes with tossed-off grace.

Download the mixtape from DJ Booth.

Death Grips “I’ve Seen Footage”

Death Grips make music that sounds like what could have happened if punk and hard rock influences had not almost entirely vanished from hip-hop music by the late Eighties. It’s not “rap rock” as came to know it, but rather something that seems native to hip-hop, but builds on the energy and aggression of punk. “I’ve Seen Footage” is a cousin to many great songs – Gold Chains’ punk-rap lost classic “Rock the Parti,” Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon’s “World Destruction,” Salt N Pepa’s “Push It,” Basement Jaxx’s aggro masterpiece “Where’s Your Head At?” – but there’s something wonderfully specific to its charms. A lot of it is in the word “footage,” which is spat out with great force, and sort of assaults the listener with its ambiguity. The tone is conspiratorial – you’re in the know, or you’re left wondering what the hell this crazy footage is. This much is clear: It’s probably not puppy stuff on YouTube.

Buy it from Amazon.

Japandroids “The House That Heaven Built”

I resisted Japandroids at first and lumped them in with a crop of rather uninspiring bands, but I snapped out of that this weekend. I was initially put off by Brian King’s thick, blocky distorted chords but I’ve come around to understanding the appeal: Everything with this band is overheated and super charged, and the blare is half the point. But not so much that it drowns everything out – King’s voice is loud and clear at the center of this, and he sings his words like they’re the most important thing in his world. The key line comes at the end of the chorus: “If they try to slow you down / tell ’em all they can go to hell.” The song is ecstatically defiant in general, but that moment signals both triumph and freedom. It’s the sound of a guy realizing that he has successfully demolished the boundaries that held him back mostly because he’s just stopped investing in ideas that held him back.

Pre-order it from Amazon.

Kraftwerk @ Museum of Modern Art 4/12/2012

Trans Europe Express / Europe Endless / The Hall of Mirrors / Showroom Dummies / Autobahn / Radioactivity / The Robots / The Model / The Man-Machine / Numbers / Computer World / Computer Love / Home Computer / Tour De France / Planet of Vision / Boing Boom Tschak / Techno Pop / Musique Non Stop

Kraftwerk “Europe Endless”

1. This night was billed as a Trans Europe Express show, but as you can see from the setlist above, the performance was in fact a career retrospective with an emphasis on TEE at the start of the show. Still, I’m very glad that I caught this night of the MoMA residency, as “Europe Endless” and “The Hall of Mirrors” are almost certainly unique to this program and they are two of my favorite songs in their catalog. So I lucked out: This set includes every Kraftwerk song that I would hope to see them play.

2. The visual presentation of the show was very impressive and crucial to the performance. The images, largely adapted from the band’s packaging and assorted iconography, emphasized the music’s thematic and structural conceits. The former is in some ways unnecessary – Kraftwerk is an act that overtly states its thematic content – but the latter was more interesting and revealing. The images accompanying “Trans Europe Express” and “Autobahn” are very literal in presenting a journey along train tracks and highway pavement, but the contours and repetitive lines mirror the shape of the composition. Less obviously, the sounds in “Radioactivity” correlate to the representation of the atom or the stark, terrifying beauty of the universal radioactive hazard symbol. The visuals highlight the group’s modernist approach – even if this wasn’t being spelled out quite so literally, it’s easy to understand how the sound itself is an impression of, and a comment on, the subject of 20th century scientific innovation and its impact on daily life.

3. Kraftwerk may clearly state their premises, but the meaning of their work can be rather ambiguous. The songs on the topic of transportation seem to exist without any particular judgment – there is a sense of “this just is” about them, and a genuine appreciation of structure, design and efficiency. The selections from The Man-Machine and Computer World – and most especially The Mix version of “Radioactivity” – contemplate the hazards of scientific progress, but come off as almost alarmingly neutral in tone. The program is mostly chronological, which highlights a thematic arc, as they shift from straight modernism to something a bit darker and more implicitly critical to the meta commentary of “Planet of Vision” and the cuts from Electric Cafe a.k.a. Techno Pop, which are essentially electronic songs about electronic music. This is where the music just sort of dissolves into itself – it’s easy to understand why they essentially never moved on from that phase. It’s the end of the line, and here, the end of the show.

