Aimee Mann‘s crazy-good album Mental Illness remains one of our Best Albums of 2017. The roundly-praised album is perfectly produced and arranged, and is filled with memorable melodies and adroit vignettes of this majorly mental, modern life. Among our Best Songs of 2017 from the album is the heart-rending, socially-anxious Goose Snow Cone and the masterful  Patient Zero. This week Mann, co-writer and harmonist Jonathan Coulton and pizzicato-plucking ensemble showed up on Conan to killing-ly perform Patient Zero. The performance is a great reminder of the song’s well-honed lyrics, producer Paul Bryan’s string arrangement, and all as adroitly delivered by Mann, Coulton and the workers on the string-gang on Conan.

Mann discussed the song on the always illuminating Song Exploder podcast. As explained there, Mann originally wrote the crushed-Hollywood-hopes song after meeting then Hollywood-newcomer Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Silence, Hacksaw Ridge). As she evidently often does, Mann initially framed the song as a waltz, before sending it to pal Coulton for re-imagining. Coulton waltzed it up to 4/4 time and introduced some new melodies and added the “lights of the canyon” chorus [Ed.: wouldn’t “stars of the canyon” have made more sense contextually?]. Regardless, it’s a great song worthy of Mann’s much-loved Elliott Smith.

Watch the performance below, and afterwards check out the official video for the song and the song’s lyrics at bottom.

You can pick up Mental Illness HERE.

Patient Zero:

“They served you champagne like a hero
When you landed, someone carried your bag
From here on out, you’re patient zero
Smelling ether as they hand you the rag

Life is good
You look around and think
I’m in the right neighborhood
But, honey, you just moved in
Life is grand
And wouldn’t you like
To have it go as planned?
Go as planned

Hip hip hooray, hocus pocus
With some magic you can fly through the air
But when you’re the guy pulling focus
There are people who will wish you weren’t there

Life is good
You look around and think
I’m in the right neighborhood
But, honey, you just moved in
Life is grand
And wouldn’t you like
To have it go as planned?
Go as planned

And in the hills where hope is such a constant companion
Close enough to almost touch the lights of the canyon
The lights of the canyon
The lights of the canyon
The lights of the canyon
The lights of the canyon”

As the great Woody Guthrie once told musicologist Alan Lomax: “Music is some kind of electricity that makes a radio out of a man.” We have heard that played out well in song over time (U2, The Clash, Radiohead, The National, Elvis Costello (most appropriately), etc.). More recently we’ve heard it in the likes of Mondo Cozmo, Car Seat Headrest and Australia’s The Smith Street Band.

Check out below The Smith Street Band‘s rousing song 25 off of their critically-acclaimed 2017 album More Scared of You Than You Are of Me on Poolhouse Records.  With its I Will Follow opening and singer Wil Wagner’s punched-up delivery, we hear the electricity that makes a radio out of Wagner.

You can buy/stream the worthwhile More Scared of You Than You Are of Me HERE.

The Smith Street Band is coincidentally embarking on a North American tour that starts a week from Friday in San Diego, then Los Angeles and San Francisco, and other North American parts, before returning to LA’s cool venue The High Hat on September 19th.  Don’t ya miss ’em! You can get tickets HERE for their tour.

“It was so cold in the top room
But I didn’t wanna risk waking you
So I let it sit in my feet and my fingers
With everything I burn the dull ache it lingers
And I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete
What other people do each day without noticing
And I don’t know if I’ll be able to compete
With when I feel these days about almost everything

One bad week for a life of breathing
A few nights lay awake for an eternity of sleeping
I wanna feel it now
Cough me in, breathe me in and spit me out

I am someone in your passenger seat
I’m your punching bag
I will let you kick the shit outta me
And I’ll hold your hand
I’ll be whatever you tell me to be
And I’ll understand

Breathing out cold air in my own house
And wondering why I couldn’t afford a solution to that by now
And I’m sure everything seems romantic
In reality it’s uncomfortable to deal with

Falling asleep every other afternoon
To the sound of being alone
And having nothing to do
And I’m sure moving in
Straight away made you feel safe
But it probably wasn’t great for my mental state

