First Heard in October 2009 - "Dear ShaDOW,"

CONCEPT:

I have been listening to the same music since college, so I devised a little project that will spur me to actively pursue new jams. Each month, I will post a mix of the best songs that I heard for the first time within those 30 or so days. Won't you follow me on this journey? Thrill to the futuresounds? Mock me for being late to the party?

VOL 4.:

Before embarking on this project I never really thought objectively about why the music I enjoy appeals to me. Now, listening to how one song flows into another or how a particular track feels as part of the whole has caused me sometimes to reconsider what I found interesting about it in the first place. The inclusion of Florence and The Machine's "Cosmic Love" on this month's mix is a particularly intriguing example. This song appeals directly to my inner romantic, which as much as I may want to deny it is really not that far below the surface. However, as I was listening to "Cosmic Love" and trying to find a place for it, I started to realize that there is a perilously thin, barely-discernible line separating it from something like Evanescence. I can't really articulate the difference - it's every bit as slick and melodramatic - beyond the fact that I just buy Florence's performance. Evanescence leaves me cold, and Florence's pop-operatic bombast stirs something deep within my soul. But I guess that is exactly what music is supposed to do, so who really cares why as long as it does?



TRACKLISTING:

001 Noah and the Whale - Love of an Orchestra
002 Strong Arm Steady (ft. Talib Kweli) - Get Started
003 Total Babe - Short Stories
004 Roxy Music - 2HB
005 Atlas Sound - Shelia
006 Le Loup - Beach Town
007 Alec Ounsworth - Obscene Queen Bee #2
008 Jason Zumpano - Beggars of Blue Sky
009 Florence and The Machine - Cosmic Love
010 Field Music - Measure
011 The Very Best - Chalo
012 Candy Claws - Catamaran
013 No Eye Contact - You Won't
014 Phoenix - Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective Remix - Deakin's Jam)
015 Broken Social Scene - Stars And Sons
016 Delorean - Seasun
017 Tegan & Sara - Someday
018 Monsters Of Folk - His Master's Voice

BONUS TRACK:

SUBTLE SEXUALITY - MALE PRIMA DONNA