4. One important thing about seeing Kraftwerk live as opposed to listening to the recordings is that you are confronted with the human element of their music. Four men are on stage doing who knows what, but they are there. The most striking thing about their presence is watching Ralf Hütter as he sings. He is as cold and aloof as you would expect, but it’s impossible not to reckon with his age – he’s in his mid-60s – and the very sound of his voice, which is often quite stunning and beautiful in a sort of severe, Germanic way. (See also: Nico.) Kraftwerk are mostly known today for being influential and innovative in electronic music, but in watching this show it’s obvious how crucial Hütter’s voice is in the success of this music. It’s not just that he brings humanity to this mechanical, sterile music – there really is something magnetic and engimatic about his rather low key persona.

Buy it from Amazon.

Pulp @ Radio City Music Hall 4/11/2012

Do You Remember the First Time? / Monday Morning / Razzamatazz / Pencil Skirt / Something Changed / Disco 2000 / Sorted For E’s and Wizz / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. / I Spy / Babies / Underwear / This Is Hardcore / Sunrise / Bar Italia / Common People // Like A Friend / Bad Cover Version / Mis-Shapes

Both of these Pulp shows were outstanding, but I enjoyed this one a bit more. The setlist was mostly the same, but ever so slightly better: I was thrilled for “Bad Cover Version,” and though I adore “Party Hard,” “Mis-Shapes” is a far more exciting and satisfying grand finale. I think I was more keyed into the showmanship on the first night, but this show was more about connecting with the sentiment of the songs, though I’m somewhat embarrassed to mention which in particular resonated most deeply. (Ugly emotions and bad memories!) “Common People” was phenomenal; exactly as righteous and cathartic as you would want it to be, though the Radio City audience couldn’t quite muster the sort of sublime communal singalong you see in footage from European festivals.

Pulp “Bar Italia”

“Bar Italia” has long been one of my top favorite Pulp songs. I mentioned yesterday that I briefly met Jarvis in 1998. I can’t remember all the details of the meeting, though I recall shaking his enormous hand and asking if the band might play “Bar Italia” when they hit New York. He said they’d stopped playing it, and that he wasn’t quite certain why. I remember being surprised by this: If you have a song like “Bar Italia,” why wouldn’t you play it? It’s one of the best ending songs I can think of; the climax is so dramatic and satisfying without getting melodramatic. Over the past two nights it was very nice to see that I was right about how well it would play out on stage.

“Bar Italia” perfectly captures the mood and feeling of a particular moment that is seldom dramatized in song, but is familiar to most people who have spent time engaged with music and youth culture. It’s the time after the party, the show, the rave, the whatever. The night is quite literally over, and you’re shutting down and slowly shuffling home as the rest of the world starts the day. Cocker addresses a companion, and this is pretty crucial to why the song is so moving: It’s a shared moment, and there’s a special sort of intimacy on display here between these people as they transition from addled to hungover to finally crashing out somewhere. Cocker finds the grace in this situation, and in the end, as the song rises up in wobbly triumph, he and the band underline the main point of Different Class, i.e., there can be great life-affirming beauty in the sordid and the shabby.

Buy it from Amazon.

Pulp @ Radio City Music Hall 4/10/2012

Do You Remember the First Time? / Mis-Shapes / Razzmatazz / Pencil Skirt / Something Changed / Disco 2000 / Sorted For E’s and Wizz / F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. / I Spy / Babies / Underwear / This Is Hardcore / Sunrise / Bar Italia / Common People // Like A Friend / Live Bed Show / Party Hard

Unlike a majority of people attending this concert, I had seen Pulp three times before this show: A full gig at Hammerstein Ballroom in June of 1998, and earlier that week, a brief set at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C. followed by another three-song set with the band opening for Radiohead at an impromptu club show. (This happened! And Michael Stipe was there, and sang “Lucky” with Radiohead and an a cappella number on his own! And I met Jarvis afterward! This is a cherished memory.) I felt guilty, but maybe also a bit cheated: There was no way I was going to come away from this one with the thrill of having seen Jarvis and company at long last, even if it has been a long time since they’ve played together on U.S. soil. I do remember the first time, and the memories are still quite vivid!

