Remember Eve 6? Sure you do.

They’re a long time removed from the late 1990s anthem Inside Out, and today they released their new single, Lost & Found. It’s an upbeat, catchy pop-rock song, and while Max Collins‘ voice sounds a bit different now than it did nearly a decade ago (on their last album), it’s still classic Eve 6.

It will be included on their upcoming album, Speak in Code, which will be released on April 24th via Fearless Records.

Check out the song below, and then read my thoughts on the band, their reformation, the new record and where they stand in my  personal musical history.

This is the portion of the news post where I put on my nostalgia hat and speak from a fan’s perspective. Eve 6′s 2000 album Horrorscope, the follow-up to the successful debut that featured Inside Out and Leech, was a bit of a departure from their debut’s radio-friendly alterna-rock, at times incorporating synth and generally being a slightly different record. While Horrorscope was great, it didn’t really generate as much attention for them as they received in 1998, save for the single Here’s to the Night.

Personally, their 2003 album It’s All in Your Head ranks up there among my favorite early 2000s releases, alongside Third Eye Blind‘s criminally under-appreciated Out of the Vein. Both are excellent records from late-1990s era alternative rock outfits that showed progression, enthusiasm, and a willingness to reinvent themselves while not shedding their sense of familiarity. It’s All in Your Head, led by solid jams like Think Twice, At Least We’re Dreaming, Good Lives (which still pops into my head to this day), Bring the Night On, Girlfriend and Hokis made up the core of a damned good record, but it was mostly ignored by everyone, and they broke up in 2007.

Now that original guitarist Jon Siebels is back in the fray with front man Max Collins and longtime drummer Tony Fagenson, here’s hoping that the new record will give them new life and a strong future. It’s been nine years since their last record, and I for one am glad to see them give it another go.

One of the first concerts I attended upon moving to L.A. in 2008 was an Eve 6 gig at the Key Club, and it was fun to finally see some songs that had such a nostalgic place in my head performed live. With this new album news in the can, expect to see my review of the new album here on BtH when it’s released in April.

Speak in Code track list, courtesy of the band’s Facebook page.

1. Curtain
2. Victoria
3. Situation Infatuation
4. B.F.G.F.
5. Lions Den
6. Blood Brothers
7. Lost & Found
8. Moon
9. Downtown
10. Trust Me
11. Everything
12. Pick Up The Pieces

Are we really that old already?

The Swellers’ new album Good For Me is a top-notch blend of older and newer pop-punk/alternative stylings, but with an added sense of nostalgic homage to the late 1990s that demonstrates that we’ve apparently reached the point where bands refer to that decade with a degree of melancholy and fond memories. Hey, fellow twentysomething music bloggers: we’re getting old.

Album opener Runaway kicks things off with an energetic guitar and drum burst, leading into an upbeat verse with vocalist Nick Diener saying I don’t feel like myself anymore/I need to get out of this room today. Swellers fans familiar with their previous two albums may have found this opening track jarring, as the band seems to have embraced a more straightforward and catchy sound than the rawer tunes on 2009’s breakout album Ups and Downsizing. Runaway is a great introduction to the record, which is full of memorable songs that cast a fond look back to the past.

Inside My Head finds the band channeling both Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World. The MCS-like synth and JEW-esque chorus help the song stand out, as it manages to sound like both those bands without sounding like a knockoff. The Swellers are creating their own unique sound using the influence of bands like those two, and it pays off incredibly well. The one-two punch of Runaway and Inside My Head give the album a great opening sequence that leads into The Damage, which starts off a bit slower, allowing Diener’s scruffy voice to take over. The guitar work on this one requires discussion, as both Diener and Ryan Collins alternate between distorted riffage and softer, more melodic notes seamlessly. Some great backup vocals help the bridge shine (something that happens throughout the album).

Parkview keeps the energy going, with Diener expressing that sort of twentysomething layabout boredom that is all too familiar to many of us: It’s been four years/And I still don’t know what I’m doing here/My friends settled down/And all I do when I’m home is sleep in. The song has a peppy chorus with the narrator lamenting about shoveling snow, being paralyzed and not standing up for himself. Paired with the upbeat music which ultimately leads to some wonderfully melodic background vocals at the very end, the song is a great lead in to the album’s biggest highlight, The Best I Ever Had.

The Best I Ever Had gives me the same sense of nostalgia and melancholic vibe that The Ataris’ In This Diary did back in 2003, but without that tune’s cheesiness. I remember April ’94/September ’96/And every day of ’99 (all of ’99)/Whether I waited for those records/Or helped Seattle cry/It was the best I ever had/And I know we’ll never die Diener cries, expressing a fond adoration of the songs that shaped his life all those years ago. He later sings about planning his escape from the suit-and-tie lifestyle that eventually plagued so many of his friends (and everyone else’s).

It’s something that people my age (read: mid-twenties) can instantly relate to, but it’s approached in a much more enjoyable, wistful fashion than most songs that play the “Oh, I miss being a kid!” card so heavy-handedly. The song is becoming a favorite among the AbsolutePunk crowd, and rightly so.

Better Things begins with some acoustic strumming and Diener talking about being on the way to bigger things, before the song explodes into an irresistible chorus, buoyed by a driving rhythm and chord progression. Lyrically, it’s a confident tune with a slight bitterness about the target of the song, with Diener saying I guess you wouldn’t know since you’re not here, but also wishing her (or him) well. Musically, it’s one of Good For Me’s best songs, fully demonstrating how well the Swellers can do the rock/pop thing.

The grungy guitars of On the Line wouldn’t sound out of place on a Foo Fighters record. The buzzy chords give it a dark energy that carries throughout its 3 minutes and 41 seconds. Diener yells I try to scream but there’s no sound/’Cause you’re alone/And I want you to come around while choppy riffs blaze through the chorus. It’s one of the album’s better songs, due in part to the great guitars. Drummer Jonathan Diener and bassist Anto Boros bring a lot of energy to the track, helping to give it its great grunge flavor.

