CHARMING NOISE | GRAB BAG

EMA's new album is streaming on NPR, so you should probably go check that out.

First Aid Kit just announced a new album (out June 10), and from the imagery and snippet of music that this trailer shows, it looks like they may be taking a step away from the country-folk of their last album and moving in a '60s-Nancy Sinatra-type direction. What's not to love?

The Cloud Nothings had a new album come out this week and it was Pitchfork approved and everything. Check out their surreal sleepover music video.

CHARMING NOISE | NOVEMBER

There's no better way to start November, than with an epic rock ballad. 

CHARMING NOISE | COVERS

Anybody who says that they don't like pop music is a damned liar. We all love it, even if we act like we're too cool to even know who Lana Del Rey is (you know that you've done something similar, don't lie). The thing about a lot of pop artists is that they're all persona, and sometimes we can go so far as to call it performance art (Lady Gaga). It's all contrived, even if it's brilliantly executed. Many mainstream artists either have their songs written for them, or co-write with somebody else, and because of our own biases against the performer, we miss out on some great songs. I'll admit that I've probably missed out on a lot of good music because of my own musical snobbery. It's for that reason that I'm so incredibly happy that some of my favorite artists have been covering some pop songs lately, and the results have been pretty damn stunning.

I finally listened to the original version of this song last week, and while yes, the video is a little ridiculous, I couldn't help but get the song stuck in my head. While I don't think that Miley Cyrus is nearly as "provocative" and "controversial" as everyone else seems to, I do think that she seems to try too hard to be pushing boundaries. I was pretty excited when I saw that Haim had covered this track with a little more of an electronic sound to it and with, of course, their beautiful vocals.

Low is one of those bands that I love every single time that I listen to them, but I often forget about them in terms of daily music rotation (except I could never forget the the horrifying spectacle of this video. Just try to look away). I was really happy when I stumbled upon this cover of Rihanna's "Stay." It's has such potential to be a sad, haunting song, and Low is the perfect band to take it to a darker place.

 

I know that you're probably incredibly tired of hearing me talk about Chvrches, but they just so happened to time their album coming out with this cover of Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right But It's Okay." Chvrches really know how to do electro-pop, so it's pretty much a match made in heaven.