Nicole Responds to Lizzie's June Mix

I hope Lizzie's June mix reflects the atmosphere she's been living in lately, because if so, it sounds like she's having a fun (and danceable) summer!  This CD is packed with hooks, beats, and verse-chorus structure.

Young the Giant's "Paralysis" kicks things off and it is no exception to that general rule.  The song's tuneful vocals and tasteful synths made me ready to discover what other sonic surprises lay in store.  "Make You Happy" by Mika is a natural follower that lives up to its name.  It grew on me with repeated listens, and the pre-chorus part where Mika sounds distinctly Pet Shop Boys-esque makes me particularly happy!  "Lose My Mind" by Pacific Air sounds like another cheery confection, but the lyrics reveals a darker side.  Lizzie speculated that it might be about death.  I was thinking maybe just depression and loneliness, but who can say?  Either way, the song's got some layers.

"Say It Like You Mean It" is by a group called The Cinema, which is indeed a great band name.  The song opens with an awesome off-kilter rhythm, but I thought it became kind of a conventional pop song as it went on, to the point where the chorus made me think of trailers for "Transformers" movies (which I have thankfully avoided, so I don't really know what kind of music they use in those, but hey that's just what I thought of).  Speaking of trailers, Family of the Year's "Hero" is a song that I will now associate exclusively with the preview for Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," and that is a-ok with me.  Thirty days till it opens in Anchorage!!  While we're talking about movies we might as well go on to "The Wolves (Act I and II)" by Bon Iver, which Lizzie tells me is used in "The Place Beyond the Pines."  I haven't seen the film yet, but this powerfully haunting song is a good recommendation for it.

Finding out that a favorite group has covered a favorite song by another great musician is wonderful, so "VCR (The XX Cover)" by The Antlers felt like a precious gift.  This is four minutes of heart-melting bliss tinged with melancholy.  It also inspired me to have a revelation about the original song, which has always naggingly reminded me of some classic rock song I couldn't place.  Hearing it in this context made me realize that song was "Heroes" (Bowie of course, no relation to Family of the Year).  Now I have a whole new dimension of appreciation for this song and musical connections are magical and I should move on to the next track now, because even though I have more thoughts you should really just listen to this one on your own, and this paragraph is as long as the first one which covered three songs instead of one.  Whoops.

"Sidekick" by Val Emmich also inspired a revelation, this time courtesy my mom.  When she asked me the name of this song and I replied she said, "Being a wingman is so much cooler than being a sidekick."  Moms are full of wisdom.  MisterWives's "Reflections" is another poppy and peppy tune, but given distinction by the almost Cranberries-worthy vocal contortions of the lead singer.  "Same Side" by The Casket Girls is understated in comparison, but it stood out to me.  I found it appealingly new-wave/post-punk, yet also very modern.

Blondfire's "Where the Kids Are" is another brightly upbeat tune which I could easily imagine Lizzie dancing to.  So is "By The Throat" by CHVRCHES, a band which Lizzie knows I'm not exactly in love with, but I honestly appreciate her effort to expose me to more of their music.  As it happens, I do like this song more than their larger hits.  Not enough to re-write my perception of the group, but I was happy to give them a second chance.

The next couple songs were more my style.  "When I'm Alone" by Lissie grabbed me immediately with its dark bass-line and wobbling guitar.  I think Lizzie wrote in her notes that this song "hit the spot," and I agree.  It's like a granola bar--pleasingly tasty, yet not just empty (musical) calories.  Then I got to "Hunger of the Pine," from alt-J's sophomore album due out in September.  I had not yet heard it, and was since alt-J is quite special to both me and Lizzie, I was relieved to find them living up to my hopes.  This is a spooky, throbbing, many-layered mini-masterpiece.

"Celeste" by Ezra Vine brings us back to the core flavors of this mix, which is to say sunny, bouncy, pleasure.  The instrumentation is what intrigued me most about this song, especially its acoustic riff which sounded very unique to me.  Turns out the song is played on an instrument, called a celeste which is where it gets its name!  I'm not sure exactly why, but that made me really excited to find out.
St. Lucia's "Closer Than This" is a good "closer" (haha, get it?), which brings the mix to a summery, dance-y finish.