Nothing More and Prime Meridian are both solid tracks, but they’re sandwiched between two of the album’s strongest moments. The aforementioned On the Line and the album-capper Warming Up are some of the Swellers’ greatest accomplishments on Good For Me. With its Pinkerton-like synth and Diener’s vocal delivery, Warming Up sounds like 1996-era Weezer. It’s really a great song about wishing, dreaming, and how the narrator will never be me without you. Long after the song comes to an end, the keyboards and overall melody of the song will loop in your head, which is always the mark of a memorable album-closer.

With Good for Me, The Swellers have really made a statement. The album shows the band’s best qualities throughout its ten songs: energetic, pop-punk-alternative songs about nostalgia, longing, and youthful exuberance being reflected upon by people who are no longer teenagers. That the band explores these themes while sounding like some of the best bands of the era they’re singing about helps the album leave quite a mark on the listener. It’s been a great year so far for pop punk revivals, and The Swellers may have released the best of the bunch.

How exciting that even now, while we’re so close to the year’s end, there is STILL such phenomenal music being released at every turn – which is why I’ve still got a shred of hope in me that Radiohead will end up capping the year with their promised new album that has been drooled over for some time, now. In any case, here’s a quick run-through of my top tracks for November; as usual, please feel free to include your own favorite tracks of the month. Aaaand let’s get on with it.

Daft Punk – Derezzed

The legendary house duo may not have seemed the obvious choice to score the upcoming Tron: Legacy, but as they display here, it’s rather unlikely that anybody else could’ve done it better. Derezzed is basically Daft Punk toying with a simplistic, futuristic beat for just under two minutes, and it absolutely screams Tron. The whole soundtrack is rather impressive, but it’s the moments like these where they let their electronic sensibilities take the forefront that it really shines. This track is doesn’t even come close to wearing out its welcome; it’s fun, addictive, and most importantly, it makes me want to see the shit out of this movie.

PJ Harvey – Written on the Forehead

Probably the most criminally unsung musical chameleon around, the new song off of PJ Harvey’s upcoming tenth LP shows yet another drastic change in direction, and once again it sounds great. The highly visual lyrics detail the horrific aftermath of war, but with a lightly treated vocal that sounds utterly beautiful over the hazy guitars, rhodes piano, additional vocal samples, and upbeat drums. It’s oddly sad but uplifting, and it’s got my expectations for the new album ridiculously high.

Jamiroquai – Never Gonna Be Another

While there was certainly nothing wrong with Jamiroquai’s last few rather dance-heavy albums, the second half of their latest, Rock Dust Light Star, is a most welcome display of just how diverse this band’s sound really is, with Never Gonna Be Another being the peak for me. Bluesy and longing, but managing to sound more soothing than depressing, Jay Kay beautifully mourns the loss of a lover over tastefully sparse keys, guitar, and of course that ever-present bass. It was fairly difficult choosing which song to include off of this album, but the more i listen to this smoky, downtempo gem, the more I fall in love with it.

Rihanna – S&M

Rihanna really puts her best foot forward on her latest album, kicking off with this banger of a track. S&M drips with an unabashed sexuality that never comes across as classless, and let’s not forget the maddeningly sing-a-long melodies and that delightful nod to The Cure’s Let’s Go to Bed. The confident and upbeat songs like this off of Loud probably do the best job of showing just how well Rihanna is coming into her own.

Hercules and Love Affair – My House

Andy Butler and co. have got the follow-up to their excellent debut just around the corner, and My House – a slab of old fashioned disco house, livened up with a series of dirty glitches – is the taster. And it tastes damned good, let me tell you. It’s always so remarkable when an artist can take such a dated sound and make it sound fresh, and if My House‘s ability to walk the line between fun and cheesy is any indication, the upcoming Blue Songs is going to be fantastic.

Kid Cudi – Mr. Rager

Now here was a pleasant surprise – while Man on the Moon 2 is by no means perfect, it shadows its predecessor simply because Scott Mescudi has gotten better at embracing his strengths. On tracks like this one, he absolutely nails it with the production, the harmonization, and themes of loneliness and alienation, without indulging in any one quality too much. His listless vocal and the intricate, downtrodden beat go together perfectly, and unlike several moments on his debut, it never goes over the top.

Home Video – The Automatic Process

The title track off of Home Video’s long awaited new album starts out with what sounds like a typical euro-trash hook, but the way it’s built upon is truly remarkable. Even with the band’s notoriously minimalistic style, vocalist Collin Ruffino’s voice is weighed down with unmistakable despair, which in a recent interview he chalked up as an attempt to reflect the current state of the world through personal struggle. Once the snare drum and guitar kick, the song just takes off, and you can really feel what Ruffino is trying to express.

Iron & Wine – Walking Far from Home

Yet another tantalizing new single hinting at greatness to come, Walking Far from Home shows Sam Beam trying on a new sound, keeping the band behind him and dropping the intimate, potentially haunting aura that he’s been known for through his career. Walking hinges more on its lyrics than the cleverly progressing music, though – it’s very impressive how Beam draws out such intense introspection from merely observing (Sam Beam? Yup! Just sits there all day, singin’ about what he sees…), and with how Sufjan Stevens branched out so brilliantly this year, it’ll be interesting to see what Beam’s got up his sleeve.

Kanye West – So Appalled

Kanye and his slew of guests (who, even without the RZA’s quick appearance near the track’s conclusion, all display a trade-off worthy of comparison to the Wu-Tang Clan) all say it best – this song is fucking ridiculous. Everybody does such a great job (Jay-Z’s verse in particular is excellent), and Kanye really outdid himself with the beat; it has this intense air of paranoia about it and doesn’t let up once throughout its six-plus minute length. Just another example of why this album is far and away the best thing the man’s ever done.

The National – You Were a Kindness

The reissue of The National’s jaw-dropping album High Violet has a good number of previously unreleased tracks to boast, with You Were a Kindness resting easy at the top of the heap. Yet another tale of mourning over a departed lover, Matt Berninger delivers one devastating line after another (“I was careful, but nothing is harmless,” “Why would you shatter somebody like me,” “It doesn’t work that way, don’t leave me here alone,” etc.) with the band’s gorgeous harmonization backing him up along with a somber piano, guitars, and (I think?) an organ. This one is a heartbreaker, plain and simple.

