The Future’s Set In The Past

Girls Aloud “Black Jacks” – The intensity is dialed down a bit, but there’s no mistaking this for anything other than a Girls Aloud song. That said, there’s a few melodic turns in “Black Jacks” that remind me a little bit of Oasis, but I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, though there’s some pretty obvious differences between the two, they both specialize in producing unstoppable hook machines that scramble sentimental cliches and total nonsense into inscrutable lyrics that somehow make sense in the context of a gigantic chorus. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

DRI “Inspiration” – Life moves forward as it always does, but suddenly we’re in the Christmas zone. The lights go up, the same old songs are in rotation, and the sky always seems to be either black or gray. All the mundane drama in your life gets mixed up into the Christmas aesthetic somehow, and it’s hard to avoid. Songs that aren’t about Christmas start to sound a bit like it, whether it’s an accident of the arrangement, or the way it just feels like time slowing to a crawl in a crowded mall parking lot after an afternoon of gift shopping, or some sad moment from an office holiday party stretched out until it becomes nearly abstract. (Click here to buy it from Range Life Records.)