1)Niagara Falls by Harlem Shakes
To begin with, Harlem Shakes represent everything I hate about bands like Vampire Weekend. Both VW and the Shakes love their boldly colored sweaters, and whatever else constitutes the Ivy League ensemble these days. They both play pop-oriented songs that proclaim to go deeper than your average tune. And Harlem Shakes will soon see that their constituency is predominantly comprised of similar, if not the same, hipsters and girls who "know" something about music. Fortunately, there is something redeeming about the under-engineered sounds of this Brooklyn based quintet. Songs like "Niagara Falls", which are destined to be future pop gems after the release of Technicolor Health (March 2009), jangle out a certain intimacy which is undoubtedly lacking from the music of their oxford and cardigan wearing colleagues.
2)Red and Purple by The Dodos
"I know that I am yours and you will be mine, Come and join us in the trenches, Red and purple by our side, Say you'll never leave us, In this company of mine", The Dodos croon in their intricate love song. Superficially they tell the of war, "red" and "purple", perhaps further coding the Japanese cryptographic machines used to decipher US communications during WWII. Underneath this labyrinthine tale, however, an even deeper symbolism pervades. It may just be that these colors themselves signify, the two extremes of any meaningful relationship. Red might constitute suffering and sacrifice as it does in Christianity, while Purple connotes the emotion of love as in Alice Walker's novel.
Visiter (2008)
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