All Of The Beautiful Things That Make You Weep

Rilo Kiley “I Never” – I am only a man of flesh and bone, and I am prone to irrationality. In this case, Rilo Kiley used to be on Saddle Creek, which put them at one step removal from Conor Oberst, and that simple fact tainted my opinion of them so much that when I sampled More Adventurous around the time it came out, I’m fairly certain I did not actually hear any of the music that was actually on the album. Whatever it was that I heard, it just seemed very bland and not particularly interesting, and I certainly wasn’t being convinced by the whole “baby, I’m bad news” angle at that particular moment in time. But I had never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never heard this song. There’s no way that I could have, because I can’t imagine not immediately loving it, and appreciating the way that it subtly updates the Dusty Springfield blue eyed soul aesthetic for 20something indie rock girls without seeming the least bit contrived. Jenny Lewis and her band totally sell this song with grace and feeling, and never go over the top or come off as young fogeys a la Texas. Seriously, the only thing that makes this fall into the increasingly nebulous indie genre is context. That’s it. This is pop, this is country, this is soul. This is far more Shania than Chan, that’s for sure. They should make a nice video for this and send it to CMT and cross their fingers. For real. Also, if this isn’t being played at weddings in the future as an occasional substitute for “At Last,” I’d be a little disappointed. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Ladyfuzz “Hold Up!” – The song seems to be running against a current of “Academy Fight Song”-ish guitar stabs on the verses, which sounds fine on its own, but it’s all set up for that lovely transition into the chorus, as it suddenly lets out all the tension and feels like it’s gliding in the air at high speed, only to be suddenly grounded. It repeats the cycle, of course, only to make the song evoke some sort of Sisyphean struggle. (Click here for the official Ladyfuzz site.)