I've been thinking...

First of all, Bitte Orca leaked some weeks past, and it is all that one could hope. More on this one as the official release date nears.

I have been really impressed with a number of bands lately that I would normally not be interested in at all... What makes this even worse is that they are bands that are already popular.

But that said, there is something about the latest crop of pop songs that has passed by my ears that has made me sit up and take notice.

Clearly Harlem Shakes' debut has been leading the pack, as far as forcing me to take pop a little more seriously than I had previously goes. The band are/have been familiar to me on one level or another for several years, but this release is really fantastic, and I've been listening to it with a degree of intensity that is unusual for me, even when it is a friend's project... This one has some great songs buried under superficial layers of noodling...

There isn't any noodling here, really, nor should there be. For the next joint, Lexy, Jose, and company ought to do away with even these superficial nods to experimentation and go full bore after their bread and butter, which is writing the great American pop song, of course!!!

But I've been getting into Phoenix also for the first time. A band I would be prone to hate, for a variety of totally illegitimate reasons. But I've been digging this new record, love the sound of the vocals... Very well done, well conceived, marvelous pop-album.

But to get even further back to core essentials, I have recently downloaded several albums by the Beatles. I have had only two songs on my hard drive by this ubiquitous group for the last couple of years, (Dig a Pony + Blue Jay Way being the only exceptions for reasons I long ago forgot...).

I am looking in a popular direction, so expect more from me soon. In the meantime, Woods has an amazing new record out. The rest of Pitchfork's newly crowned elite ("Bat for Lashes," "Cymbals Eat Guitars," etc) leave me pretty cold, but Woods and their label are the best.