Let’s Just Agree That It Was Fun

Marybell Katastrophy “Slabiak” – There are moments in “Slabiak” that are so fully saturated with anxiety that the song pushes up to the edge of listenability. Those moments most often come just seconds before the shift into the chorus, a section that is no less agitated, but offers some sort of release in the form of an electronically manipulated vocal part that rises into an eerie high note that comes close to the sound of Karin Dreijer Andersson on the Knife’s Silent Shout album. Nevertheless, there’s not much room in the piece for feelings of relief — it’s basically an expression of a seemingly infinite emotional crisis, and any sense of peace just feeds its own frustration and confusion. (Click here to buy it via Marybell Katastrophy’s official site.)

We Are Scientists “That’s What Counts” – I’m not exactly sure what We Are Scientists were going for with this song, but it comes surprisingly close to sounding like mid-period Squeeze. If that’s deliberate, well, then good on them, I suppose. They were clearly going for some sort of ’80s romance here — I mean, c’mon, the song is mainly characterized by its smooth saxophone leads — and they are entirely successful in capturing something sort of relaxed, elegant, and mildly decadent, with just a tinge of melancholy and regret. It barely needs the lyrics to get across its sentiment — essentially, “hey, this fling was really nice in the moment, but this is obviously not a sustainable thing — but the words land with a gentle, conversational economy that suits the low key character of the piece. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)