Header by Rory Midhani
Welcome to Crystal’s Track Stop, where every week I bring you a selection of the raddest tracks from my record collection and also from the internet. All killer no filler.
“Master Hunter” – Laura Marling
Laura Marling’s first single of the year was pretty swell, however in my opinion “Master Hunter” is her best release yet. But then I prefer music with some edge. This song sounds like defiance, it thrills. I love the crashing drums, the lyrical nod to Dylan, the way Marling riffs hard on her guitar. I love her intensity, how she wears pissed off so damn well. I just love it.
You want a woman who will call your name. It ain’t me, babe.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87977378″ params=”secret_token=s-hv0bb” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“Over the Love” – Florence + The Machine
New Florence! “Over the Love” is the first release we’ve heard from the Jay-Z- produced The Great Gatsby soundtrack, which looks incredible. In many ways, this is everything you’d expect. It’s lovely sounding, it’s slow burning. It’s a soundtrack song. Somehow, Welch’s voice sounds more epic than ever before. You’ll wanna listen right up ’til 3:30, when the whole piece spectacularly explodes.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/88153117″ params=”secret_token=s-KmnjQ” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“Girls Love Beyoncé” – Drake
Feelings by Autostraddle’s resident Drake specialist, Carmen Rios:
Bear with me here: there is a Drake that sounds like summer. If you peel through Drake’s recent tracks it’s sort of buried, but when he first started out most of his work sounded like rolling down the car windows, heat waves on black pavement, getting free for the first time. I heard “Girls Like Beyonce” and I said, out loud, “this sounds like old Drake.” It sounds like So Far Gone. It’s real talk about fine women, quips about a meteoric rise to fame; it’s kind, gentle, sensitive, and authentic. The music is slow and harmonious and the vocals are smooth and sort of intimate.
Also, it samples “Say My Name.” So.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/88078067″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“Tiff” – Poliça (with Justin Vernon)
Every band and musician whose name I cannot correctly pronounce got together and recorded a song! “Tiff” is a collaboration between Poliça and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the stand-out being Channy Leaneagh’s smokin’ vocals which I could listen to for days. If you dig this then I recommend Poliça’s debut album, Give You The Ghost; the sticker on my review copy asked me to imagine “Fiona Apple fronting TV On The Radio” and I wasn’t confident that music could live up to that kind of promise but it kinda did! It was one of the more interesting albums I heard in 2012. “Tiff” will be on Poliça’s sophomore album, out later this year.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87129206″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“I Touch Myself” – The Divinyls
This past fortnight we’ve lost two truly great musicians. Vale Chrissy Amphlett.
“Change (In the House of Flies)” – Deftones
Want to tell me about a great track you’ve heard? Shoot me the link via @trackstop or crystal at autostraddle dot com (please write “track stop” in the subject line).
I love that you included Deftones. Hands down one of their best.
i have been sad / listening to nothing else this past week
well, nothing else except the other tracks in this post.
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
Can we just talk about Gatsby for a minute? Ohmygod.
My #1 feeling about Gatsby is that I tried really hard to get into the novel and just couldn’t.
That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. TRY AGAIN.
I had to read it in high school and it made me bored and angry. But then again, that might have been because I was in high school.
I’m equal parts in love with Polica and incapable of pronouncing their name the same way twice.
I know how this feels. Sometimes I don’t tell my friends about bands like Polica because I don’t want to sound like an idiot when i inevitably mispronounce their name.
So glad you included Florence + The Machine’s new song because I told myself that I was going to check it out, and then promptly forgot about it. It sounds like everything I love about her though!
I like Polica’s sound but I feel like I would like them more without all the autotune.
I got really excited for the full Florence + the Machine song when I saw the Great Gatsby trailer a couple of weeks ago, and it’s even better than I imagined. I have yet to find a song by them that I don’t absolutely love.*
*I’m not too fond of ‘Remain Nameless’ from the Ceremonials album, but I’l let that slide.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Chrissy Amphlett. :(
I got so sad about Chrissy Amphlett that I listened to “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” like ten times today.
I was thrilled to see the title of this followed by confirmation that it is in fact a reference to LAURA MARLING! I have been unhealthily obsessed with her since I heard her first album in high school. I know she is big in the UK, but I still feel like she is so underrated in the U.S.. (or at least amongst my friends?..) In fact the only thing I’m looking forward to more than A-Camp next month, is her new album that comes out the last day of camp (not to downplay my excitement for a-camp, I’m simply illustrating how much I love her!)
To be honest, I’m kind of bummed nobody else has shared their love for her in the comments, but I’m looking forward to listening/reading the rest of this article (i was too excited to wait til the end)
Feeling terribly sad about Chrissy Amphlett. I must be the only person on AS old enough to have seen the Divinyls in the ‘80s. She was an absolutely electrifying live performer, rocked hard and raw, had an amazing presence. RIP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiC4kFsJvn8
Jesus, Florence. Again with the perfection.
“You’re not sad, you live for the blues.”
AWESOME.