Jarvis is a bit older now, but he still has it. He’s an extraordinary performer, in part because he’s such a specific character, and he’s so fully comfortable in his skin. I think the very best rock stars are the people who impose their quirks on to the role rather than conform to the expectations of the job. He created his own archetype, but he belongs in a pantheon of the great oddball rock gods alongside Michael Stipe, David Byrne, Elvis Costello, Stephen Malkmus, Black Francis and James Murphy. Watching him in action is inspiring – his sort of confidence seems somehow attainable, whereas more traditional rock, pop and rap stars make it seem impossible and superhuman. Even in his biggest anthems – “Mis-Shapes” and “Common People,” both of which presage the sentiment of the Occupy movement by nearly two decades – Cocker is at a human scale even as the music soars. Extremely lanky, yeah, but human scale.

Pulp “This Is Hardcore”

Pulp has been closing out most of their shows on this extended reunion tour with a dramatic sequence of songs that goes like so: “This Is Hardcore” as a XXX dark night of the soul, “Sunrise” as a glimmer of hope just in the distance, “Bar Italia” as the come down and hangover, and “Common People” as the climax and resolution. This is a very effective and evocative set, but I was particularly moved by the performance of “Hardcore,” which seemed less menacing and sexy than the album version, and a lot more desperate and lonely. It’s a song about someone trying to will sexual fantasies based on shallow objectification into reality and finding the resulting action hollow and lacking, and though it certainly resonates today, I found myself wondering what this song would be if it were written more recently. What is “This Is Hardcore” in the era of internet pornography? Does it go to a more transgressive place, and does that place leave him even more empty?

Buy it from Amazon.

Damien Jurado “Maraqopa”

A lot of producers can do “atmosphere,” but Richard Swift goes a step further, engineering tracks to evoke a strong sensation of physical presence. As in, you listen and feel as those you’re in the same space as the performer and instruments, but in a more intimate way than being a spectator at a concert. This approach is ideal for Damien Jurado, who would shrink in a large sound, or recede into the background if given a one-size-fits-all production job. Swift goes heavy on room sound ambiance and what comes like a natural spacing between instruments – I am not clear on his techniques, but I suspect he’s using binaural microphone placement to get the “3D sound” – and, in effect, Jurado seems to be magnified. He and his instruments sound like something you can reach out and touch, or glance at across the room. The backing vocals exaggerate the effect, with an echo that could be just down the hall from everything else.

Buy it from Amazon.

Matt LeMay “Compare and Contrast”

“Compare and Contrast” owes something to a long lineage of heart-on-sleeve power pop tunes, but to my ears, it mainly sounds like the best Matthew Sweet song in nearly two decades. LeMay’s song has a light, breezy tone, but the sentiment is fraught with emotion as he attempts to negotiate his way through a dissolving relationship while feeling a bit worried that he’s complicating matters by saying too much. The lyrics are great at conveying the singer’s hyper-awareness, especially when he seems trapped in his head at the very worst moments: “I tried not to watch as affection drained out of your eyes.” There are some absolutely gutting bits in this, but remarkably, it doesn’t shake off the easy springtime feeling of the music. At points, LeMay’s own solos seem to tell him, “Hey, relax, it wasn’t meant to be.”

Buy it directly from Matt LeMay.

Dirty Projectors “Gun Has No Trigger”

David Longstreth’s compositions on previous Dirty Projectors releases, particularly on Bitte Orca and The Getty Address, were immediately dazzling things that shook the listener with unusual approaches to rhythm and harmony, so it’s understandable that some people would come to “Gun Has No Trigger” and feel a bit ho-hum about its low-key simplicity. Longstreth’s voice is the focal point of this composition, and his particular, somewhat peculiar phrasing and tone is so essential to the piece that the song might not even work with a different singer. Or it’d work much differently, anyway: The melody is very strong and dramatic, moving along through verses that rise with an accusing tone toward a climactic moment in which the lyrics reveal a contrasting anticlimax.