All in all, Lizzie's June mix sounds like the perfect playlist to make your neighbors jealous when they hear you jamming to it at your pool party/BBQ/summertime celebration.  The one thing that could make it better would be if the mix's creator were here to jam with me herself.

Instant favorites: "Make You Happy," "VCR (The XX Cover)," "When I'm Alone," "Hunger of the Pine"

Top 5 Songs Made in Alaska in 2013

The musical output of Alaska may be modest in comparison with the Twin Cities, but Anchorage has long had a supportive and active arts community that just seems to be growing.  2013 was a particularly exciting year, with several musicians who have become local favorites through their live performances releasing much-anticipated studio debuts.  These are the five songs that stood out to me in year that gave Alaskan artists much to be excited about.

1. "Land Before Aids" – Historian
2. "To What Degree?" – Smile Ease


3. "Early Echoes" – Ghost Hands
4. "Olivia" – Anna Lynch
5. "Gene Mo" – SJ & Drums

Nicole Responds to Lizzie's December Mix

December 2013 from pandasinfedoras on 8tracks Radio.

Crystal Fighters' "At Home" was an apt anthem to have floating through my head as I packed my suitcase and prepared to fly home for the holidays.  The steady beat of this track gives it a bold vibe that fits well with the mindset one has upon embarking on a journey.

"How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?" by Bombay Bicycle Club was a welcome reminder of the second to last Word of the Hour set Lizzie and I broadcast this semester.  Also, I happen to just love this song.  It starts with soft, Fleet Foxes-style harmonizing over an acoustic guitar which is nice, but things get much more interesting when the kinetic drumming and terrific bassline kick in to propel an unexpected melody through a satisfying arc.  I think it's one of the most perfect songs I've heard lately.  (Oh, and that music video that's linked to above is also wonderful.  Yay, stop motion!)

The next several cuts were all revelations of a sort.  "Bellio" introduced me to Dutch Uncles, and judging by this one song, they sound quite intriguing.  "Bellio" is a weird song with a glitchy rhythm that is so unpredictable it is captivating.  Next, "Were Before" is a cut from Cults' new album that introduced me to a different side of their sound.  I was surprised by the violin that gives the chorus an unexpectedly plaintive tone; overall, this track is somehow more complex than what I normally think of with Cults, and I'm digging it.  The ridiculously-named Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin have a moniker that's hard to forget, but though I recalled hearing of them before I had never listened to the band until Lizzie put "Young Presidents" on this mix.  As it turns out, "Young Presidents" is a fantastic song.  The hooky melodies and bouncy beat are enough to make anyone like the track upon first listen, but little details in the songwriting make you come back for multiple listens.  I especially love when the singer says "stop; go" and the music follows suit with these directives.

Next up, "Coquet Coquette" is a superb sample of "False Priest," my favorite Of Montreal album.  It has churning, aggressive guitars mixed with more laid-back verses and memorable lyrics ("You give me emotional artifacts that can find no purchase!").  The frenetic energy of that song is shared by the following selection, "Quesadilla" by Walk the Moon.  All I can really say about this one is the commentators on songmeanings.com are right: it's not about quesadillas.

Lizzie wrote on this mix that Everything Everything may be her Frightened Rabbit of the season.  Based on how many Frightened Rabbit tracks made it onto our earlier mixes, you can probably tell that this is high praise.  I think "Radiant" shows a kind of kindred spirit between these two bands.  It has a grandeur and bombastic beat that call to  mind Everything Everything's Scottish fellows, while other aspects of the band's sound remind me of Foals.  Yet "Radiant" also sounds uniquely like itself.  I especially love the ringing guitars used throughout.

"Frayed" by The Naked and Famous is quite unusual too.  It takes the male-female harmonizing commonly used to smooth effect by other groups and instead blends it with unsettling, buzzing heavy guitar and bass.  Lykke Li's "Little Bit" balances out some of the menace.  It's an ode to shy love built on Li's softly breathy voice.  This one really benefits from multiple listens, too--the more I hear it, the more I need to hear it again.

