Happy 4th, everyone!
I first heard Real Estate on the Tiny Desk Concert below – and I couldn’t stop listening. I immediately got their 2011 album Days – and it couldn’t be a better summer soundtrack.
It’s airy, dreamy – makes me imagine ocean coastlines on the northeast.
“Easy,” the first track on the album (and in this video), is definitely my favorite.
Enjoy!
Yael Naim’s She Was a Boy released last April, but it’s new to me.
Sure, everyone knows her “New Soul” from that famous MacBook Air commercial in 2008, but lesser-known tracks from her self-titled second album still remind me of the second semester of my senior year of college.
This album is a bit lighter and hopeful. But mature lyrics still hover delicately above her poppy, bright sound:
“It’s hard to always do what you expect from me … such a shame how feeling so much blame will only bring you pain.”
She’s an incredibly talented song-writer and vocalist. I’ll be enjoying this album for the rest of the summer, definitely.
Here’s Yael performing my favorite track from the album, “Come Home,” on Radio Hamburg Live-Lounge:
Yeah, the album artwork is kooky – and that’s really just the beginning of it.
My friend Brad introduced Father John Misty’s Fear Fun to me with the caveat: “There’s nothing else quite like it out there right now,” and I’ve been hooked on this album now for months.
But there’s something somewhat nostalgic about Joshua Tillman’s sound – but also something unsettling. At times, it’s reminiscent of 70′s hard-edged rock, then later, much easier to stomach with a folkish stringed softness.
The first three tracks are definitely my favorite – and I could almost be content with listening to them exclusively. But the rest of the album stretches his versatility, providing interesting elaborations on Tillman’s remarkable storytelling and expression.
Here’s the official video for “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.”
Warning: It’s slightly disturbing.
On the flip-side: It’s by far the least offensive of all of his music videos.
