Look right

So a new feature here at YMD, given how we mostly post about old songs but there is a bunch of new music I'm mad excited about, I'ma try to install this imeem playlist of new hot shit, on the sidebar. It'll be updated every month or two with new hotness and hopefully some folks will find enjoyable new-ish jams to jam to.

This first playlist is basically my favorite stuff of late 2008/2009 so far, and it starts with the previously mentioned Fever Ray, aka Karin from the Knife. It's a wonderful dirge, and the production on the vocals (both the typically Knifey parts and the parts on which you can here her mouth clicking) puts it over the top.

Next we have my new fave Taylor Swift, who is apparently playing NYC in August. Lord willing, I will be there. "Forever & Always" is one of my favorite songs from her 2008 album Fearless and is apparently about Taylor's breakup with Joe Jonas. Her and Miley are performing together at the Grammys this weekend, and if they do this song I can see the Jonas Brothers exploding, which, though I have nothing against them, would be hilarious.

Lily Allen's #1 UK single is called "the Fear" and is quite excellent. I'm mixed (but edging towards positive) about Lily's ultra self-aware reflections on celebrity, but the song is gorgeous.

Then there are selections off of new records from two of my freshman year faves, Franz Ferdinand and the Junior Boys. The Franz is nothing new for them, but really fun. The JBeez is a lovely, fairly minimalistic little electro-soul number, and this wonderful, gentle saxophone appears for a bit, and everyone (except the people who will hate it) is happy.

That is followed by a Lindstrom remix of Boredoms, from the excellent and unexpected new Super Roots 10. It's wondrous, maximalistic disco overload, that makes Boredoms and Lindstrom seem like a completely natural pairing.

Then comes the R&B section. The-Dream put out one of last winter's best records, and "Rockin That Thang" will hopefully launch his new record to greater commercial success. The man has a way with vocal harmonies. There are two tracks from the bangin R&B Kings 2009 Volume 2 mixtape (automatic audio watch on that link). I'm as surprised as you that my second favorite track on it is a Jagged Edge song produced by Jermaine Dupri, but it's smooth as hell and I hope it's a single. Ciara and Chris Brown's "Turntables" is the best though, an unstoppable, 200mph dance track that better be huge by the end of the year. Also in R&B land, Cassie producer Ryan Leslie's album is finally coming out and it closes with the hilarious and gorgeous "Gibberish". Listen for yourself.

We close with "I Am Speaking Through Barbara" by the Fun Years, my favorite track from Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2009 comp. We don't listen to a whole lot of ambient here at 2009, but this track is straight gorgeous.

Hope these serve yall well in the winter. Holler.

If I had a heart I could love you

Run don't walk here to watch the video for "If I Had A Heart", the first single from the self-titled debut by Fever Ray (aka Karin from the Knife). The video is really, really great, as is the album, which you can buy in MP3 for only 9 bucks from Amazon (the physical copy will be out in March). It's a beautiful, haunting record; one that I definitely expect to be listening to a lot this year.

I know now fragility

264. The Knife - "Heartbeats" (Rabid Records, 2004)
265. The Knife - "Silent Shout" (V2 Records, 2006)

So Pitchfork reported today that Karin Dreijer from the almighty Knife is putting out a record next year as Fever Ray. You can hear the first sample of this project on the Fever Ray Myspace and it's a very cool, bass heavy instrumental that has me anxiously awaiting more more more. I am a bit sad, however, because while I wish Karin all the best this would seem to indicate that a new Knife record isn't coming anytime soon.

The Knife, as you may well know, are a Swedish sibling duo and one of the best bands in the universe. They first got my attention with "Hearbeats", a pop song so beautiful and sad and interesting that it is capable of melting and freezing hearts at the same time, something our scientists are currently trying to work out.

Deep Cuts, the album which "Heartbeats" opens, was a fun, weird record, but two years later the Knife came back with a complete masterpiece in Silent Shout. I'm not sure there has been a record released this decade that deserves more to be listened to really loud on some really sweet speakers. The track on our list is the title track and opener, which rather nicely sketches out the icy, dark, neon-lit motorway the album takes us through.

Please come back, Knife, come back and take us further into your frosty, shimmering future.

xoxo,
Maciej