15 Steps to the Half-Light

It's about time I break out my play-list masterpiece. Check it out:

15 Steps (by radiohead), ending with  Half Light II by (Arcade Fire) and there are 15 songs! I was proud of my cleverness.

Anyways, as you can see, my play list primarily consists of Bon Iver, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Grizzly Bear. I love these four artists together because they all have different sounds, but they share the same mood. Each of them are what I would consider "chill" but have the capability to truly rock out. Bon Iver's soothing (and kind of depressing at times) strumming of guitar, Radiohead's slurred words and sliding electric sounds, Arcade Fire with their echoey vocals and Grizzly bear with their unique combination of the typical guitar, bass and piano to make something truly original.

They have some friends too. Stars, LCD Soundsystem, The Flaming Lips, Beck, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon, Passion Pit and of course, Coldplay. I don't care how popular Coldplay might be, I LOVE THEM. I am going to revolt from the philosophy of all the hipsters who listen to the same music I do and just adore a popular band. THERE! I SAID IT! I LIKE A POPULAR BAND!

Quick tangent- anyone remember when Regina Spektor was high on the hipster list? Like all the hipsters loved her. As soon as the general public caught on to how awesome she is they all moved on to Ingrid Michaelson until her stuff started appearing on popular shows like One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy. It irritates me that sometimes the reason the music is so appealing to them is because only them and their friends know about whatever new whisper-singer is walking the streets of Soho.

Okay, back to the the Fantastic Four's friends. Flaming Lips- Do you Realize?? makes me laugh. But it's actually a really well written song and the awkward lazer sounds just add to the character.
Anytime I come back to their hilariously named album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, I almost always take a listen to Do You Realize??

Beck. Beck is interesting. He started with popular songs off one of his earlier albums, Odelay and a couple off of Guero as well. Although, slowly but surely he has dwindled back into the land of un-heard indie. His latest album, Modern Guilt, was primarily a post divorce, locked into a closet until a way-too-personal record was produced, type album. On it, though, there are a few gems. I'm personally a fan of Volcano, especially for my holy play list. It feels like a contemporary blues. The vocal harmonies in the background during the bridge and the chorus add another layer of contemplation to the song.

Kings of Leon- they are such a variable. They never stick to just one beat, one mood, or one type of lyric. I chose Knocked Up because it's one of my favorites, and also because it lined up with this play list best. But if you listen to "My Party," also on the same album, "Because of the Times," you would find a completely different sound, kind of like one of Modest' Mouse's out-of-the-blue angry songs.

Modest Mouse, who we all know for  "Float On," came to me from a friend with around four of their albums. I don't know about you, but whenever I get that much music, it takes me a while to even start listening to it because it's so intimidating. My approach is to put them on in the car and slowly immerse myself. I did this for a whole summer actually (not just Modest Mouse, by the way, I'm not that much of a loser), and by the end I happened to catch a glimpse of the number of plays column of my iTunes. "Dashboard" had 32 plays. Apparently I liked that song. I like the true rock beat and the falsetto voices countering the harsh lead vocal and the trumpets wailing in the background. Then you realize this song is much more than drums, voices, bass, and guitar. It's fully orchestrated! A masterpiece, in my opinion.

LCD Soundsystem is a great car-trip artist. All the songs are around 8 minutes long, so the album takes way longer than your typical 40 minuted LP. Admittedly, for almost all of them, they have a ridiculously long build up. This may annoy you, but for me it adds something often enough that it's not boring or repetitive. "All my Friends" had the lyrical momentum similar to the rest of the songs on my play list and a beat that wasn't too aggressive that the rest of the songs also share. 

Passion Pit- I SAW THEM LIVE!! His voice is actually inhuman. They only have one album and an EP out at this point, but hopefully more is coming. Sleepyhead is everyone's favorite, I know, but I couldn't resist. The Remix is also awesome (I actually had the remix before I had the real song which it's why it's in my iTunes playlist). Singing Sleepyhead out loud is just annoying though, however it's something I do frequently (imagine me jumping around squeaking out the high pitched synthesizer line while my room mate is trying to study).

Finally, Stars. When I got my new Mac Laptop I was transferring all my music to my laptop and somehow Stars didn't follow with the rest of the group, which is so unfortunate because I love their sound! I think like a lot of artists on this play list they can be described as echoey. Stars is could even be dubbed ethereal. Even though they aren't an all acoustic group, they do have an acoustic sound. It fit nicely between LCD sound system, a more electric sound and Arcade Fire, a band who shares the "echo" factor with Stars.

Together, the Fantastic Four and their friends make an excellent play-list (if I do say so myself). Next week maybe I'll do one on "how to make an excellent play list" because I am obviously an expert. Hope you enjoy!

ps. I couldn't find Half Light II by Arcade Fire on Playlist.com and really did give it my all to try and upload it. So check it out on youtube so you know just how rockin' it really is.  It's incredibly important  because it's the final hurrah of the entire playlist!