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[bedbathandbegone-deactivated201]

This will always be one of my favorite love songs and as a bonus it is barely 2 minutes long

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Amazing

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All time fave

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As far as I'm concerned, this is the best thing to happen in music in 2015 but there's also a significant list of other great things I saw, heard and noticed. Hope you already did too, but maybe you'll hear something new.

[joshvstheinternet-blog]

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Opium Denn's debut album, Demarkation, is brimming with ideas, but they aren't so fascinated by them that they feel the need to hit you too hard over the head. There's a lot going on, mostly spacey metallic low-end guitars with just the right subtle (and unsubtle) splashes of pianos, keyboards and strings that mingle to create a fascinating, dizzying array of sensations that you can map out an analyze. But along the combined effect is one that cuts deep with a sharp edge: and instead of being overwhelmed you are wrapped up safe inside the storm.

It's like how the Earth is always turning, both on its axis and around the sun: we can hardly perceive it, but we are moving at impossible speeds. The moments when you realize the technical wizardry and complex engineering of this album are like when you stop to consider that speed we are traveling at all the time. But for the most part it feels almost like guided meditation: like the guitars are there to help you trance out and reach an alternate state of mind. Call it meditation music for the enlightened headbanger.

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X-Mas Jam: Paul Simon, “Getting Ready for Christmas Day”

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New Music: Wild Belle, "Giving Up On You"

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Gravitys Pull Part 1: Selections from R.E.M.'s Chronic Town and Murmur

The early R.E.M. catalog is often defined by how mysterious and indecipherable it is, but it’s really not that hard to understand: it’s catchy, it moves fast, it brings up strange, wonderful feelings... it’s music.

More at Sonic Sandwich HQ

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Justin Timberlake, "Rock Your Body"

From Justified (2003)

We didn't used to like JT, but there's a reason we're talking about him toady instead of JC Chasez.

More at Sonic Sandwich HQ

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Now Playing: Six Driving Songs

Arcade Fire, “In the Backseat“

Arcade Fire has written nearly as many songs about cars and driving, per capita, as Bruce Springsteen, including this rare ode to being along for the ride. It's also about death, of course, because it appears on the album Funeral, but it's still an interesting, unusual take

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Now Playing: Six Driving Songs

Bruce Springsteen, “Born to Run“

In "Born to Run," he sings he wants to know if love is wild, and also real - because up until now the only thing he understands is what's wild, and the only thing he knows is real is the road and the "suicide machines" he uses to race through it.

[sonic-sandwich]

Now Playing... Six Driving Songs

Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, “Driver’s Seat“

It has an ambiguous kind of menace to it, underscoring the themes of power and antagonism that surely made for a really healthy relationship between the characters in the song. A nice, tense, dark rocker.

[sonic-sandwich]

Now Playing: Six Driving Songs

Golden Earring, “Radar Love“

Golden Earring spin their modern-day Odyssey around lovers who communicate via CB radio. Okay, it's not exactly the most subtle tune ever, but it rocks like hell, and when you hear it on your car radio you can't help but bash along to those drums out on the wheel.

[sonic-sandwich]

Now Playing... Six Driving Songs

Cyndi Lauper, “I Drove All Night“

I like Cyndi's version best because her vocal is on par with Roy's, the arrangement is wonderfully dramatic, underscoring the narrator's desperation and desire, and the song is a skosh less creepy when a woman sings it.

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Now Playing: Six... Driving Songs

Chuck Berry, "No Particular Place to Go"

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Missy Elliott, "WTF (Where They From)" ft. Pharrell Williams

Is Missy the Captain America of the Hip Hop world, awakening from a period of cryogenic sleep only to show us how the old ways still work best? Not only has she not lost a step, in the modern context her stuff seems fresher than ever. Welcome back.

PS where can I get a disco ball suit?

More at Sonic Sandwich HQ

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Modest Mouse, "Float On"

From Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004)

The further we get from its era of origin, the more I hear it, the more I observe peoples' reactions when it plays, the more I think this song is one of the best songs of its era and possibly of all time. not only is it a blast to sing along to or just bob your head to, it's crazy and lyrically great, playing that balance between positive and negative  invoking a series of disastrous encounters while also promising that things will be ok and ultimately we'll move past our minor difficulties in life. Given that it comes from an album called Good News For People Who Love Bad News, it's not a stretch to think Isaac Brock & co. wrote it to counteract their own negative impulses. Instead of blithely ignoring that bad shit happens, its positive vibes earn credibility by engaging with reality on the level of harsh and depressing things, but not giving in.

And it's a frickin' jam.

More at Sonic Sandwich HQ