NAILED Songs of the Week #30
“physically ill for the absolute hopeless stupidity of human beings”
Carrie Seitzinger, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NAILED:
"Devil's Whisper" -- Raury
This song's got a barrel of ghosts with a pulse right up front. I love that this is a magician's brew of soul, rhythm guitar, and hip hop. There're some seriously smart, sound lyrics and rhymes that make my skin crawl with good gooseflesh. And I appreciate a nice old fashioned plea for choosing what is right. Oh yeah, and this Raury person? He's 19.
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Matty Byloos, Publisher and Contributing Editor of NAILED:
"Declination" -- Com Truise (featuring Joel Ford)
Just about every one of my alien sources has confirmed this fact: Com Truise is the universe's first 100% synthetic robot astronaut, which is to say, producer behind Com Truise (Seth Haley) also said that, and now we know for sure that it's true. Those flighty synth sounds underpinning the melody of the song hearken back in only the most abstract way to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five ("The Message": caveat, I said abstract echo-age, step off), giving a nod to early hip hop inspiration, while the song simultaneously plants itself firmly in the camp of electro-synth-alien-outer-space-inter-planetary-headphone-dance-pop, ala Daft Punk. Born out of the initial blips and scratches that sound more like you've just lost your favorite arcade game for the thousandth time in a row, the beats arrive promptly, and the danceability of this one ends up being off the. Well. Off the asteroid belt. Add it to your summer partay playlist, you know, if you're into such things.
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Shenyah Webb, Arts Editor of NAILED:
"Chlorine" – Title Fight
Although "Chlorine" is from Title Fight’s newest studio album released just this year, it takes me back a whopping 20 years. Back when my existence revolved around boys, clove cigarettes, 40s of malt liquor, rock shows and my beat up ’84 Oldsmobile. According to our parents, we were all spending the night at each others places, but really we drove into the night listening to our favorite albums, warm wind filling the car, met the boys under the trestles and drank those 40s while talking ‘til dawn. Those nights always ended so magically, replenished us to where little sleep was needed. We would all go our way for just enough time to check in, eat, nap and then we would do it all over again. Night after night, summer after summer… I can only imagine similar escapades happening at this very moment to this album. Feels pretty perfect.
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Guest Editor: Brian S. Ellis, Poet and Author (most recently of Often Go Awry, 2015)
"Human Sadness" – Julian Casablancas + The Voidz
Over the years, I’ve felt a lot of different feelings about Julian Casablancas: Love, Jealously, Frustration, Shame, Day-Glo Puffy Paint, and many many others. I think I had, among many others, forgotten about him. So it came as a surprise to me, when last year he put out an album with a band called The Voidz. That album, Tyranny, wasn’t even easy for me to purchase. When I went to my local record store, I received the same kind of mild surprise: You Want What By Who?
Against all artistic and pop music logic, Tyranny is a fantastic album. "Human Sadness" acts as the album’s thesis; the eleven-minute monster comprises everything else packed in this existentialist-prog saga. Casablancas stretches his voice into the realm of tonal poetry, and the moaning fever of the instruments feels to be physically ill for the absolute hopeless stupidity of human beings. There’s church organs, military marches, and somewhere around the eight minute mark, a drunken dirge. This is music to listen to when the world makes you sick.
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