And one bad week for a life of breathing
A few nights lay awake for an eternity of sleeping
I wanna feel it now
Cough me in, breathe me in and spit me out

I am someone in your passenger seat
I’m your punching bag
I will let you kick the shit outta me
While I hold your hand
I’ll be whatever you tell me to be
And I’ll understand

If I can’t see a future for you without evil
A future for me without you will, only make it better
So I start hoping, that I stop smoking
Because the ducks are in a row and
This is my best chance to get my shit together

When I turned 25 I was terrified
Still haven’t learnt to do the dishes
My mum was my age when I became alive
So I stopped hoping and I quit smoking
Because the writing’s on the wall
And it’s been there for a while
And it sure is nice to remember things yeah

I am someone in your passenger seat
I’m your punching bag
I’ll let you kick the living shit outta me
And I’ll hold your hand
I am whatever you tell me to be
And I’ll understand”

One month from today longtime Lefort-faves The National will release their highly-anticipated next album Sleep Well Beast. So far we’ve sampled two phenomenal tracks from the album: The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness and Guilty Party. Catchy. Evolving. All stations go. Let ‘er rip.

But wait. Now comes newly-released song Carin at the Liquor Store, and we’re a bit perplexed. Listen below. While the song touches all The National ballad bases (forlorn piano ruminations, Matt Berninger’s signature mourn, etc.) and even adds on more Dessner-guitar exhibitions, we just can’t sink our teeth into anything meaningful in the song’s lyrics (at bottom). Some of it is that it doesn’t evoke much from behind its oblique elusions (and we’re fans of lyrical vagueness). And some of it is that this territory (infatuation, complicated by crass-behavior and self-doubt) seems to have been mined before by Berninger to better effect. For a band and lyricist that have made such emotional marks with us, it’s a rare disappointment. Nous aimons ça, mais non trop. You may hear the song differently–if so, do tell. Here’s hoping for more meat on the album’s remaining song-bones.

Sleep Well Beast will be released September 8th on 4AD. You can pre-order the album HERE.

“I was a war, I was a creature
I get on the ground the second I’d see you
You cannot come buy your love
I wasn’t a catch, I wasn’t a keeper
I was walking around like I was the one who found dead John Cheever
Hand in glove

So blame it on me
I really don’t care
It’s a foregone conclusion

I see you in stations and on invitations
You’d fall into rivers with friends on the weekends
Innocent skies above
Carin at the liquor store, I can’t wait to see you
I’m walking around like I was the one who found dead John Cheever
In the house of love

So blame it on me
I really don’t care
It’s a foregone conclusion
It wasn’t so bad, I wasn’t that sick
Got taken by love, I wasn’t that quick
Foregone conclusion
It’s gonna be different after tonight
You’re gonna see me in a different light
It’s a foregone conclusion

So blame it on me
I really don’t care
It’s a foregone conclusion
I’m already seeing stars in the air
It’s a foregone conclusion”

Almost without exception, when artists strip down and de-husk songs the remaining kernel reveals so much more about the song’s spark. Such is the case with Spoon’s performance below of Hot Thoughts for Canada’s Studio Q. Check out the redacted guitar-and-percussion treatment (minus Producer Dave Fridmann’s strings and bells), all of which helps to emphasize Britt Daniels’ telling Prince-inspired mien (lyrics at bottom). Hot Thoughts is the title track from Spoon’s critically-acclaimed recent album. You can buy/stream it HERE.

Britt Daniel told Esquire that a Japanese kid in Shibuya hitting on his girlfriend with this line was what inspired Hot Thoughts: “He was smoking a cigarette, and couldn’t really speak English, but was pointing to her teeth and saying her teeth were so sexy and bright. And I thought that was a pretty far out, maybe desperate but funny way of hitting on her.” Ah, new love and the omnipresent interceptors.

“Hot thoughts melt in my mind
Could be your accent mixing with mine
You got me uptight, twisting inside
Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, babe

Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, yeah
Hot thoughts all in, all in my mind all of the time
(Woo!)