Holy shit. Is it just me, or was September bursting at the seams with good music?  From predictably great stuff to overwhelmingly pleasant surprises, it really felt like this month had it all. For the first time, ten felt like too small a number; there was just too damn much great stuff that I wanted to include here. But you know, I am a professional guy-who-sits-at-his-computer-and-rants-about-music, and as such, I finally whittled this week’s list down to the article’s namesake. So let’s get on with it, shall we?

Bad Religion – The Day That the Earth Stalled

Looking kinda old, but they sure as shit don't sound it

It’s so nice to hear an almost thirty-year-old band kick this much ass. Stalled kicks off the band’s latest with a fucking kick and a half, with Greg Gaffin sounding as youthful and energetic as he ever has (arguably even more than their somewhat sluggish late 90s period). This thing is incredibly aggressive and catchy as hell, armed with great vocal patterns and killer riffs that make the minute and a half fly by waayy too quickly.

Weezer – Ruling Me

Taking time out to not look obnoxious for once

For all the Weezer fans who kept the faith throughout this past decade, who ignored how shitty Make Believe was (Perfect Situation withstanding), who gave credit to the band for experimenting with the Red album, who resisted irritation with the persona taken on Raditude (like “hey, white people rapping! That’s funny!”), and who didn’t even throw their arms up in the air and declare “to HELL with it!” when they found out that yes, the new album’s cover is a god damn close-up of some TV actor’s face: this is their reward. While Hurley is (thankfully) nowhere near as reliant on a scant handful of good songs as its predecessors, with as good as this song is, I don’t think even the most cynical Weezer fan would mind. The harmonizing vocals in the chorus are just plain brilliant, and the chugging guitar is somehow reminiscent of both old and new Weezer, without alienating either camp. This is easily the best song they’ve done in a long, long time.

Deerhunter – Desire Lines

Clem!

When your main hook is more than just a little reminiscent of a song as great as Arcade Fire’s Rebellion (Lies), it’s going to be a hell of a struggle to make yours really sound like your own. “No problem,” said Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox and Lockett Pundt, before crafting this ethereal, addicting, and flat out wonderful track. Like the rest of Halcyon Digest, Desire Lines sees a startling accessibility to the band’s take on psychedelia, even with the way the guitars ramble on and on to close things out. Despite being nearly seven minutes in length, this track never feels meandering or boring, and the smooth, relaxed chorus could well end up one of the year’s most memorable.

The Birthday Massacre – Shallow Grave

Everybody loves pretty gothic people

Dropping a bit of the creepy atmospherics this time around, goth rockers The Birthday Massacre display a startling grasp on anthemic choruses on their latest album, Pins and Needles, with Shallow Grave being a shining example. The new wave-sounding synths, loud guitars, and of course the lovely Chibi’s vocals all go together very well, with a fun dance beat and ear worm melodies to boot. They sound the closest they ever have to pop music here, and it works far better than one might have thought.

Enslaved – The Beacon

What is it with black metal and churches

For a while it was looking like Watain’s Lawless Darkness might clinch the best black metal album of the year title, but the ridiculously consistent Enslaved and their latest, Axioma Ethica Odini, have come along and snatched it without breaking a sweat. The band’s excellent musicianship is in top form here, finding them moving so briskly through The Beacon‘s different sections that even the bits that should feel jarring (stomping riffage stopping on a dime to accommodate mid-tempo chanting, for example) come across as completely natural. Anyone who’s looking to get into black metal should definitely check this album out.

Swans – You Fucking People Make Me Sick

We hate everything

For me, Michael Gira reviving Swans out of nowhere rivals Hurley as the best unexpected bonus of the year. Fourteen years after their last album, the band picks up right where they left off, with Gira delivering his special brand of misanthropy in typically forward thinking ways. A song with this sort of title might make you expect a loud, raging sound, but Sick takes a different approach entirely, really getting under your skin with its quiet intensity and creepiness. Devendra Banhart’s guest vocals are unexpectedly effective, but what really clinches it is the second half, with the dirty sounding piano and brass; the discordant notes the ragged instruments hit are unsettling to the point of making your skin crawl.

Interpol – Always Malaise (The Man I Am)

So moody... can't even stand it

I’ll make no apologies for gushing over this song a second time – it really is that good. In fact, I like it even more now than I did when I reviewed the album! Malaise pulls off such a gloomy, dramatic build-up that you can’t help but be in awe of it; Carlos D.’s arrangements are absolutely impeccable, with how the piano and progressing horns lead into that climax, and the drums and guitars kick in just underneath Paul Banks’ murmured lyrics. Incredibly powerful stuff, underlined even more by its abrupt ending.

Blonde Redhead – Oslo

Oh my

Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino has always had a highly seductive vocal, but on Oslo she really takes it to a new level. The XX, Brazilian Girls, Portishead, this song trumps them all just in how loomingly sexual it feels, with her breathy voice over stuttering electronics, lightly shimmering guitars, and varied percussion. This one is going to dirty up many, many minds.

Das Racist – You Can Sell Anything

We'ze fuktup

From the depraved creative minds that brought us Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell comes some more clever, self deprecating, good humored hip-hop. Diplo’s bare-boned production shows once again that all you need for a good beat is a catchy melody, while Himanshu Suri and Victor Vazquez absolutely kill it with their funny and astonishingly intelligent flows. At first glance, particularly with the Pizza Hut song from earlier this year, it’s easy to write these guys off as a novelty act. However, a much deserved closer look would show just how talented they really are.

Grinderman – Palaces of Montezuma

What're you lookin' at??

Only Nick Cave could sing about JFK’s spinal cord and make it sound romantic. Really though, everything about this song just clicks perfectly – from Cave’s always-poetic lyrics to the gorgeous vocal harmonizing, the band hasn’t sounded better than they do here. The added polish to Grinderman’s second album gives moments like this a slight Bad Seeds flavor, but it Montezuma still sounds like the quartet’s own unique brand of garage rock. Endearing, rousing, and assuaging all at once.

