Under 50 w/ The Pains…, The Sounds, The Antlers, Dirty Projectors & Fools Gold

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.

Just a note, the PMA Rating scale has been updated. Because it now extends to most tracks as well, you will be seeing big, bold, red ratings often and you should probably educate yourself and know what they mean. See the scale here. Thank you.

There is so much music out there and so little time to talk about it! So every time I feel there’s a build up of some songs I genuinely like that aren’t being represented here at PMA, I will do one of these bulk posts, limiting my comments on the song to 50 words. Think of this as an indescript playlist.

This time I’ll be focusing on songs by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Sounds, The Antlers, Dirty Projectors, and Fools Gold

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Young Adult Friction & Ramona — New single “Young Adult Friction” and its b-side “Ramona are probably the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s most accessible tracks, and if you haven’t gotten into them yet, this is a great way to start. The self-titled debut album is a rewarding listen, but not the easiest one. 80/100 & 77/100

The Sounds – No One Sleeps When I’m Awake — I was raving about this one on Twitter (hey, follow me!) today. I think I said something like “the harmonic progression on this song is so damn great.” This song oozes fun and energy, and yes, that hook is tremendous! 83/100

The Antlers – Two — Some people are calling the Anters’ new album, Hospice, the best album of the year. I wouldn’t say that, but I will vouch for the incredible “Two.” I have a thing for slow, graceful build-ups, and well, you know I’m a sucker for love songs. 89/100

The Dirty Projectos – Useful Chamber — “The Bride” relies on spontaneity as much as it does on frontman Dave Longstreth’s immense talent. The instrumentation and arrangement — the bursts of riffage, to the banging of the drums, to the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ — that Longstreth uses in “The Bride” is refreshing and thrilling. 90/100

Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel — Super-cultured LA band Fool’s Gold, mix up West African pop with the best of the 80′s and sing in English and Hebrew like its nobody’s business. First single “Surprise Hotel” is a (ahem) surprisingly fun and erratic tune. Their debut LP will be released on September 29th. 70/100

BONUS: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (Tommie Sunshine Remix)

photo by soveryverynice

by Luis Tovar on July 9, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions