Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

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Adrian (me):
Or, the Whale - Call and Response (mp3) (buy)

Oh man, I just can’t get past this song. I’ll put on Lights Poles and Pines (which I talk about here) meaning to listen to the album, but I’ll sort of stutter at this song. It’s something about the pedal steel and the great harmony-laden vocals that do it for me.

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Scott:
Sir Richard Bishop - Zurvan (mp3) (buy)

From Scott’s review of the album for the Stanford Daily:

The flamenco-tinged “Zurvan” begins the album with two minutes of dramatic guitar quotes, suspending the formation of the narrative for a good while. Bishop then transforms these figures into a more organized composition; flurries of notes gradually increase in intensity, and return to the same dissonant cadence just often enough to draw these fragments together.

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Oz:
Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) - Skinny Love (mp3) (buy)

Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, has this seemingly simple track stuck in my head. It’s a sincere acoustic song with powerful vocals.

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Keith:
The Brett Rosenberg Problem - My Girlfriend’s Daughter (mp3) (buy)

One songwriting skill that immediately elicits my respect is the ability to lyrically provide one point of view while transmitting a completely different message between the lines. Take Brett Rosenberg’s central character in “My Girlfriend’s Daughter.” As he hopefully describes his designs on his faded paramour’s progeny (including gifts of Kinks CDs and tutoring sessions) we the listeners can’t help but chuckle at his desperately misguided obsession. Or perhaps I should say “we the male listeners,” as females will probably be skeeved out by the inappropriate application of lust from a man over twice his target’s age. And all this within a song sonically worthy of inclusion on I’m The Man.

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Natalie:
Battles - Atlas (mp3) (buy)

I saw them play recently at Slim’s, and they were crazy! I love the weird warped vocals in this track (off their latest album Mirrored) and the playful guitar. And of course, the drumming is the center of this band (at the show he was front and center with a 7-foot cymbal…rock!). I really recommend seeing Battles live, it’s amazing watching them recreate their multi-layered songs. This song really makes me bounce around!

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Andy:
John Vanderslice - White Dove (mp3) (buy)

I chose White Dove mostly because I spent several days with the chorus running through my head. That doesn’t always mean that I like a song, but in this case, I definitely do.I think White Dove is an interesting case for the new album - clearly
a throwback to the low-fi-hi-fi of Cellar Door, but with some of the tricks that he learned during Pixel Revolt. I especially like the
double-tracked vocals and the background vocal parts during the chorus.

Keep your ears open around 2:10 - I have this gut feeling that he’s not actually using vibrato there, but rather, key-gating the guitars
like he did with the organ on “Dear Sarah Shu.” He’s a tricky producer, that JV.

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Could you get a more eclectic set of songs?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 8:17 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, blogs, mp3s, song obsessions. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.