Nicole Responds to Lizzie's June Mix

I thought it would feel strange to get my June mix from Lizzie in the mail instead of in person.  But when the envelope from Grand Avenue appeared in my mailbox, it was so craftily and joyfully embellished that I felt almost like I had Lizzie right there with me.  Her artistic signature was all over this mix, inside and out, from the colorful tape decorating the front of the envelope to the adorable sticker creatures gracing the tracklist.

Obviously I was feeling pretty cheerful when I got this mix from my friend over 3,000 miles away, and Ra Ra Riot's "Angel, Please" kept that bouncy mood going.  This song is simple summer fun with violin and guitar accents.  "DLZ" by TV on the Radio takes the mood to a much (MUCH) darker place.  I could spend a whole blog post babbling about how much I love TVOTR in general and the "Dear Science" album in particular, but that would probably be boring and I might end up sounding as crazily obsessed as some of the people who wrote the SongMeanings comments on this song, so instead I'll just say that "DLZ" is one of the most exciting songs I know of.  "Dancing Shoes" by Arctic Monkeys is an apt half-way point between the two preceding songs; it has the energy of Ra Ra Riot tempered by the dark edge of TVOTR.

"Gasoline" by Alpine is a smooth ode built on clean sounds, from the burbling guitar that anchors the song to the closely harmonizing female voices that lift it to crystalline heights.  Joshua Radin's "Sundrenched World" could also be described as smooth, but it has an earthy tone that contrasts with the cool, airy vibe of "Gasoline."  It's quite minimalist, built only with whispery voices and cello sounds.

I was already familiar with the next two songs, but it was delightful to experience them in a new way informed by the mix.  "Monday Morning" by Death Cab for Cutie has a steady beat and fuzzy guitar which back a woozy electro hook.  "June Hymn" by The Decemberists has some good ol' blues harp that makes this aspiring harmonicist jealous.  I don't think I've ever been able to keep myself from singing along on the lines about the yellow bonnet and the panoply of song and summer coming to Springville Hill.  This was definitely an appropriate pick, and I got a real kick out of enjoying this song at its seasonal peak.

Next was something entirely new to me: "Hungry Ghost" by STRFKR.  This little blast of a song is just over two minutes and half of it is shaped around a quote pulled from some sort of lecture, where a British guy is taking about life and death and change and illusion.  It seems that guy talking is Alan Watts, and now I want to find out more about him because I love what he says.  This stood out in particular: "You can see you are always at the place where you always are / Only, it keeps appearing to change."  The song concludes in pure instrumental electric joy.  When I listen to the mix straight from start to finish, my mind is still so happily transported by STRFKR and Alan Watts that I kind of can't pay proper attention to "Heat & Hot Water" by ARMS, but with individual listening I found the track to be a fun slice of indie rock, if not as arresting as "Hungry Ghost."  I do really like the way the melody is catchy and unpredictable at the same time.

Just reading Lupe Fiasco's name makes "The Show Goes On" get stuck in my head, but I'm sure a few more listens to "ITAL (Roses)" will help me form an at least slightly more complete picture of his work.  It has a catchy chorus calling for worldwide understanding, and I also have to mention the brilliant intro where a child reads "Black panther black panther, what do you see?"  I was pretty excited at this invocation of a classic Eric Carle book, and clearly it wasn't a coincidence that a black panther was the animal he chose out of the book's menagerie.  Double meaning!  Very clever, Lupe!

"Poke" is the first song I've heard from Frightened Rabbit's back catalog.  It's more stripped down than most of "Pedestrian Verse," but it has their signature gloomy lyrics ("Why won't our love keel over as it chokes on a bone? / We can mourn its passing and then bury it in snow").  "Summertime Clothes" by Animal Collective is a shower of grooving synths and joyous shouts, making it pretty much the emotional opposite of "Poke."  Ironically, this song makes me think about winter break because it came out in January 2009 and I listened to that album a lot while we were having a bunch of school cancelled in Anchorage because of wind and ice days.  So hopefully I'll form some more appropriate memories with that song now that it's on this June mix!

"Ceiling of Plankton" by GIVERS and "Fitz and the Dizzyspells" by Andrew Bird both maintain the uplifting party atmosphere, the former with Afropop-inflected guitars that mingle with chirping flutes and the latter with whistling and a flurry of phenomenal violin-playing.  The mix ends on a more mysterious note, with Jeremy Messersmith's cover of "Norwegian Wood."  I was excited for this track and Messersmith did not let me down—his version of this Beatles classic is chilling and beautiful.

We have a debate in my family about the last line of this song.  My mom thinks "So I lit a fire / Isn't it good / Norwegian Wood" means the narrator suddenly burns the cabin down at the end.  My dad and I tend to have a less dramatic reading.  But let me just say that in Jeremy Messersmith's version, there's no question.  He totally burns that thing down, probably with the woman inside.  Now I don't mean to wrap this post up on a creepy note, but maybe that's kind of appropriate for this mix, because I think it had many abrupt tonal shifts.  And that's part of what I loved most about it, listening to these songs in this order was like riding a roller coaster.  I'm already excited to see what surprises Lizzie's July mix might bring!

Instant favorites: "DLZ," "Gasoline," "Hungry Ghost," "Norwegian Wood"