"Homecoming Heroes" is one of the only songs I've heard from The Head And The Heart's latest LP, "Let's Be Still."  I like its piano hook quite a lot and it makes me think I should give the rest of the album a listen.  Lizzie saw Youngblood Hawke open for Passion Pit last year, and "Stars (Hold On)" suggests that they would be very energetic openers!  The track sounds like it might be being played by an orchestra.  Whitehorse, on the other hand, are merely a duo, and "Wisconsin" seems stripped down by comparison.  This song always makes me smile and think of the library trip Lizzie and I made right before she went to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving.

According to Pharrell Williams, the video for "Happy" is the first 24-hour music video ever made.  A writer for NPR music said, "This video could be sent to aliens as the sole visual representation of its titular state of being, and I'm confident it would be understood perfectly."  That about sums up everything I can say about the song.

And on that note, I will wish you all a very happy January and new year!  Thank you Lizzie, for the incredible mix!  I think it might have some of the best songs you've ever given me on it, and they will help sustain me til we are reunited!

Instant favorites: "Young Presidents," "Radiant," "Little Bit," "How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?"

Nicole Responds to Lizzie's July Mix

Passion Pit's "I've Got Your Number" has a fairly low-key start.  But after a few minutes, Michael Angelakos adopts his howling falsetto and breaks through the subdued hand-claps and electronic pulses, shooting the song to more overwrought heights.

I think this moment is as good a place as any to begin my musings on Lizzie's July mix, because many of the songs featured here have drastic changes that cause the listener to reevaluate or reimagine what the song as a whole is about.  Soft/loud, mellow/intense, acoustic/electric: opposing transitions abound, both within and between songs.

Admittedly the next song on the mix does not illustrate my theory about transitions, because "Slow" by Grouplove is more about chugging along than transitioning. It does make a great pairing with the previous track, both having an intense but not rushed energy.  I promise, I will have more examples of transitions later on! Stay tuned!

I really like The New Pornographers and I've enjoyed solo material from contributors A.C. Newman, Neko Case, and (especially) Dan Bejar, but I had somehow never listened to their 2007 album "Challengers."  It's a good thing that Lizzie put a track from that release on her July mix because it turns out "Myriad Harbour" is easily one of the best songs I've encountered all summer.  A Pixies-like acoustic guitar riff opens the song, and is soon accompanied by Dan Bejar's flamboyant, emotive singing.  By the time the band reached the harmonica-accented chorus I was in love.

Now here's where we get back to transitions.  "West Coast" by Coconut Records starts out as a very catchy, intimate little tune about heartbreak ("I miss you / I'm going back home to the West Coast"), and it is transformed into a mega cascade of large-scale music through the appearance of pounding drums, piano, strings, and ascending vocals.  Upon headphone listening, I discovered that you can hear Jason Schwartzman shout "C'mon, everybody!" just before the anthemic transition occurs, which is pretty awesome.  A similar arc happens in Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter," but in that song, the shift from hushed to huge reminds me strongly of Glen Hansard.  That is a very high compliment coming from me.  And with his impassioned delivery, Damien earns the comparison.

"I Would Do Anything For You" by Foster the People has a bouncy "oo-la-la" chorus that felt strangely familiar for an instant when I first heard it.  This upbeat electro love song was juxtaposed by "Talking in Code," a wonderfully slow and gloomy acoustic number from Margot & the Nuclear So-and-So's.  I really loved the folky atmosphere created by the guitar arpeggios.  Next was "Boy With a Coin," which has the weird, dark rhythms and poetic lyrics that mark my favorite Iron & Wine songs.  The transition between this track and Miike Snow's "Black & Blue" was one of the best I've heard on any mix ever.  The droning Iron & Wine fade-out seamlessly became the fade-in that precedes the opening drumbeats of the throbbing dance track "Black & Blue."

The blending of male and female voices on "Set Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright is really working for me.  This is another track with a very cool build-up, from ringing guitars and piano chords to full-on frantic rock band, but the voices are what really anchor the entire thing.  "Perfume" by Raven Zoë opens with some guitar chords that make me think it's going to be a Bon Iver song.  If Bon Iver was a teenage girl instead of a 30-year-old man.

