Kurt Vile, “Life’s a Beach.” Whereas Smoke Ring for My Halo’s folky pop numbers were draped in Kurt Vile’s signature suave, grimy murkiness, “Life’s a Beach,” a cut from his upcoming So Outta Reach EP, is stripped of that dusky coating almost entirely. The former War on Drugs guitarist delivers one of his most airy, catchy, and upbeat songs to date, his voice slipping into the mix with a noticeably calmer, less inebriated tone than the predominately woozy jams found on Smoke Ring for My Halo. The track’s lightweight, carefree mood is cleverly offset by Vile’s most audible lyric, giving both the song and the EP their titles: “Life’s a beach, I’m so out of reach.” He actually sounds downright happy. Mike LeChevallier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tAmkZAUAm8
AU/Palais, “Tender Mercy.” I’m a big fan of songs that juxtapose pop structures and melodies with macabre takes on the theme of love (the two most recent examples being Summer Camp’s “I Want You” and Purity Ring’s “Belispeak”), the bar for which was set pretty high by Eurythmics’ “Love Is a Stranger” in 1983. On AU/Palais’s “Tender Mercy,” love isn’t just a stranger, “love is a holocaust.” A fluttering synth effect starts things delicately and unassumingly enough before a reverb-soaked drum hit announces the track’s darker intentions and it slowly builds to a driving beat, slick sheets of synthesizers, and a collage of prickly drum programming. “Sometimes it’s good to be a killer” is the very first lyric, and then “I don’t need tender mercy, just someone on my side,” a call to arms from Bonnie to Clyde, from Mallory to Mickey, from Leopold to Loeb. Sal Cinquemani
Phantogram, “Don’t Move.” Phantogram’s 2010 album, Eyelid Movies, was defined by the duo’s ability to mix late-’90s trip-hop with more current sonic trends. On “Don’t Move,” the first single from their upcoming EP, Nightlife, Phantogram continues to evolve their sound, this time in a more straightforward pop direction. After kicking off with some stuttering beats and of-the-moment chopped-up vocal samples, “Don’t Move” transforms into a bona-fide electro-pop jam. Singer Sarah Barthel’s paranoid lyrics betray the track’s bouncy vibe and uplifting melody, making the song worthy of repeated spins. Brad Desmond
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