Your teeth shining so white
Light up this side street in Shibuya tonight
Hot thoughts melting my cool
Is it your motion signaling cues
Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time
You must be trouble for sure

Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, yeah
(Oh oh, oh oh oh)
I tell it to you slow when I want you to know
(Oh oh, oh oh oh)
Hot thoughts all in, all in my mind all of the time

Took time off from my kingdom
Took a break from the war
Took time off from my kingdom
Raise up my creatures
Diamonds from space
Pure facets and features
Last drag drug from your lips
Making you think how good it was to let baby kiss ’em
And those hot thoughts melting your cool
(All on my mind and all of the time)
Could be that motion signaling cues
You’ve got

Hot thoughts all in your mind all of the time, yeah
(Oh oh, oh oh oh)
All that do my rhyme maketh you mine, yeah
(Oh oh, oh oh oh)
You know, I think all, I think all your love is enough”

Since we first heard them in March we have been bowled over by the band known as Mondo Cozmo. Having recently caught them live, we hereby certify that they are the real damn deal. Their songs are anthemic, affecting and ageless, and will take you back and aback. Today is the day that the world finally has access to their phenomenal debut album Plastic Soul on Republic Records, and you can buy/stream it HERE. It is easily our Best Debut Album of 2017, and will contend mightily for Best Album of 2017 (with other stalwarts such as Feist, Broken Social Scene, Elbow, Spoon and others to come). Do yourselves a favor and go marvel at Plastic Soul.

If you haven’t heard them or seen them live, and want an appropriate intro, you can stream their set today at Lollapalooza HERE at 11:50 am Pacific time. If you need a quick fix, can also watch the just-released video for single Automatic below.

For a good explique on Mondo Cozmo and interview with leader Joshua Ostrander, you can go over to Buzzbands.LA HERE, and read how Ostrander took 15 years to become an overnight success.

It was just over a year ago that we were finally introduced to Hundred Waters. Thanks to Chance The Rapper and his (and Skrillex’s) joining Hundred Waters on the Colbert Show for a simmering live remix of Hundred Waters‘ fantastic song Show Me Love.

Fast forward to today when Hundred Waters is prepping the release of their second album, Communicating, on September 14th. You can listen to the album’s first single, Blanket Me, below. Based on Blanket Me alone, you know Hundred Waters means serious business with this new offering, which is thematically a break-up-within-band album. Blanket Me is a builder of immense proportions, with dynamism and gravitas immersed under the song’s incantatory lyrics and seeming simplicity. We can’t stop hitting the repeat button.

Some singers are able to take ostensibly simple lyrics and imbue them with far more weight than they may deserve on paper. Such is the case with Nicole Miglis. On Blanket Me she repeats the phrase “blanket me” incessantly, but in so doing manages to convey all possible meanings of the phrase via her nuanced, affecting approach. Brava!

Bring on Communicating!

Back in the day, the beloved Belle & Sebastian and The Clientele duked it out for Brit-pop supremacy. Both bands came out strong following the treacly dust-up, with The Clientele showing a heady discography (including personal fave God Save The Clientele). Now comes the good news that The Clientele will release new album Music for the Age of Miracles on Merge on September 22nd (their first new album in seven years).

To get a feel, check out below the recent lyric video for outstanding song Lunar Days off the album. According to the band, the video depicts London’s Russell Square at twilight and “things on the edge of sight.” The song is classic Clientele, all wrapped up in atmospherics, shimmering sounds, a sprightly melody and surrealistic, très-Brit lyrical visage (the holloways in America are few and far between). Winsome nuances include the vocal inflection in the “nobody hears” lyric and the subtle “ah, woo woo” vocal-accents. In short: we love it. Makes us want to curl up by a fire on a rainy day and binge The Clientele’s entire catalog.

You can pre-order Music for the Age of Miracles HERE. The band will tour in the fall (including nine shows total in the U.S. and California in November) behind the album. Check out the dates HERE.

We have written once before of the revolving 5th graders at PS22 in Staten Island, NY and their director Gregg Breinberg. According to the PS22 Chorus page: “PS22 Chorus was formed in the year 2000. We are an ever-changing group of 5th graders from a public elementary school in Staten Island…. PS22 Chorus just features ordinary children achieving extraordinary accomplishments — musically and otherwise. PS22 Chorus has been featured on…the 2011 Academy Awards, closing the show with a stunning rendition of “Somewhere of Over The Rainbow.” The chorus has performed for President Obama, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks and a host of others. The kids have sung with Katy Perry, Queen Latifah, Tori Amos…and many more….”

