5 Songs You Should Have Heard By Now

Back by popular demand, this is my second installment of telling you five more songs that you probably should have heard by now. Because every music blog needs some snobishness.


No Age: Things I Did When I Was Dead

No Age's Nouns was something of an indie anomaly this year. While garnering heaps of praise from most blogs, little fan recognition has actually happened. All the reviews are glowing, none of the fans are biting. That is except for me. I thought the album was a brilliant marriage of melody and punk stylings. Nouns wavers back and forth from classic hardcore songs to moments of surrealist breaths in between. "Things I Did When I Was Dead," is one of the albums brief interludes into pure melodic bliss. No Age incorporates finger picking, humming ambient sounds, and rise-and-fall lyrics to create a moment of surrealist beauty amidst the destructiveness of the genre's nature.

Little Joy: Unattainable
While some of us patiently await The Strokes' triumphant return, the rest take pleasure in side projects like Little Joy. Formed by Strokes drummer Fabrizzio Maretti, Little Joy takes the same minimalist approach as The Strokes, but in a more relaxed direction. So relaxed that "Unattainable" doesn't even feature Maretti's drumming. The song features soft plucking bass and intermittent acoustic guitar and depends wholly on female vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro's (I don't know if that's her real name) carefully placed vocals. Imagine Moldy Peaches, except less annoying and with better singing.

Passion Pit Sleepyhead
Off of this year's EP Chunk of Change, "Sleepyhead," is a brilliantly constructed single. Anchored by a pounding dance beat, the song features background falsetto singing and bells in addition to one of the catchiest instrumental hooks ever. I dare you to listen to this song and not, "Wamp, wamp, wamp" along. On a personal note, the song's tempo happens to be about the same as my walking pace, so it's quickly become my iPod's favorite track.

Conor Oberst: Cape Canaveral
Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst silenced a lot of critics with his comparable self-titled solo debut. "Cape Canaveral," is a standout of the album and serves as a bare-boned acoustic intro. Oberst flexes his song writing capacity including inward repetition during the verses, inventive song structure, and (a personal favorite of mine) the line, "You taught me victory's sweet, even deep in the cheap seats."

Jonny Greenwood: Oil
As a Radiohead fan I was well aware of this, but a lot of people didn't know that it was Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood who scored last year's film There Will Be Blood. Greenwood is famous for his unique string pieces with Radiohead, and did not disappoint with his score that just barely missed out on an Oscar. "Oil," is beautiful. It encompasses all the hope, fear, and stylistic beauty that takes place on screen. I don't normally dote on film scores, but this is a shining exception.