Gonna See You Smile For Once

Arthur Russell “Hiding Your Present From You” – If you made a list of the components of this composition, it may seem awkward and unlikely that they would gel, much less come together as a thing of great beauty, but Arthur Russell pulled it off with an uncommon grace, which is probably the best way to describe the essential quality of his music in general. “Hiding Your Present From You” (Present as in a gift, or present as in tense? I prefer the latter.) radiates intense good will and love without seeming even remotely cloying, and a lot of that comes through just in the way Russell’s reedy voice seems to glow throughout the mix. (Click here to buy it from Amp Camp.)

The Freelance Hellraiser “We Don’t Belong” – In a convoluted sort of way, there’s a good chance that I might not be doing this blog if it weren’t for the Freelance Hellraiser, aka the dude who kick-started the mash-up trend earlier in this decade, and had me addicted to Boom Selection, which was the primary inspiration for putting mp3s on my site in the first place. It’s an interesting thing to hear him making music as a proper solo artist, not just because it’s sort of brave for him to step away from his main gimmick, but that his music skews noticeably toward the elements of “Stroke of Genie-us” derived from the Strokes rather than the Christina Aguilera bits. The guy still has a knack for constructing exciting tracks, though some of the cuts on the album have this sort of soggy Britishness to them that’s not entirely appealing, and I’m not just talking about the song with the guy from Snow Patrol. “We Don’t Belong” is the best of the set, mainly for the way it zooms off like a shoegazer race car during the chorus, and shamelessly echoes a bit of “Hey Jude” in its intro. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Clinic, the Postmarks, and Dust To Digital’s Sacred Harp compilation.

Also: I’m going to be on tonight’s episode of Fair Game on Public Radio International. They are going to be talking to me about songs by Of Montreal, Charlotte Hatherley, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Noonday Underground. and the Child Ballads.