The next two songs are both high-energy freakouts from really interesting female musicians.  Cat Power's "Ruin" is another of my new favorites from the mix.  It has a great guitar solo and really New Wave-y bassline on top of which Cat Power sings the names of countries around the globe (which all have ruins!).  "Bizness" by tUnE-yArDs is global not in its lyrics but in its sound.  The instrumentation and singing here are highly influenced by African styles of music, but the over-all sound remains absolutely unique.  It might be the most ecstatic-sounding song I know.

"Naive" by The Kooks is much more conventional guitar-rock compared to the two experimental soundscapes it follows, but that makes it kind of refreshing given its placement on the mix.  It's lively and likable. "Devil Town" from Bright Eyes is a wonderful place to end the mix, with its excellent lyrics and beautifully ragged production.  "All my friends, they were vampires / I didn't know they were vampires / It turned out I was a vampire myself"; the song, like these lyrics, is funny and surprising and immensely charming.  A perfect note to end on.

Instant favorites: "Myriad Harbour," "The Blower's Daughter," "Talking in Code," "Set Fire to the Third Bar," "Ruin"

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"

Nicole Responds to Lizzie's May Mix

"The winters are so crazy and long there that when spring comes there's almost this violent energy. The song tries to capture that pent up feeling and excitement about wanting to go outside again."  Win Butler was describing winter in Montreal when he commented on the inspiration behind Arcade Fire's "Month of May," but he could easily have been describing the Twin Cities, or Anchorage for that matter.  Winter was abnormally long in both those places this year, so Lizzie's flair for picking shockingly appropriate openers continued this month.

After this inspired beginning, the mix jumps to a great newer release.  Lizzie and I have been discovering Frightened Rabbit together, one song at a time.  (If you're lucky, we might do our rendition of "Acts of Man" for you, in which Lizzie passionately sings the words and I vocally impersonate the guitar patterns.)  "Dead Now" may well be the song that pushed Frightened Rabbit from "cool band I'm enjoying right now" to "makers of an album I will continue to connect with for some time."  Astronautalis is another artist I strongly associate with Lizzie.  His album was one of our myriad library finds, which she selected based solely on the cool cover art.  When my mom heard "Secrets on Our Lips" and I described Astronautalis to her as a Minneapolis-based rapper, she said he didn't sound very rap-y to her.  Which, fair enough, this song starts off kinda like a ballad, with 'Naut singing tunefully over synth chords.  But he does start rapping later, as I assured my mom.

Next up is "Wrapped in Piano Strings" by Radical Face.  The only thing I know about this artist is he makes songs you can listen to repeatedly, which can serve as soothing background music while also being able to stand up to focused listening.  This track builds upon the contemplative tone struck up by "Secrets on Our Lips," a tone which is continued by Civil Twilight's "Highway of Fallen Kings." This song really intrigues me, with its drum machine intro that later gives way to ringing guitar arpeggios and a haunting chorus.  It's an eerie song that doesn't take the course you might expect it to.

If this blog entry is your introduction to Frightened Rabbit, then you might think they seem mortality-obsessed, given the titles of the two songs on this mix; "Dead Now" has a complementary cousin in "Late March, Death March."  This track kicks off with intensity, where the former song takes its time to build up.  I love the clattering percussion, whistling intro, and enthusiastic backing vocals. This is surely the most energetic and happy-sounding song with the words "death march" in its title that you're likely to hear.

I was excited to see "Trying to Be Cool" from Phoenix on my mix, because I haven't listened to much of their new album "Bankrupt!" yet.  This song kind of sounds like its title, but not in a bad way; it's very smooth and polished.  It has the catchy, easy charm of past Phoenix releases, but strikes me as more non-linear than much of "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix."  The following track is Tearjerker's "You Can," and the ambiguity of this song makes for a nice contrast with the more straight-forward charms of Phoenix.  "You Can" is five minutes of variation upon the same guitar riff accompanied by indecipherable lyrics, yet it never seems repetitive.  For some reason, it makes me envision a joyous uphill run.