Take a moment to think of your favorite band, or if it’s too difficult to pick just one, grab a favorite at random. In the unlikely event that you’ve selected an artist with a single album, well.. this week’s list is for you. This is going to be all about bands who’ve put out a lone full-length, and left fans wondering what could have been.. would they have gone on to release one fantastic album after another? Or simply fall back into mediocrity, or worse, become total shit? In any case, here are ten bands and their solitary albums, which have surely made far more people than just me why the hell they didn’t just crank out at least a few more albums. Anyway, on with the list…

Operation Ivy – Energy

BOO

Well before both ska and pop-punk exploded in the mid to late 90s, Operation Ivy put out their one, highly influential, incredibly fun, and highly appropriately titled album, Energy. While clearly drawing on early 80s punk and second wave ska, Energy was really groundbreaking not just in its approach with blending the styles but with how fucking energetic the whole thing is. The twenty seven tracks breeze by, and even the songs that are less pleasant lyrically (Officer comes to mind) have such a carefree attitude that it rubs off on the listener. While Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman went on to bigger things with Rancid, Energy remains a stone cold classic.

Deltron 3030 – Self Titled

All futuristic n' shit

Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala are all quite familiar with collaboration, but here they were each arguably at their peak. Armed with great futuristic beats to match the album’s sci-fi theme (laid out brilliantly by Del, with humor laced social commentary) yet never taking itself too seriously, Deltron 3030′s debut is textbook alternative hip-hop. There’s been a lot of talk of a sequel to this, but sadly it remains mostly that, and this is a story that deserves a quality follow-up.

Circle Takes the Square – As the Roots Undo

Wow what a crappy drawing

There are so many original takes on post-hardcore here that it boggles the mind. Ambient sections, traded off male and female vocals, thrash metal-inspired guitar, frantic, grindcore-inspired drums, mumbled poetry, harps, and so on and so forth. So much random shit is thrown into this album that it’s a wonder it worked at all, much less as tremendously well as it has. Perhaps a follow-up never came because the band was conscious of this, and feared never being able to get everything to click this well again.

The Avalanches – Since I Left You

"You're here to save us!" "Uh... yeah, that's what it is.."

Second only to DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing, Since I Left You is the most impressive mix of samples on an album. Everything is mixed perfectly, which is even more impressive when you consider how varied the sampled artists are – and yes, if you’re not familiar, the Avalanches blow Girl Talk away. This is perfect party music – it’s fun, it’s relentlessly feel-good, and if you pay attention you’re bound to recognize something. Now there’s just the matter of following it up… the joke is that the second album has long been completed, and the band is still waiting for all the samples to clear.

Radiation 4 – Wonderland

Wheee!

Likely to be some of the most bizarre and challenging metal you’ll ever hear. Radiation 4 forcibly puts awkward time signatures, styles, and even genres together (Tick. Tock. Tick.‘s angry offbeat hardcore concluding in that almost clown-reminiscent “la-la-la-la-la-la” being a perfect example) and makes it sound not only easy, but even charming. From epic to silly and everything in between, it’s easy to imagine that perhaps the band said everything they wanted to with Wonderland, but you can’t help wondering if they could’ve gotten any weirder than this.

Gospel – The Moon Is a Dead World

I don't even know what this means

One doesn’t really associate progressive rock with genres names like “Emo” (or the even more unfortunately named “Screamo”), but that’s exactly the angle Gospel took with their one and only album, The Moon Is a Dead World. The music is heavy, erratic, and raw, but its aggression really comes second to the emotional aggression, which is even more unrelenting and engaging. Post-hardcore, screamo, whatever you want to call it, this album is one of the most unique of its kind, and is a definite must-hear.

Mad Season – Above

Let's make out... TRAGICALLY

An excellent effort from a mid 90s supergroup comprised of members of the grunge elite, Above is a dark, harrowing trip through Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley’s mind, with a bluesy approach to the music courtesy of Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on guitar and top blues bassist, John Baker Saunders. The rockers are harsh, the blues jams are fun, and the gentler tracks are downright haunting. This is clearly all we’re going to get, what with both Saunders and Staley being dead (and both due to heroin use), which is a damn shame – Above suggested that this band was capable of even better.

Jimmy Chamberlin Complex – Life Begins Again

Purty burdy

While we’re on the subject of 90s alternative, how about that Jimmy Chamberlin! The Smashing Pumpkins drummer founded a solo project in the early-mid noughts with a jazz fusion-meets-alternative rock sound in mind, and it’s accomplished surprisingly well on their debut. Along with songwriter Billy Mohler, Chamberlin constructs highly progressive (and at times beautiful) fusion built around his excellent drumming, with a revolving door of guest musicians (including Billy Corgan) helping out. What with Chamberlin’s involvement in the resurrected Pumpkins, this may end up being a one-off, which is a shame – it’s easily the most accessible and fun that any recent rock-based approach to jazz fusion has been, and Pumpkins fans would do well to give it a listen.

Yndi Halda – Enjoy Eternal Bliss

Here we see the hopeless, desolate town of... Candyland

What with the post-rock scene burgeoning at the time of this release, it’s remarkable how well it was able to stand out. Yndi Halda prove themselves to be masters of not only establishing tension and progression, but with instrument application as well – there are special little moments where a traditional drumbeat with pop up with a sweet violin hook riding it before crashing into something else, or a lone, intensifying bluesy guitar being joined by strings, horns, and marching drums, but they never feel random or the result of meandering. The approach used here is very similar to that of post-rock pioneers Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but much brighter and uplifting. And four years later, it’s starting to look sadly as if they’ve nothing else to say.

