Every Monday at Flavorpill HQ, we rub our eyes wearily, gulp down gallons of caffeine, and then get down to the serious business of scouring the web for a selection of fine new records that are streaming for free over the course of the week. This week’s crop includes a healthy serving of, um, challenging sounds — namely the collaboration between Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki — along with Tanlines’ debut album, no wave pop from Chicago duo White Car, a confusingly new-but-not-new Kaiser Chiefs record, more rediscovered Woody Guthrie lyrics, and a couple of bonus links for good measure. Get a piece of the action after the jump.
Tanlines — Mixed Emotions
In last week’s MP3 round-up, we discussed how enamored we were of Tanlines’ “All of Me” single, so we were delighted to see their entire album is streaming via NPR this week. There’s a distinctly early-’80s synthpop vibe to Mixed Emotions — it’s like a pop-tastic take on Mute’s early catalog, nothing revolutionary but an enjoyable enough start to a cold Monday morning. Listen here.
Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood — Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood
On a more cerebral tip, NPR also have the collaboration between Radiohead’s resident multi-instrumental genius Jonny Greenwood and lexicograpically adventurous Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who Greenwood describes as one of his idols. The work is as intense as you might expect from a record whose first piece is entitled “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,” a journey through atonal discordance that’s alternately challenging, compelling and strangely beautiful. Listen here.
White Car — Everyday Grace
“The only way to describe White Car’s album Everyday Grace is fucked up,” quoth The Fader, who are streaming this record all week. To be honest, we’re not feeling a great deal more eloquent this morning, but we will say that White Car’s music isn’t nearly as fucked up as Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood’s work — there are at least melodies to be found here, and as the band themselves point out on their website, “however minimal and uncomfortable – this is pop.” It’s thoroughly good stuff, too. Listen here.
Kaiser Chiefs — Start the Revolution Without Me
There’s something more than a little strange about this release. The conceit behind Kaiser Chiefs’ fourth album The Future Is Medieval was that fans could choose their own tracklisting — specifically, they could pick ten songs from a list of 20, or purchase the “official” 12-track release. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, here’s a US-only release of the same record, under a different title, with a different tracklisting. Um. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that it’s a new version of an old album (The Future Is Medieval came out in 2011), and it sounds like, y’know, Kaiser Chiefs. Listen via Spinner.
Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker & Yim Yames — New Multitudes
And finally, here’s a roll-call of bearded alt-country types — Uncle Tupelo’s Jay Farrar, Centro-matic’s Will Johnson, My Morning Jacket’s Jim “Yim Yames” James, and singer/songwriter Anders Parker — revisiting a similar idea to the Billy Bragg/Wilco collaboration a few years back, namely setting unpublished lyrics from the Woody Guthrie archive to new music. The results aren’t earth-shattering, but they’re pleasant enough regardless, and a fine way to while away the morning. Listen via the project’s official website.
Bonus link:
Pond — Beard, Wives, Denim
We mentioned this in our post last week on the ten albums you need to hear in March, but still, here it is again: the new record by Australian psych-rock types Pond is streaming via the Hype Machine.
Bonus bonus link:
Nite Jewel — One Second of Love
And also, this one is a little aged now, but we missed it first time around and are thus sharing it for posterity’s sake — the new album by Nite Jewel is streaming via Gorilla vs. Bear.