The Neighbourhood definitely have a very noir vibe.  Even their songs with more positive lyrics like "Sweater Weather" sounds menacing, but "W.D.Y.W.F.M.?" is not one of those songs with positive lyrics.  Its title is an acronym for "what do you want from me," a phrase that is sung in the chorus (and, incidentally, which made me think of Dylan's "What Was It You Wanted," another awesomely dark song).  "Caring is Creepy" by The Shins is not at all creepy, especially in contrast to The Neighborhood.  It's a very hummable and spare tune.  The Shins feel like summer music to me.

Ra Ra Riot's "Keep It Quiet" slows things down for a moment.  This minimalist track is basically just vocals accompanied by some restrained percussion and organ-like keyboards.  It made for a nice rest before the mix's last hurrah, which was delivered by two bands that insist on having punctuation be part of their name: fun. and Los Campesinos!  I hadn't heard any songs by fun. other than the inescapable hits, so it was interesting to discover "One Foot."  The Los Campesinos! song "By Your Hand" has awesome horns and gloomy lyrics ("It's a good night for a fistfight / Because the dew will temper your fall"), plus a ridiculously catchy chorus delivered as a glorious group chant.

The bombast of these selections winds down into a perfect close with "Welcome Home," another lovely tune from Radical Face.  It's full of clapping and acoustic guitar, and you know what, it did feel pretty welcoming to listen to this song on my first full day back home in Anchorage.  Overall, this mix has an arc that beautifully illustrates my May: the madcap beginning reflects the glee of finishing up finals, but is balanced by more somber songs that correspond to the completion of a significant year and the preparation to leave a new life and new friends, eventually giving way to a closing song that magically conjures the bliss of coming back home again.

Instant favorites: "Dead Now," "Highway of Fallen Kings," "Late March, Death March," "By Your Hand," "Welcome Home."

Nicole Responds to Lizzie's April Mix

If you've read our introduction post, you know that mix CDs played a role in bringing Lizzie and I together.  We've exchanged mixes about once a month since October, and now that we have FLAK up and running, we'll be reacting to each others' mixes online!  So here we go, these are my thoughts on the super awesome April Mix that Lizzie gave me this week!

"Sol." by Mausi is truly the perfect way to start this mix. It's not just a summer song, I think it's about the feeling you get when you've been denied summer for a long time and then it FINALLY ARRIVES!  Maybe I'm reading into it, given the historically late snowfall the Twin Cities endured.  But with lyrics about the sun and a chant encouraging you to "Dance! Dance! Dance!," I like to think Mausi would agree with me.  After that great start, the mix moves to Devendra Banhart's "Never Seen Such Good Things," which is a song Lizzie and I have already spent some time grooving to together (see: Record Store Day).  In fact, we used it to open the radio show we co-hosted, so that's some cool history.  And oh, what a great song it is.  This is sort of like the calmest, most relaxed surf song you've ever heard.  Devendra's croon is laid-back, the melody is catchy and the rhythm is subtle but infectious.

The next four songs all have fairly upbeat tempos, but very different tones.  "Weighty Ghost" by Wintersleep is acoustic and hand-clap-inflected.  "Dark to Light," from the new Telekinesis album. has a great churning rock vibe.  I think it feels like the even-better sequel to "Please Ask For Help." "So-and-So's With Emeralds in the Sky" from Marshmallow Coast is as gently psych-influenced as you would guess from the song's Beatles-referencing title; in some parts it's reminiscent of early of Montreal.  It made for a sweet respite after the more aggressive drive of Telekinesis.  The intensity level then ramped up to a new peak with Freelance Whales' "Spitting Image."  I was already really digging the energy accrued by these last three cuts, but "Spitting Image" made me start bobbing my head uncontrollably. I thought my glasses would shake off my head.

"Invasión" by The Plastics Revolution made me smile and think, "Lizzie can find songs that suit her style perfectly in at least two languages now. Impressive."  This song sounded like Lizzie to me even before I watched the made-entirely-on-Instagram music video.  It's springy and polished indie rock en Español.