The Postal Service – Give Up

Jump out the window! NOW

Here’s one where it’s easy to think that perhaps it’s for the best that the musicians involved (Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard and Dntel, or Jimmy Tamborello) don’t seem anywhere near following up their collaboration’s debut. Give Up just has a certain air about it, like it was created at just the right point in not just the collaborators’ lives, but in the music scene as well.  Everything, from Gibbard’s lyrics to Tamborello’s quirky electronic flourishes, feels so genuine, and even fresh – upon its release, there really wasn’t anything else that sounded like it, and it’s spawned quite a bit of mimicry, both well-conceived (Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn) and god-awful (anything by Owl City) alike. Even now, seven years after its release, it still sounds unique, and stands quite well on its own.

"You didn't draw my nose too big, did you?" "Nah"

Earlier this year, the Parenthetical Girls started a five-part series of EPs which will eventually form their fourth album, and Privilege Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect, is, as you might guess, the second installment. It’s hard to imagine it not being the first, however, what with how bold and forward-thinking opener  The Common Touch is. Nearly all four tracks share this quality, with a clever application of the broad instrumentation not unlike These New Puritans’ spectacular album Hidden from earlier this year. The one exception is the single Young Throats,  which makes up for this with how sparingly it tosses off hooks; pleasant melodies are abound in both the lead and harmonizing vocals alike as well as the bright, poppy synths, and even the snare drum has an oddly cheerful quality about it. The more somber Weaknesses starts with a dramatic string and drum combo before delving into a gentle, organ-led verse and chorus, with more and more keyboards bubbling up to the surface as its conclusion nears.

The closing Present Perfect (An Epithalamium) almost marries it all together very smoothly; with the exception of a few awkward changeovers, the interesting breakdowns and thoughtful instrument application go startlingly well with the bright melodies and Zac Pennington’s fragile vibrato, and it closes things out in fine fashion. The only flaw one can attribute to Parenthetical Girls, really, is that with as prolific as they’ve been over the last six years, they still have give off the same impression of being just about to come into their own, and still haven’t. Still though, if this is the best we’re going to get from them, it’s hardly anything to complain about.

Flying Lotus: I'M WATCHING YOU BITCH

Coming off the heels of the incredible (and massively well-received) Cosmogramma is yet another release from celebrated Los Angeles DJ Flying Lotus, a seven track EP that’s just shy of twenty minutes. Pattern+Grid World has all the characteristics of FlyLo’s last LP, and in fact was probably even recorded around the same time, given how soon after it saw release, but definitely has its own feel. The tracks don’t bleed together, and while brief, each gets a great chance to stand out with its own qualities. The opening combo of Clay and Kill Your Co-Workers serve as excellent examples of this, with the former’s smooth, jazzy beat and the aggressive, yet oddly relaxing, chiptune dominated latter track.

Speaking of aggressive, closer Physics for Everyone! is a scorcher. At once ear piercing, melodious, catchy, and fun, FlyLo piles on effect after effect with such finesse that you can scarcely even notice him toying with the underlying beat all the while. Even among these other great songs though, the previously released Camera Day still holds its own with ease. Those kick-back melodies wash over one another so wonderfully, and it gently bobs to its conclusion with all the elements meeting up in some way or another.

A few of the tracks really do feel like throwaways, particularly PieFace and Jurassic Notion/M Theory. PieFace starts off sounding great, with house-y whistles and erratic percussion, but never really ends up going anywhere. Jurassic Notion is loaded with great ideas sonically, but from a songwriting standpoint it, again, simply goes nowhere. Halfway through there’s a hint of a build-up towards an intense, percussive zenith, but it never comes, and ultimately the track just fizzles out. Still, the tracks that work are pretty damn good, and the strength of this EP is that the songs get to stand out as such, as opposed to just pieces of something larger – which is not to slight Cosmogramma in the least, it’s just a welcome change of pace. It’s not a step forward, but frankly it’s impressive to get anything new after something as massive as FlyLo’s last album, and for the most part it’s a very fun listen.

They look kinda delighted.. I GUESS

Having given up on his “50 States Project,” Sufjan Stevens resurfaced out of just about nowhere with a new EP after five years of silence. And while All Delighted People is an EP, it’s staggeringly ambitious – even by Stevens’ standards. Producing an hour long EP with the bookend tracks totaling nearly half that on their own is not necessarily a bad idea, but here it’s crushed under the weight of its own aims. All Delighted People (The Original Version) and Djohariah, the opening and closing tracks, respectively, have tremendously beautiful, tightly composed sections. However, the peaks of these songs are just that – sections. Not only are they surrounded by far lesser parts, but there’s barely any flow connecting any of it. There’s no feel of a build-up, of a purpose to the pomposity of these two songs, and it’s truly a shame because had they been shaved down to their best moments, they would be practically flawless.

There are some songs that work wonderfully, one fine example being Heirloom, which is the exact opposite of the aforementioned cuts. It’s short, pared down, and intimate, and could well be the most striking song here simply for those reasons. All Delighted People (Classic Rock Version) is slightly more straight-forward than its meandering counterpart, but not by much (though it does have a great synth backed oddball guitar solo to boast), and the dark, almost chilling The Owl and the Tanager is another choice cut, but ultimately this is just something to tide fans over until Stevens’ next full-length is released, which hopefully will not suffer from ambition overshadowing skill as All Delighted People tends to do here and there.

Outside looking in *snif*

It’s very seldom that a band can wear their influences on their sleeve without coming across as derivative, but the Black String Theory is able to pull this off far better than one might think. One of the chief deal breakers of a group that emanates others is that there’s minimal to no soul to their sound, but this is something nobody can pin on Scott Van Dort, who performed all the vocals and instruments himself on the project’s self-titled EP. Van Dort has a knack for creating a big chorus without succumbing to bombast or predictability, as either From Where I Stand or A Lifelong Mystery show in spades. Then there’s the genuine mourning of Too Late, which piles a bluesy guitar and light synth tastefully over a lonesome vocal and piano.

The Black String Theory gives the pop rock format a solid, creative edge, embracing influences while keeping in tact an unshakable genuine nature. For anybody who has wished that Muse, Keane, or even Coldplay could just take their best traits and start over again from scratch, The Black String Theory is a band to keep your eye on.