The celebration of the 10th anniversary of this site continues on with this collection of the best and most notable music of 2004. As I was immersed in this music, I noticed that most everything here has a very clean sound and a vibrant, super-saturated tone. At the time, the site was bright yellow with a rainbow logo, which makes perfect sense for that period – everything just seemed very colorful. This set features a great deal of amazing songs by underground pop acts who basically bubbled up and then disappeared – one hit wonders from an an alternate universe. Keep this in mind if you listen to a version of this on Spotify or Rdio – a very large chunk of this set will not be available on those platforms.

The survey mixes for 2002, 2003, 2010 and 2011 are still up. Check in on May 1st for a look back on 2005.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Scissor Sisters “Laura” / Kelly Clarkson “Since U Been Gone” / Rilo Kiley “Portions For Foxes” / Charlotte Hatherley “Kim Wilde” / Girls Aloud “Love Machine” / Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris “Yeah!” / Kanye West “School Spirit” / Fiona Apple “Red, Red, Red” (Demo) / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “A Message to My Audience” / Ghostface Killah “Tooken Back” / Belle & Sebastian “Your Cover’s Blown” / Justus Kohncke featuring Meloboy “Frei/Hot Love” / Stazi “Love Is Lethal” / McLusky “She Will Only Bring You Happiness” / Alicia Keys “You Don’t Know My Name (Reggae Mix)” / Phoenix “If It’s Not With You” / Eamon “Fuck It (I Don’t Want You Back)” / Johnny Boy “You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve” / The Concretes “Diana Ross” / Feist “Mushaboom” (Demo)

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

U2 “Vertigo” / Interpol “Evil” / David Wrench “World War IV” / Mousse T “Is It Cos I’m Cool?” / Madvillain “Money Folder” / Junesex “Gets Close to Mine” / Love Is All “Make Out Fall Out Make Up” / Of Montreal “Vegan In Furs” / Alan Braxe and Fred Falke “Rubicon” / Hot Chip “Bad Luck” / Estelle “1980” / Cam’Ron “Get Down” / Snoop Dogg “Drop It Like It’s Hot” / Dani Siciliano “Walk the Line” / Lady Sovereign “Ch Ching” / Junior Boys “High Come Down” / Method Man and Ghostface Killah “Afterparty” / Cut Copy “Saturdays” / The Go! Team “Ladyflash” / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Wilco “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” / LCD Soundsystem “Movement” / Saul Williams “Grippo” / Dizzee Rascal “Stand Up Tall” / Death From Above 1979 “Blood On Your Hands” / !!! “Pardon My Freedom” / Tracy and the Plastics “Henrietta” / Heloise and the Savoir Faire Dancers “Odyle” / Gene Serene and John Downfall “Electric Dreams” / Morrissey “First of the Gang to Die” / Franz Ferdinand “Take Me Out” / X-Wife “Eno” / The Rogers Sisters “Freight Elevator” / Shrag “Punk Grammar” / Kelley Polar Quartet “The Rhythm Touch” / Superpitcher “The Long Way” / Frausdots “Soft Light” / Destroyer “It’s Gonna Take An Airplane”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Animal Collective “Who Could Win A Rabbit” / Joanna Newsom “Inflammatory Writ” / Pixies “Bam Thwock” / Courtney Love “But Julian, I’m A Little Bit Older Than You” / Hilary and Haylie Duff “Our Lips Are Sealed” / Dressy Bessy “The Things That You Say That You Do” / AC Newman “Secretarial” / Janet Jackson “Just A Little While” / Kylie Minogue “I Believe In You” / The Streets “Fit But You Know It” / Masta Killa, RZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Old Man” / Avenue D featuring Cazwell “The Sex That I Need” / George Michael “Freek!” / Ciara featuring Ludacris “Oh” / TV on the Radio “The Wrong Way” / Air “Surfing on a Rocket” / Chungking “We Love You” / Flotation Toy Warning “Popstar Researching Oblivion” / Antibalas “Pay Back Africa” / Soulwax “NY Excuse”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Mouse on Mars “Mine Is In Yours” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Armand Van Helden “Hear My Name” / Futon “Gay Boy” / M.I.A. “URAQT” / T.I. “Rubberband Man” / Nina Sky “Move Your Body” / JC Chasez “All Day Long I Dream About Sex” / The Killers “Mr. Brightside” / Les Savy Fav “The Sweat Descends” / Lolita Storm “Dancing with the Ibiza Dogs” / The Long Blondes “Giddy Stratospheres” / Bloc Party “She’s Hearing Voices” / Jason Forrest “10 Amazing Years” / Michael Dracula “Destroy Yourself (Twitch Optimo Mix)” / Sia “Breath Me (Four Tet Remix)” / Wiley “Problems” / R. Kelly “Happy People” / Twista featuring Jamie Foxx and Kanye West “Slow Jamz”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Arcade Fire “Wake Up” / The Walkmen “The Rat” / The Chap “Oozing Emotion” / Rework “Not Quite Like Any Other” / Au Revoir Simone “Through the Backyards of Our Neighbors” / R.E.M. “Electron Blue” / Jojo “Leave (Get Out)” / Christina Milian “Dip It Low” / Cocorosie “Butterscotch” / Devendra Banhart “Little Yellow Spider” / Sonic Youth “Unmade Bed” / Green Day “Jesus of Suburbia” / Ted Leo and the Pharmacists “Bleeding Powers” / Modest Mouse “Float On” / Big & Rich “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)” / Baby “Free Los Angeles” / J-Kwon “Tipsy” / Björk “Who Is It” / Ryan Adams “Wonderwall” / Iron & Wine “Naked As We Came”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

