Showing posts with label sia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sia. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

After this, no more Twilight...until Breaking Dawn comes out.

Just when I think I've run out of content, it just shows up out of the blue, ready to receive my (succinct) commentary. Well, fine then. Let's do this thing.

I wrote about the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack a few weeks ago. At the time, it was just my being a miserable music snob, talking about how depressed I was about Metric and Florence and everyone else being a part of that schmucky franchise. Now, I have the soundtrack, and I'll write about what it actually sounds like. You can stream it here if you feel so inclined. Or, the links will take you straight to the songs on YouTube!

Metric has the lead track, "Eclipse (All Yours)." Can I be honest and say that I'm already rolling my eyes? I love, love, love Metric (if you need proof, please see my live review in which I gushed over Emily Haines) but this track is just...lacking. But, then again, what else would you expect from anything Twilight related?

The Sia and Band of Horses tracks are exactly what you'd expect - which isn't a bad thing. It's just not Twilight-tailored. That's probably a good thing. Although, I'm waiting for a cringe-worthy emotional scene in the movie. I'm thinking Bella and Jacob in a will-they-won't-they situation (even though we all know they kind of do but ultimately don't, because Jacob is a pervert who imprints on a baby).

The Black Keys can do no wrong in my eyes, even if they wrote a song for this soundtrack. Although, now that I'm listening to "Chop and Change," I feel like what happened was this: "Oh you know what? We have a B-side that we weren't going to use. You wanna just..." and they did.

You know who else can do no wrong? Florence Welch. "Heavy In Your Arms" is so beautiful it's actually giving me chills

BECK AND BAT FOR LASHES. It's the track I've been waiting for for months and months: Mostly because Natasha Khan is all that is holy, and we haven't had any new material from her. The track has yummy percussion and Beck and Natasha's voices work really well together. In fact, they're kind of like the male and female versions of one another!

Vampire Weekend. I don't even want to know. You're stupid and overrated and I don't care that you're "intelligent." As far as I'm concerned, you island-indie rock guys can just suck it.

UNKLE's track, which features The Black Angels, is a sexy rock song. I predict a chase/running/driving scene for this one.

There's a bonus track called "Don't Mourn The Sun" on the album by someone named MiMi. I can't find anything on her (them?) but the track is kind of great, actually. It has a wonderful building beat, and she has a good voice.

So, out of all of these artists/songs to check out, make it MiMi.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Season finales rocking my world

Season finales are happening left and right which is just an excuse to play some incredible music. Here is someone I've been wanting to talk about but I haven't had anything super up-to-date to use as a reason to talk about her. Now, that reason is her song "You've Changed"'s being used in the holy-shit-what-just-happened season finale of "The Vampire Diaries."

So who is it? It's Sia! Just to give you a few references, her song "Breathe Me" was used during the final scene of "Six Feet Under" - only one of the most epic television series and chill-inducing finales of all time ever. "The Bully" was used on "The O.C.," "I Go To Sleep" on "Dollhouse" and a handful of her songs have been used throughout six seasons of "Grey's Anatomy."

She is also a contributor to the ambient/trip-hop group Zero 7. And, let me tell you, girl can make some beautiful and sexy music. Please see "Destiny" and "Distractions" for reference/proof.

Her voice is a bit of an odd one. It sounds almost pained and sleepy, but it's a nice change from girls who sing in those soft voices that don't make me feel anything but bored. Her albums have a nice array of piano-driven pieces, some electronic-sounding stuff (think Massive Attack) and acoustic tracks.

If you're skipping a night out with your friends in favor of staying in to have an introspective night, acquire one of her albums in whatever way you see fit. I'll recommend Colour The Small One to get started with. Don't be surprised if some of the tracks move you to tears or almost tears.