Vagina, dead body, general occult imagery. YUSS

For any pioneer of any genre, a comeback nearly twenty years after their prime is going to be tricky, and met with a blend of skepticism and excitement. So here’s Autopsy, infamous in the death metal community, coming back together after a less-than-successful bid as death/punk hybrid Abscess, returning back to their classic death metal roots. For better and for worse, in most regards, the band picks up exactly where they left off (well if you don’t count 1995′s terrible-as-it-sounds album Shitfun) with the same heavy riffs and alternately grinding and blistering tempos.

The Tomb Within really delivers everything one could expect from the band, and the songs are crafted as well as they’d ever been (particularly the frantic Seven Skulls and the delightfully filthy sounding Human Genocide), but there’s just nothing new here; it really sounds like something that could have been released fifteen years ago. The fact that the group has lost none of their ability (though Chris Reifert’s vocals certainly aren’t what they used to be) is a good sign though, and keeps the promise alive for their upcoming full-length, Macabre Eternal. Besides, while Autopsy is doing the exact same thing they were doing back in the early 90s, they still do it very well.

"Enough with the Bob Dylan shit!"

Like Flying Lotus, Kristian Matsson follows up a massive album with a fantastic EP within a few scant months. Unlike FlyLo, however, the Tallest Man on Earth’s latest collection shows some interesting new shades, like how Like the Wheel shows that Matsson can implement multiple elements into his songs quite well when he wants to, or  the way The Dreamer makes you wonder why he hasn’t picked up an electric more often. Sometimes the Blues… is dynamic also in the emotive muscle it flexes; at times it feels much softer and gentler than The Wild Hunt, but every so often he’ll belt out a powerful line, such as the EP’s namesake’s “Sometimes the blues is just a passing bird, why can’t that always be?” or his sheer determination in the repeated “I’m not leavin’ alone” that concludes Tangle in This Trampled Wheat.

Even the EP’s bookends, Little River and Thrown Right at Me, which constitute both the most familiar and most gentle moments here, carry such charisma that they feel fresh and attention grabbing – when he begins a musing with “there is something ’bout the leaving of a lover,” your ear perks and you’re hanging on every word, just waiting for him to finish that thought. This EP accomplishes quite a bit over the course of five songs and seventeen minutes, illustrating once again how incredibly talented the man is and that while he’s already quite possibly the best folk act around today, he’s just getting started.

Perhaps the best thing a band can do when covering a song is to interpret the track in their own unique way and truly leave their stamp on it; after all, very few covers that play it safe are particularly interesting. Most of the covers on this week’s list radically rework their original counterparts, or at least give a new general perspective, which I think should be the whole point of re-doing a song in the first place. Also, I’d like to give a mention to the Deftones’ spectacular cover of the Cars classic Drive, which I would’ve included, but didn’t want to use a band two weeks in a row.

….though I guess this is really the same thing more or less, isn’t it?

Anyhow! Enough rambling, let’s get on with the list.

Mindless Self Indulgence – Bring the Pain

I hope I get it, how many people does he need how many boys how many girls...

Making a Method Man track sound tame is not the easiest thing to do, but Mindless Self Indulgence pull it off with abundant style here. This cover is all over the place, with the only thing bearing resemblance to the original being the lyrics – even the flow is different, which James Euringer spits furiously, and while he may not be as smooth as Clifford Smith, he makes up for it with sheer energy. Euringer’s trademark random falsettos along with that frantic beat really make this feel like an MSI song.

Bjork – It’s Oh So Quiet

Coc-a coc-a cock

Easily the most faithful rendition here, the reason this song is here is simply because Bjork is so startlingly good at capturing the jazzy, vocal style of Betty Hutton’s Blow a Fuse, particularly in how it descends into chaos and back again, and making it sound like her own. It’s Oh So Quiet really should stick out like a sore thumb on Post, but Bjork injects so much of her personality into this that it manages to blend in with the throbbing trip-hop of her sophomore album quite well.

Tricky – Black Steel

I got no idea what's goin' on

While the Public Enemy original is an outstanding song in its own right, Tricky gets massive points for throwing so many unlikely elements together and still making it all work. The original beat is completely gone in favor of a heavy, distorted guitar, clanging percussion, and Martina Topley-Bird’s sweet vocals singing harsh lines like “picture me giving a damn, I said never” with a vocal pattern not terribly far removed from Chuck D’s. All the anger of the original is still in tact, but with a bit more of a mystique to it; a hallmark of Tricky’s great debut (and this song’s parent album), Maxinquaye.

FM Belfast – Lotus

80s sunglasses 4 lyf

Lotus is one of those covers that strips just about everything from a song and rebuilds it from the ground up. On the first listen, it might take a while to recognize Zach De La Rocha’s lyrics for Killing in the Name, particularly given the rather indifferent vocals and trippy, sexy beat, but that’s exactly what this head-bobbing track is tackling. It’s a very clever take on the raging (augh, pun) original.

Chris Cornell – Billie Jean

Do you mind? I'm trying to lounge

Speaking of rebuilding a song from the ground up, this is precisely what Chris Cornell does with Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. Doing away with the dance beat entirely and giving it a bare, singer-songwriter approach, Cornell’s vocals and acoustic guitar are on the verge of sounding totally off throughout the verse before the band kicks in for the chorus. The frustration in the lyrics that were masked by the original’s fun sound are brought directly to the forefront on this version, with Cornell milking it for all its worth, and to an unexpectedly great effect.

The Helio Sequence – Satellite

"HIIIIIII" "Oh my god you're a douche"

There are two highly unlikely accomplishments this cover pulls off – firstly, while it appears on a compilation of nearly all unknown bands covering a single artist, it’s actually really good (these kinds of compilations rarely yield anything all that great). Secondly, and more importantly, it manages to make an Elliott Smith song sound even MORE depressing. Brandon Summers’ voice matches Smith’s surprisingly well, and while really all that is added are a few synthesizers, the resulting atmosphere and depth is phenomenal. None of the emotion from the original is lost; in fact, it actually feels sharpened here. One of those rare instances where the cover just might be better than the original.

