Milagres :: "Glowing Mouth"

Milagres are coming out the other side of something with chirping, slow-drive single, "Glowing Mouth". Sliding along with a melody completely unacquainted with friction, the chorus emerges with an amazingly subtle falsetto hook, certainly one of the best of the year thus far. Despite its seeming weightlessness, the lyrics in the refrain admonish a reminder of faith in an age of uncertainty, a curious plea for meaning in what they call the "darkness". This all gives "Glowing Mouth" an undeniable sense of previous turbulence, recent even, and this the gliding calm after the uproar. It is Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" but with a fistful of downers headed for the drain. It feels like a recovery, faith and hope in the unseen.

Acid House Kings :: "Would You Say Stop?"

The Acid House Kings told us their forthcoming record, Music Sounds Better With You, is an attempt to define pop music. In this fashion, their fan-selected second single, "Would You Say Stop?", is a perfect slice of summer cheer for anyone who ever thought Belle and Sebastian weren't poppy enough. It features those plaintive, jangly guitars, pulsing strings, castanets and a swinging melody that wouldn't translate poorly to a being sung by an elementary school chorus. Of course, the band is always trafficking in perfect pop to sweeten the dark corners of their lyrics. Moments like, "if anyone ever breaks my heart, I still hope it is you", frame an ongoing struggle to maintain a relationship, one that despite the swelling strings is on the verge of collapse.

Listen :: Acid House Kings - "Would You Stay Stop?"
Listen :: Acid House Kings - "Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?"

TV On The Radio :: "Will Do"

TV On Radio vocalist Tunde Adebimpe insisted on a sort of apocalyptic, cultural tsunami on 2008's Dear, Science. At his most pessimistic on "DLZ", he cycled through era metaphors, finally settling on, "this is beginning to feel like the bolt busted loose from the lever." In short, our constraints, our moralities, our systems even, will do little to stem this rising tide. On first release, "Will Do" from coming 2011 LP, Nine Types Of Light, Adebimpe opens with the encouraging, "It might be impractical to seek out a new romance/We won't know the actual if we never take the chance." In comparison to the band's earlier thesis statements, this represents a warm and very nearly self-actualizing sentiment. The sound is the sort of well organized cacaphony that colored their previous releases, representing something softer if still familiar. As Tunde finally insists, "My choice of words will bring me back to you," it is a return of sorts, the most anticipated non-Strokes LP of 2011.

TV On The Radio - "Will Do" by Interscope Records

Friends :: "Friend Crush"

Samantha Urbani, singer and force behind Friends, wails, "I wanna ask your advice on the weekdays/I want to plan something nice for the weekend." She outlines the shape of one of those blighted friendship romances, so close to love and so painfully not. Worse, this is not love from afar, the kind of silent sit-behind-you-math class crush. This is close-up, see-you-all-the-time love, slow, obvious and static. Tape fuzz and a stomping snare provide the framework for a melody that would be at home on a Lykke Li record, a certain wistfullness contributing the sonics to this slow disaster. For Urbini, the voice behind this concoction, the "Friend Crush" is the best and worst kind. As for the band, new Lucky Number label-mates with Darwin Deez, they won't be unrequited for long, upgrading your like to outright love.

Listen :: Friends - "Friend Crush"

Acrylics :: "Sparrow Song" [Feat. Caroline Polachek]

Brooklyn-based Acrylics' latest mp3 release, "Sparrow Song" only intensifies the anticipation for debut record, Lives and Treasure, due out on March 1st. Featuring Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, who is rapidly becoming the guest hitman to the indie community that Puff Daddy was to mainstream rap in the late 1990s, the song is a glittering slice of pop that promotes a state of perpetual wakening. As a former Girl Crisis collaborator with current Acrylics vocalist Molly Shea, Polachek does that thing she does so well, offering glossy, dream vocals as the icing on a tune that already feels like it is spinning in a zero-gravity architecture. This is an appropriate sound for a band less than two weeks away from officially lifting off.

Listen :: Acrylics - "Sparrow Song" [Feat. Caroline Polachek]
Listen :: Acrylics - "Molly's Vertigo"
Listen :: Acylics - "Nightwatch"

Middle Brother :: "Middle Brother"

Middle Brother is the combined talents of the front men of Dawes, Deer Tick and Delta Spirit. It's three-parts plaid and three-times the late night whiskey and three times the unfiltered Lucky Strikes that makes them all sound like they've been up for a week, emotionally destroyed over a women on somewhat legitimate grounds. The sound shakes out in the direction of the rootsy-folk that all three parent bands do so well. On their eponymous second single, "Middle Brother", they build a jangly acoustic progression into something bigger, a nearly saloon piano slammer in the final moments. It's about impressing, or at least not disappointing, your parents, making your mark. Maybe the middle brother is easy to forget, they imply. These three, even together, are subordinate to no one.

Listen :: Middle Brother - "Middle Brother"

FIRST RATE PEOPLE :: "FRESH"

Multiplicitious pop-smiths, First Rate People released latest single, "FRESH" to their twitter feed on Valentine's Day. Topping 60 degrees in New York City four days later feels like the perfect time to share such swirling, unapologetic pop music, the absolute birth of spring. Swelling strings hold the arrangment like lacing fingers, while nasally, hooky vocals unleash lyrics about love and rebirth, "singing a song/old paint is peeling/this is that fresh, fresh feeling", describing a pop ressurection in the season of human affection. Like the type of crushing, irrational love they describe, you don't have a world of choice here. You will listen to this on repeat partly because you feel strongly about it and partially because you absolutely have to. Love is a little bit of death. How could you ever be reborn if you never let yourself be killed?

Listen :: First Rate People - "FRESH"