The Fiery Furnaces “Chris Michaels” / Nellie McKay “Ding Dong” / Elvis Costello “Monkey to Man” / Say Anything “Every Man Has A Molly” / Art Brut “Formed A Band” / Beats For Beginners “Kill All DJs” / Rachel Stevens “Some Girls” / Revl9n “Walking Machine” / Lil Wayne “Go DJ” / Gretchen Wilson “Redneck Woman” / Loretta Lynn and Jack White “Portland, Oregon” / Guided By Voices “Everybody Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking)” / Komeda “Blossom (Got to Get It Out)” / Xiu Xiu “I Luv the Valley OH” / My Chemical Romance “Helena (So Long and Goodnight)” / Clinic “Falstaff” / Nimbus Coleman “Who is the Governess?” / Klang “Help Is On the Way” / Stereolab “Margerine Rock” / Blood on the Wall “On My Mouth” / I Hate You When You’re Pregnant “There Is Stuff in This World”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Gwen Stefani “What You Waiting For?” / Erlend Øye “The Black Keys Work” / Bollywood Freaks “Don’t Stop Til You Get to Bollywood” / Dred Prez “Hell Yeah (Pimp the System)” / Prince “Cinnamon Girl” / Dungen “Panda” / Squarepusher “Iambic 9 Poetry” / Regina Spektor “Us” / The Futureheads “Hounds of Love” / Ashlee Simpson “La La” / Mia. “Heroes” / Pet “No Yes No” / Interational Pony “My Mouth (Phony the Punk)” / Slum Village featuring Kanye West and John Legend “Selfish” / Mannie Fresh “Conversation” / Devin the Dude “Briarpatch” / Norah Jones “What Am I to You?” / Sufjan Stevens “The Dress Looks Nice on You” / PJ Harvey “The Desperate Kingdom of Love”

Hundred Waters “Boreal”

“Boreal” ends with singer Nicole Miglis assuring the listener that “a tale is not trite if it’s still being told,” which is oddly defensive, but keeping with the character of the piece. It is, after all, a song centered on a set of lyrics in which a novice traveler explains her reasons for traveling to the tundra. (Long story short, she wants to see a land stripped bare, and draw strength from what can survive the harsh climate.) The music is measured and precise in its contour and texture, like an elaborate panorama of a barren yet beautiful digital wilderness.

Buy it from Amazon.