most deinitely hot:
“Strange Overtones” by David Byrne and Brian Eno
It’s been nearly 30 years since David Byrne and Brian Eno last collaborated with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. While the album was a landmark for experimental electronic music, it didn’t quite capture Eno’s work with Byrne’s Talking Heads. “Strange Overtunes,” the first single from the pair’s new album, Everything That Happens will Happen Today (due Aug. 19), sounds more like what post-Talking Heads Byrne should sound like: a careful mix of electronic beats, afro-centric synocpation and otherworld, white-boy funk. While the lyrics are nothing spectacular, it doesn’t matter – Byrne making accesible pop music with Eno is something to be thankful for.
“Id Engager” by of Montreal
Leave it to of Montreal to release the last track from its forthcoming album as the first single. It’s pretty difficult to judge a closer without the preceding tracks for context, but if “Id Engager” is any indication, Skeletal Lamping (due Oct. 7) looks to the sunnier side of “phallocentric tyranny,” as Kevin Barnes puts it. Perhaps he exercised enough of his demons on Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Brooding or not, the album should be one of the fall highlights – an act fit to follow David Byrne’s funk.
most definitely not:
“Crawl” by Kings of Leon
It wasn’t bad enough Kings of Leon had to abandon its gritty sound for U2-esque arena dribble. No, on its new single “Crawl,” the Followill gang decides to take a foray into industrial cock-rock. C’mon guys – just because Trent Reznor’s price is right, doesn’t mean you have to listen … and emulate. Because of the Times went one step too far, which begs the question: Where the hell will Only By The Night (due Sept. 23) go? If “Crawl” is any indication, maybe even the Brits will finally shun Kings of Leon.
“Corona and Lime” by Shwayze
If you’ve watched MTV in the last few weeks, you’ve undoubtedly seen skits and heard songs featuring Malibu, Calif.-based Shwayze. His “Corona and Lime,” with the famous-for-banging-famous-people Cisco Adler guesting is everything a summer pop song tries to be. Step One: Name check a corporate entity. Step two: Put glossly looking white girls in your video. Step three: Mask misogynism with a faux-love song. Step four: Suck. Thanks Adler, now that you’ve made the Billboard Hot 100, you can bang yourself.