Okay, comin' down from that positivity: "Who's Gonna Save My Soul."  Gnarls Barkley.  This  slice of despondent brilliance has everything.  As in all the best songs of the Gnarls catalog, Cee-Lo's rich vocals match perfectly with Danger Mouse's retro-futuristic beats.  With dark keyboard flourishes and vaguely Spaghetti-Western chords, of course.  For good measure.  So when that song ended, and I was pulled out of my "Breaking Bad" flashbacks, the ethereal "Spring, Wake Me Up" by Está Vivo eased the moodiness.  An atmospheric intro gives way to some chunky chords and piping singing, and a long coda winds things down in floating fashion, before Biffy Clyro gets more down-to-earth with the snarling "Many of Horror."

"Magnet" by Bombay Bicycle Club kicks off with with punk-y guitar and slightly distorted vocals.  After about three-and-a-half minutes, it morphs into some kind of lounge thing, which I found very unexpected and awesome.  When the song ended, I felt like it had gone by much quicker than its almost-five-minute length.  Bombay Bicycle Club was a name I'd heard of, but I really didn't know what they sounded like, and "Magnet" definitely made me interested in hearing more.

"Runner" from Young Prisms was a song that instantly grabbed me.  I'd heard one track from this band previously, "Floating in Blue."  That song has an even stronger shoegaze element than "Runner," but both use layers of guitar to create great beauty and are topped with wonderfully languid female vocals.  It's easy to see some My Bloody Valentine elements in the singer, but the use of some subtle synths and drum machine help Young Prisms create a unique sound.

A number of my friends have fond memories of listening to The Killers in the mid-2000s, but I didn't join that party until a few years ago. I've only heard a few Killers tracks but so far I like what I've heard.  "Change Your Mind" had me with its chipper guitar intro, and the supple synth line just brought it home.  "Female Robbery" from the debut by The Neighbourhood came next, opening with a bell chime and then some distorted shouts.  This band's sound is kind of hard for me to pinpoint.  It's pretty expansive, but definitely has a dark bent to it as well.

"Robots" by Dan Mangan sounds like fairly typical singer-songwriter fare at first, with some nice plucking on banjo and bass and likable raspy singing.  When it gets to the pre-chorus however, things kick up a notch, and by the second chorus, Mangan has introduced an excellent horn section which soon builds to a massed chorus singing these awesome lines: "Robots need love too / They want to be loved by you."  Who can resist that?  I certainly can't, and I don't want to.  What a way to end a mix.

Instant favorites: "Never Seen Such Good Things" (duh), "Dark to Light," "Spitting Image," "Who's Gonna Save My Soul," "Runner," "Robots."  But those were just the immediate faves.  I'm sure others will grow on me and take on new dimensions with repeated plays! So THANKS LIZZIE!

Nicole's Word of the Hour Setlist - 5/1/13

1. Achilles Last Stand - Led Zeppelin*
2. Last Dance - Rhye
3. Last Dance - The Cure
4. Last Legs - Army Navy
5. The Last Time - Gnarls Barkley
6. To The Last - James Blake
7. Last Love Song For Now - Okkervil River
8. Last of the Summer Wine - Palma Violets
9. The Last Living Rose - PJ Harvey
10. My Last Song to Jenny - The Avett Brothers
11. Last Words - The Real Tuesday Weld
12. Last Leaf - Tom Waits
13. Last Known Surroundings - Explosions In The Sky
14. The Last Beat of My Heart - DeVotchKa

*excerpt, because it's 10-and-a-half minutes long.

Nicole's Word of the Hour Setlist – 4/24/13

1. Here Comes the Sun - Richie Havens
2. Staring At the Sun - TV On The Radio
3. The Sun - Portugal. The Man
4. Everybody Loves the Sunshine - Seu Jorge and Almaz
5. Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction) - Phosphorescent
6. Sun It Rises - Fleet Foxes
7. Rise to the Sun - Alabama Shakes
8. Rising Sun - Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
9. Sunrise - Yeasayer
10. Sun's Coming Up - Tame Impala
11. Sun's Going Down - Shimmering Stars
12. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
13. Sunday Sun - Beck
14. Sun In Your Eyes - Grizzly Bear
15. Looks Just Like The Sun - Broken Social Scene