Make sure to download the newest episode of the pmaCAST: Looking Better, Shining Brighter Than You Do, featuring Four Tet, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The xx, Yeasayer, Department of Eagles, Hot Chip and more.
Spoon – Well-Alright
“Well-Alright” sounds like classic, old school Spoon, with it’s thumpin’, toe-tappin’ bassline and Britt Daniel’s jerky vocal delivery. This easily makes it one of Dark Was The Night’s most fun songs. On the compilation, it follows Sufjan Steven’s 10 minute epic “You Are The Blood.” I’ve never thought of using Spoon as a pallet cleanser, but the DwtN people did and it worked out pretty great. Listen to “Well-Alright” below:
Arcade Fire – Lenin
If you’re an avid Arcade Fire fan like myself, I know you’re just dying to hear anything new from this band. They’re currently working on a follow-up to my favorite album os 2007, Neon Bible. Unfortunately, the song they recorded for Dark Was The Night, “Lenin,” fails to impress. Although, it sounds less like Neon Bible and more like Funeral (it actually reminds me of “Wake Up” a lot), the song doesn’t ever really unravel into a beautiful ode to morality, the way Arcade Fire songs usually do.
Bon Iver – Brackett, WI
As far as I can tell, Bon Iver has been the only band that has released anything in 2009 worthy of a kicking Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion-ass, well save for the Heartless Bastards, maybe. The thing is, Bon Iver only released a four-song EP. Maybe if we include the 2 songs the original Bon Iver recorded for DwtN, we might be able to pass the two works as an album and call it album of the year. Ok, I might be getting ahead of myself here. Basically, “Brackett, WI” is uh-mazing and I can’t stop listening to it. The whole compilation is worth buying just for this song alone.
*please stream only — pre-order Dark Was The Night here. Links will be released with streams soon.
Tags: Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Favorite New Songs, Spoon
Omg, new songs from three of my favorite bands?!
This is almost too good to be true.
Every Bon Iver song I’ve heard so far is so heartbreakingly beautiful. They’re going to be a powerful indie force for a very long time.
Too bad this Arcade Fire track isn’t as great as everyone expects them to be…
and Spoon have always been a hit-or-miss band for me. This song is def a hit!
The Arcade Fire song sounds like “Funeral” because it’s from the same sessions; it’s the last unreleased cut from the recording of that album, lost in the vaults until the idea of this compilation inspired them to let it into the light. Just thought you’d be interested to know.
Yes, thank you for clearing that up. I can see why it didn’t make it onto Funeral — and I’m glad it didn’t.