Saturday, September 22, 2012

Travelmarx Music Picks – Summer 2012

TravelMarx Music Picks – Summer 2012


This was supposed to be a spring 2012 list, but time slipped away and now it is the end of summer. I guess it gave us some more time to refine the list and hone in on what really stuck, musically. The 25 tracks in the playlist are on Spotify: Travelmarx Summer 2012.

Using the image above as a guide, the albums / tracks in the playlist are from left to right and top to bottom:

1. Marissa Nadler - "The Sister" (2012). Haunting. On the playlist the track "In a Little Town".

2. MGMT - "Oracular Spectacular" (2007). Catchy. “Weekend War” lyrics: “Now I can shoot a gun to kill my lunch, And I don’t have to love or think too much.” Not sure what it means, but we like it.

3. Sondre Lerche - "Faces Down" (2001). Great song writing like on the track "Dead Passengers" on this playlist.

4. Girish - "Diamonds in the Sun" (2010). We heard this album a couple of times in yoga and decided to give it a try. On our playlist, the title track "Diamonds in the Sun".

5. Various Artists - "The Now Sound Redesigned" (2005). Reworked songs from the 1960s group The Free Design.

6. The Antlers - "Undersea" (2012). We love drifting with this EP! On the playlist "Drift Dive".

7. Melody Gardot - "The Absence" (2012). The track "Mira" is on our playlist.

8. Various Artists - "Hotel Costes 14" (2010). The Hotel Costes franchise is still going strong. This release in particular has a lot of good tracks. Tough decisions, but we put Tontelas' "Lost It All" on the playlist.

9. Damon Albarn - "Dr. Dee" (2012). A strange release that grows on you. Very interesting when used in a mix. For our playlist, we choose the second tracks "Apple Carts".

10. Jun Miyake - "Stolen from Strangers" (2008). We first encountered Miyake on the Pina Soundtrack and love everything he turns out. On the playlist, the track "Alviverde".

11. Air - "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" (2012). Another funky Air album, this one paying homage to A Trip to the Moon the 1902 French film written and directed by Georges Méliès. On the playlist, the atmospheric (and appropriate) "Moon Fever".

12. Danger Mouse and Danielle Luppi - "Rome" (2011). A black drippy heart on the cover says it all. On the playlist, the "Theme of 'Rome'".

13. Spiritualized - "Sweet Heart, Sweet Light" (2012). The track "Little Girl" is on our playlist.

14. Elbow - "The Seldom Seen Kid" (2008). We include the track "Weather to Fly" on our playlist with it's lyric "Just figuring out how we were wired inside / Perfect weather to fly".

15. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - "Here" (2012). We include the track "All Wash Out" on our playlist.

16. The Black Heart Procession - "Six" (2009). Something keeps us drawn to Black Heart Procession’s albums. The dark and ominous feeling the songs leave us with, maybe? We include the track "Wasteland" on our playlist.

17. Dead Can Dance - "Anastasis" (2012). Oh boy, first new a Kate Bush release late year and now a Dead Can Dance release! We include the regal track "Return of the She-King" on our playlist.

18. Damien Jurado - "And Now That I’m in Your Shadow" (2006). We include "Hoquiam" on our playlist.

19. Slowdive - "Pygmalion" (1995). An old release that recently re-purchased digitally. Love our dream pop / shoegazing. We come back to this album often. Our playlist here has "Crazy for You".

20. Radio Citizen - "Berlin Serengeti" (2006). Our playlist includes the infectious track "The Hop".

21. The Lumineers - "The Lumineers" (2009). A solid debut album that works start to finish. We'll pick one of the less popular tracks "Slow It Down" for our playlist.

22. The Shins - "Port of Morrow" (2012). All the songs are catchy, with clever lyrics. We include "Bait and Switch" on our playlist.

23. Of Monsters and Men - "My Head is an Animal" (2011). We happened to be at our friends’ house getting ready to leave and we heard “Little Talks” with that infectious "Hey!". By the next day we listened to the whole album a dozen times and it doesn’t get old. (It doesn't hurt that they are from Iceland and we have a thing for Iceland.) We include the track "Dirty Paws" on our playlist.

24. Kings of Convenience - "Riot on an Empty Street" (2004). Sounds like a script to my life….love the track “Misread” and that tinkling piano riff. It's on the playlist.

25. Roxy Music - "Avalon"(1982). We started listening to this 1982 release again after an uncle, who sent this cassette to us in the 1980s, passed away recently. So RIP RPB, "True to Life" (on the playlist).

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