We were caught off guard recently when Sufjan Stevens himself posted the video below of the PS22 kids completely nailing his heart Blue Bucket of Gold (lyrics below). We in particular love the high “ohs” in the “chorus.” Raise your right hand!  Beauty, right there. Stevens wrote: “The world is abundant. This gives me hope.” We completely concur.

Now if we could just get some enterprising California grade school choir director to have California kids sing California Stars (by Wilco/Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie), we’d really have something. Paging choir directors, hello?

“My blue bucket of gold
Friend, why don’t you love me?
Once the myth has been told
The lens deforms it as lightning

Raise your right hand
Tell me you want me in your life
Or raise your red flag
Just when I want you in my life

Search for things to extol
Friend, the fables delight me
My blue bucket of gold
Lord, touch me with lightning

Raise your right hand
Tell me you want me in your life
Or raise your red flag
Just when I want you in my life”

Just last week we attended one of Planetarium’s four worldwide concerts at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and witnessed the wake-the-dead sound-kaleidoscope that this sensational ensemble can produce live. We were somewhat surprised, then, when we stumbled upon the video below of a pared-down, chamber-orchestra take on the group’s sensational song Mercury. We loved the song the first time we heard it and at HFC, but the superb granular approach below, in which each instrument is discernible and puzzle-perfect, fits the mercurial beauty of the song oh so well  (lyrics at bottom).  [Is it just us, or does Stevens invoke Carrie & Lowell both melodically and lyrically at the pun-y “Carrier, friend, Where do you run?” juncture of the song?] As always, Sufjan Stevens’ stunning vocal sucks you in, then Nico Muhly’s decorative piano celestially seasons the tones, Bryce Dessner’s guitar-trills embroider the melody, and the violinist brings vibrato bravura, all helping to render the song perfectly. Beauty right there.

“All that I’ve known to be of life
And I am gentle
You ran off with it all
And I am faithful
All that I felt within my arms
And I am weightless
You ran off with it all
And I am speechless
All that I’ve said to get it right
And I am confident
You ran off with it all
And I am steadfast
All that I thought, to be precise
And I am consequence
You ran off with it all
And I am sorry

And I am sorry
All that I’ve known to be at peace
And I am desperate
You ran off with it all
And I am restless
All that I’ve known to be of love
And I am gentle
You ran off with it all
And I am desperate
All that I dream
Where do you run, where do you run to?
And I’m evidence
All that I dream
Where do you run, where do you run to?
And I am faithless
All that I dream
Where do you run, where do you run to?
Now I am messed up
All that I dream
Where do you run, where do you run to?
Carrier, friend
Where do you run?”

Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam has been all over the map lyrically. But while Beam’s geographical subject matters have ranged beyond the South (among other sites, Hollywood and Los Angeles have shown up), a good majority of his songs have been set in his Southern homeland. Yesterday Beam added another fine South-set song entitled Thomas County Law (Georgia) via the release of its official video, which you can watch below. Beam obviously enjoys gallows humor since he chose yesterday, his birthday, to release this video in which he gives the eulogy at his own, unattended funeral. That’s funny!

Thomas County Law follows Iron & Wine’s announcement of impending new album Beast Epic on Sub Pop Records, and the release last month of the superb new song Call It Dreaming.

About the new song, Beam has written: “The song’s content has to do with both denying and accepting one’s origins.  So I think a film of me giving the eulogy at my own funeral is ecstatically appropriate.  [In the song’s video] the building really did all the heavy lifting for us as we started brainstorming the concept together.  I like the simplicity of it: a task begun and finished.”

As usual, Beam’s lyrics contain poetic gems such as:

“The church bell isn’t kidding when it cries for you.”

“There’s nowhere safe to bury all the time I’ve killed.”

And this stellar stanza:

“Thomas County Law’s got a crooked tooth
There ain’t a mother with a heart less than black and blue
When they hold ’em to the light, you can see right through
Every dreamer falls asleep in their dancing shoes
I may say I don’t belong here, but I know I do”

Epic Beast will be released on August 25th on Sub Pop Records and you can pre-order it HERE.