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5 Tracks You Gotta Hear

February 26, 2013 by Iain McKelvey in Featured, New Music, The Vulture with 0 Comments

5 Tracks You Gotta Hear is our weekly rundown of the best new songs released from Australia and around the world this week. Prepare your ears!

Billy Bragg has always had a biting view of the world from a perspective of a weathered troubadour, his recent album Tooth & Nail is a reflective work and the recent single ‘Nobody Knows Nothing Anymore’ is an impressive example. A folk song with a country saloon feel, it’s Bragg at his reflective and pondering best as he walks us through (literally) his view on his place in the world. Proof that songs don’t need to be complicated to connect.

Young Dreams made themselves known very quickly with the impressive ‘Young Dreams’, quickly becoming the toast of the town with the likes of Pitchfork and Fader, and we completely get why after listening to their recent one ‘Fog of War’. It’s a refreshing, yet familiar take on pop that fuses tropical rhythms with psychedelia and symphonic arrangements, calling on classic stylings of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. The video is a grand and slightly unsettling view on teenage dreams that just adds to their left field take on pop music.

Phoenix are back! This is simply awesome news and with ‘Entertainment’ being the taster for their new album Bankrupt we are weeing our pants with excitement with what is to follow. The track revolves around a very Asian sounding melody as the band lock into their signature electric groove. This is Phoenix sounding incredibly strong and frankly we couldn’t stop jive shaking round the room to this one.

We think that it’s officially become impossible to hate the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their delicious new track ‘Sacrilege’ is an absolute killer from their soon to be released Mosquito. It’s a familiar territory at first, sounding very It’s Blitz before an unusually clean guitar lick comes in from Nick Zinner before finishing up with the addition of an all out gospel choir. It’s what we love about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, just another different take on it.

After a bit of airplay on Triple J the ripples have been getting bigger for The Messengers and it’s even better that they have the tunes to back it up. ‘We Can’t Get Along’ is all jangled guitars, 60’s organ and catchy as hell harmonies. Perfect for keeping the beach feel alive even as the dark days of winter approach, it evokes a feeling of nostalgia for an era we never lived in.