Dynamite Hack – Boyz-n-the-Hood

Suburbia is pretty gangsta.

Mid 90s one hit wonder Dynamite Hack struck gold with this almost folksy reworking of Eazy-E’s hip hop classic. The mellow music backing softly delivered lines like “I went in the house to get the clip, with my Mac 10 on the side of my hip” sounds charming well after the initial humor passes, and the nuances in the music suggest that this is more a goofy tribute than an all-out parody. Even better is the video, which shows the gritty details of the suburbs: dinner parties, strolling through parks, playing golf, and waving hello to police officers.

Anal Cunt – 311 Sucks

What're you fags lookin' at

I’ve been a 311 fan since they burst onto the scene back in 1995, so make no mistake – you don’t need to be a detractor of the band to enjoy this mocking reworking of Down (though I imagine it couldn’t hurt). While admittedly derisive, it’s just so funny to hear Seth Putnam replace S.A. Martinez’s raps with complete gibberish, only to explode at the end with that “YOU FUCKIN’ SUCK!!” As with the rest of Anal Cunt’s catalogue, this is only to be listened to with tongue firmly in cheek. Now that I think of it, I could’ve made an entirely separate list of amusing covers and parodies… oh well, too late now.

Johnny Cash – In My Life

Hi, I'm dead

On the same album featuring his infamous (and deservedly loved) cover of Hurt is this intensely personal take on a classic song of retrospection. Hearing something written by a 25 year old John Lennon being reinterpreted by a 70 year old Johnny Cash is already guaranteed to be astounding, but given the song’s subject matter (and the fact that Cash died a scant few years after recording this), this one can’t help but be an overwhelming listen. The fact that this was slammed by music critics upon the album’s release utterly baffles me.

Fever Ray – Mercy Street

Ooga booga

Peter Gabriel has long been renowned for his originality and creativity, so when someone comes along and makes what is probably his darkest, creepiest song sound even more dark and creepy, a lot of credit is due. Karin Dreijer Andersson’s typically moody synths, vocal treatments, and oddball percussion replace the eerie sparsity of the original with a full, downright sinister sound, but without sacrificing any of the nuance or drowning out the beautiful melodies. I wouldn’t be surprised if this popped up on numerous ‘Best Songs’ lists at the end of the year.

Drug use is such a prevalent theme in modern music that I’m surprised it took me this long to get around to blabbing on about it here. In any case, here’s another installment of my weekly blabbings, this time tackling (you guessed it) drugs – from fun times and general glorification to cautionary tales and the gritty details of addiction. As usual, please feel free to make any additional suggestions.

Cypress Hill – I Want to Get High

Let's get mothafuckin' hiiigh

Kicking off the outstanding Black Sunday is this doped up, half-sinister and half-giddy ode to smoking weed. B-Real is by turns energetic and sedated here, backed by a drowsy, hazy beat that hits you like that first cloud of smoke from behind the opened door of a hot-boxed room. Hell, my eyes feel a little red-rimmed just listening to this.

Primal Scream – Loaded

Background straight up trippin'

Another gem from an early 90s masterpiece, Loaded embodies the rave mindset of the time not with its music so much as its attitude. The whole psychedelic-rock-meets-dance-music of Screamadelica was perhaps best expressed by the sample from The Wild Angels: “We wanna be free, to do what we wanna do! And we wanna get loaded.”

Buckcherry – Lit Up

Wait.. you're not my dealer

There are many, many rock bands who do nothing more than make you wonder why they exist – Buckcherry would be one of them if not for the two good songs they ever wrote (seriously – I’ve had the misfortune of hearing a few of their albums from front to back… they’re pretty bad), and as you might guess, I consider this one of those two songs. It’s not difficult to make a coke-addled night sound like fun, but it’s the way they pull it off that makes it special.  While the contrived bunch clearly wish they were Guns N’ Roses, the band really captures that sleazy, boisterous feel almost as well as their hard rock idols, and it’s just so damn catchy.

The Notorious B.I.G. – Warning

STAY.

Yet another 90s classic – Ready to Die gave a lot of insight to the life of a drug dealer, and Christopher Wallace’s stories of these occupational hazards are still as captivating as they were when he first laid them to tape. Here, he goes over the paranoia of a well-off drug dealer, knowing all too well that the next attempted robbery could well be right around the corner, be it rival dealers or strung out customers, all with his trademark rapid-fire flow and that smart Isaac Hayes sampling beat.

Deftones – Beware

Hey look a penny

There are plenty of songs warning of the dangers of dabbling in drugs, but very few are able to sound not only this genuine, but this haunting as well. Chino Moreno delivers a typically passionate vocal performance, and the music is so dark and harrowing that it’s impossible to simply write this off as a cheesy “don’t do drugs, kids” sentiment. This bypasses preaching altogether and screams out experience with a staggering sense of creativity and force; it really is a lesson in how to make an anti-drug statement.

The Dandy Warhols – Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth

We're pretty. PRETTY APATHETIC LULZ

This one comes from the perspective of someone watching an old friend destroy themselves with heroin addiction, which goes oddly well against the bright, poppy, and hook-filled music. Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s smarmy declaration that “heroin is so passé” makes for one of the most unexpectedly catchy choruses of the 90s. As Patrick Bateman should say, it’s a “song so catchy, most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics. But they should!”

Velvet Acid Christ – Fun with Drugs

Blaarrgghhh

This song’s title (as well as the abundant Fear and Loathing samples) may give the impression that it’s embracing drug use, but the menacing whispers of “I see you, I feel you, I know you, I own you” and especially “I know you never wanted this” over that throbbing beat make its intent quite clear. Presenting addiction as a malevolent antagonist alongside the cheery samples shows the dichotomy of drug use very well, and that trademark EBM gloomy danceability certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

Alice in Chains – God Smack

Happy blue skies!

