Basement Jaxx, “Dracula.” “Dracula,” Basement Jaxx’s lopsided, Schaffel return to form, may very well have been commissioned by Audi to sell their A7 Sportback. Whatever it takes to get their motor revving again is fine by me, even if in this case I could never possibly afford the object of inception. Never mind. The gloriousness of the gears grinding in this mean little snit of a choon (the refrain: “Wanna bite you up like Dracula”) would sound good in the beaten-down ’93 Ford Escort I still burned rubber in up until just a few years ago. Felix and Simon’s first two LPs, Remedy and Rooty, balanced songcraft with hot temper, both elements that have sadly been lacking in their most recent work. “Dracula” only finds them recovering the latter, but there’s no denying its lean velocity. It actually may be their most straightforward, stripped-down release since “Get Me Off.” Eric Henderson
Sky Ferreira, “One.” Teenage singer/model Sky Ferreira’s “One” is the latest addition to the growing canon of 21st-century pop starlets likening themselves to some kind of automated android. “I’m not a robot, but I feel like one,” she sings during the opening verse of her debut single, repeating the word “one” no less than 18 times in a row like a broken wind-up doll. “One” was produced by Swedish production duo Bloodshy & Avant, who are no strangers to composing glitchy club anthems for pop automatons (they’re responsible for Britney’s “Toxic” and “Piece of Me,” among others). With its quelchy, swirling synths and European brand of light-touch synth-pop, though, “One” bears more than a passing resemblance to recent tracks by Annie and Robyn, which means it will probably be ignored by U.S. radio. Sal Cinquemani
Girls, “Carolina.” It’s not often one thinks of the slide guitar when it comes to the bubbling froth of indie-pop, but “Carolina,” the final track on Girls’s new EP, Broken Dreams Club, lets its spacious and winding eight minutes be introduced with a friendly twang, and immediately the song is off to a perfectly mellow start. “Carolina” is a slow burner that lazily approaches a medium pace, suggesting the influence of the warm sounds of California (from the Beach Boys to the lighter moments of Jane’s Addiction), but it’s clear singer Christopher Owen has his heart on the East Coast when it comes to declaring his intentions: “I’m gonna carry you home to Carolina…” It certainly sounds worth packing your bags for. Michael Kilpatrick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpXJ8GQOY60
This article was originally published on The House Next Door.
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