listen closer

pre-millenial

beck "tropicalia"
to my ears, beck's at his best when he plays the genre-bending poet. this song is just so smooth. it grooves along in contrast to its rather dark lyrics, "misery waits in vague hotels to be evicted." i only recently discovered just how much i like 1998's mutations but it's been on repeat all week. great song.
[buy the album!]

harvey danger "problems and bigger ones"
harvey danger never deserved to be a one-hit wonder. "flag pole sitta" is still one of my favorite tracks from my alt rock radio listening days. but all of where have all the merrymakers gone? could have made it onto the radio. this song IS the nineties. you can hear it dripping off of the guitars and production. the song sort of muddles along pleasantly until 2 minutes in when it opens up and becomes the classic 1997 alt rock ballad it is. each time the chorus hits, it gets a little better. harvey danger's singer is playing with the long winters these days, but they're working on a new (third) album as we speak. color me tenatively excited.
[buy the album!]