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30 MICKEY BROWN :: SOUL GLO :: “ZORDON”
Bringing together the talents of MICKEY MICKEY ROURKE and Lester Brown, this song a horse of a whole different color. It paints this world of frantic psychedelia where nothing is what it seems.
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29 Frankie Rose and The Outs :: Frankie Rose and The Outs :: “Little Brown Haired Girls”
After a few tours in some other bands (Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Stilts), Frankie Rose decided to venture out on her own. Channeling the same 1960’s girl groups as her previous bands, Frankie manages to take those influences and churn out something all her own. The result is something much more subtle and quite beautiful.
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28 La Sera :: Never Come Around 7” :: “Never Come Around”
Katy Goodman might just be the most adorable girl in the indie music scene these days. Her turns with Vivian Girls and All Saints Day showed that she’s capable of bringing the noise, but with La Sera she shows a gentler side.
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27 The Bitters :: East General :: “Travelin’ Girl”
In the middle of the summer I was listening to East General on a regular basis. Since then my infatuation with it has dwindled a bit, but “Travelin’ Girl” is one song that receives regular spins in my library. Like some warped take on the girl groups of the 1960’s, The Bitters bring the beauty and the grime.
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26 Sufjan Stevens :: All Delighted People EP :: “Heirloom”
You’d be hard pressed to find a blogger who is not familiar with Sufjan Stevens, so I’ll spare you the introduction. I was not a huge fan of The Age of Adz. In my opinion, All Delighted People was a much better effort and one that I kept coming back to. The song “Heirloom” from the EP was particularly beautiful.
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25 Cults :: Go Outside 7” :: “Go Outisde”
Cults keep the 1960’s and the good feelings going. One of the few really good boy/girl duos to surface this year, Cults manage to craft these gentle, sugary pop songs. The songs might be sweet, but they never force it or push it past its limits. It’s like a stroll through the park, and really, who doesn’t like that?
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24 Sleigh Bells :: Treats :: “Infinity Guitars”
As time would reveal, replayability on Treats was not very high for me. The songs here make a great first impression, but after a while I found myself looking for a solace from the onslaught. That is not to say that the album doesn’t have its place. Every once in a while you need a song to blow the hat off your head. Sleigh Bells can give you that.
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23 Drake :: Thank Me Later :: “Up All Night” (ft. Nicky Minaj)
It’s not uncommon for a hip-hop newcomer to play it off like their hot stuff. It comes with the territory I suppose. What is uncommon though is when an up-and-comer has the chops to match their ego. That is where Drake falls. And while his ego might be hard for some to swallow, I found that it gave his music a certain sense of confidence that is lacking in many others.
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Witch house is something that I never really saw myself getting into, but there were a few artists who sorta changed my mind on the issue. Of all the seemingly endless witch house acts that I listened to this year, †‡† really stuck out. The sheer weight of this music is immense, it feels so thick and heavy. That combined with the Exorcism of Emily Rose samples creeps me out in all the right ways.
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21 Spectrals :: Extended Play EP :: “Peppermint”
Up til now I have not heard a Spectrals song that I was not crazy about. His knack for recreating the sounds and melodies of the early 1960’s is uncanny. This is a kid that most likely grew up listening to The Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys more than anything else. A man after my own heart.
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