Evan Andree :: "Falafal"

One of the best, and most unexpected, songs to come out of the community of unsigned artists in 2013 is Evan Andree's "Falafal". The phonetic get-around in the title is an analog for "Feel awful", the song's real title lyric. Breathy synthesizers and plaintive guitars open and close the arrangement, the middle full of Andree's affected falsetto. It's a plea for common ground, even if the common ground is troubled: "I want to share something with anyone else," he sings before spinning into the sky under the power of the song's chorus, "I feel awful, feel awful/ Won't you feel awful, feel awful with me?" Objectively, it isn't the most inspiring edict, but the hook is an electric mixture of Arcade Fire tropes and Oberhofer execution, a refrain with snapping downbeat and soaring, singable, four-note signature. It will be in your head for days, demanding repeat, a towering pop monolith to the depths of codependent misery.