Dirt is one of those albums where it seems like if you look closely, each physical copy can be seen to be dripping leftover cooked heroin. Just about every song here feels dirty, dark, and overpoweringly hopeless, but then there were more philosophical moments like this. Layne Staley cleverly compares following a religion with addiction to heroin, reasoning that “God’s name is smack for some.” If only the band that took this song’s title as their namesake had ever been this interesting…

Spiritualized – I Think I’m in Love

Space: The best place for nodding off

Not many songs that seem to capture the feeling of being on heroin musically as well as lyrically, but I Think I’m in Love does it perfectly. The way the music gradually feels more and more warm and psychedelic as the track progresses is brilliant, as well as Jason Pierce’s murmurings. He starts out describing the beginning of the high, and then goes off describing a plethora of  feelings, all of  which he immediately contradicts, and they range from dry (“Think I’m in love, probably just hungry”) to nearly absurd (“Think I can fly, probably just falling”) to flat-out depressing (“Think I could be your man, probably just thinking”). Eight minutes about drug use as an escape from heartache that fly by every time.

Elliott Smith – Coming Up Roses

Do you mind? I'm trying to do drugs

It’s rather difficult to pick just one song by Elliott Smith, but this one won out simply because of how well he weaves the strong drug slang into his lyrics. He often said that these references were not meant to be taken literally, but whether or not that really was the case, this song paints a very bleak picture of seeking escape in drugs and shunning the resulting judgement of others, only to judge yourself even more harshly. Listening to tracks like Coming Up Roses now after seeing how clearly tortured the man was makes it all the more heartbreaking.

Sex is not exactly a rare subject in music, and in fact many songs are infamous simply for how graphically they depict it. A bit less popular though, it seems, are songs more focused on the expression of the actual desire that precedes the act, and that’s what I wanted to focus on with this week’s list. So without further rambling, let’s get on with it, shall we? As usual, feel free to add any suggestions.

A Tribe Called Quest – Electric Relaxation

Guerilla mackin', yo

One of the best qualities of this song  is how utterly blatant they are about trying to get into girls’ pants… and yet it still sounds so classy and poetic. A lot of this is that slow, jazzy beat, which is about as smooth as I’ve ever heard hip-hop sound. Then there’s Q-Tip and Phife’s flawless trade-off throughout, flirting away with the objects of their affection while making their intentions perfectly clear.

Elysian Fields – Black Acres

Oh my

Like most Elysian Fields songs, Jennifer Charles truly makes this hers with those ungodly gorgeous vocals. On Black Acres, she gives such a lurid description of temptation gone awry that the imagery of lines like “Pressing close, I can’t behave” or “I’m up against his downy chest” practically jump out at you, all while the spare instrumentation carries on its dark tune behind her. Behind her… sheesh.

Massive Attack – Inertia Creeps

SMOOOKE.

While this song’s lyrics apply more to lust as something to trap somebody in a destructive relationship, the dark, dull throb of the music along with Robert Del Naja’s sinister, whispered vocals feel more like embracing it and recollecting an impassioned night with a lover in every sweat drenched detail than anything else. Fuck knows how many people have had sex with this song playing, but I can assure you that none of them are complaining.

Queens of the Stone Age – Make It Wit Chu

On the prowl

While the Queens have always been great with rockers, they’re a lot more adept with the slow jam style than one might think. They show quite a seductive groove here, with slow, bluesy hard rock backing Josh Homme’s low croon, detailing the rather few things he’s interested in at the moment. With how direct the lyrics are, regardless of how calm and cool Homme’s singing is, you can’t help but imagine that he’s moments away from tossing his guitar aside and assaulting the next woman he sees.

A Perfect Circle – Thinking of You

Ah, things hanging out of Paz's pants <3

With all the popular songs about female masturbation, it’s always nice to stumble upon a male equivalent (a well-written one, at least). The lyrics feel as if they could be vague if it wasn’t for Maynard James Keenan’s breathy delivery, which makes the words feel far more graphic than they really are. Then there’s the music; that sharp bass, aggressive percussion, and pumping break that can’t help but make one envision-..um… pumping gas.

Janet Jackson – If

Oh shit my hair

Speaking of female masturbation… while it’s a popular enough topic in song, Janet Jackson tackled it quite well here. This whole album, really, was the peak of her artistic embracing of sexuality before it got to be a bit over the top (and of course this is long before the infamous wardrobe malfunction with which she’s become sadly synonymous); I remember the video for Any Time, Any Place being a distinct hallmark in my sexual awakening as a pre-teen. In any case, If is so blunt with its raw lust, and that chorus leaves no doubt as to what she was on about.

Pulp – This Is Hardcore

Shut up, we TOTALLY look sexy

This is probably one of the most appropriately titled songs ever written. While the fantasy Jarvis Cocker describes in the song is quite vivid unto itself, the music provides perfect accompaniment – the crawling, throbbing build-up, the pounding, crashing climax, and how everything slowly and almost tragically fades away in the end.

Soft Cell – Sex Dwarf

What? Don't kids still wear this?

Probably the earliest song to give such an unabashed portrayal of S&M debauchery (not to mention that it beats Depeche Mode’s Master and Servant by a country mile with how well it captures this). Everything is so over the top, with the dark brooding music, the whips and moans, and of course the lyrics, which are lewd to such excess that they can be hysterically funny just as easily as alluring. It’s aged remarkably well too; nearly thirty years on it remains a staple in industrial and goth clubs.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Hard On for Love

What the hell was up there before?

Nick Cave has never been a stranger to writing about lust, but this song positively drips with a lust so foul that it borders on frightening. There aren’t many lyricists who could use religious imagery this abundant for this kind of subject matter, especially the kind of violent sexual aching expressed here, but it’s all-too-familiar for Cave. He brings such intensity to these vocals (just listen to him shout “Just when I’m about to get my hands on her” near the end!), as do the Bad Seeds with their respective instruments; in their early days, they were spectacular at descending into chaos, and Hard On for Love is no exception.

Burial – Archangel

I still like to pretend that he's anonymous

Lust’s more subdued, tortured side – Burial brilliantly takes samples from Ray J’s One Wish to turn a cheesy R&B break-up song’s vocal pattern into this agonizing articulation of longing. Playing against this is a Metal Gear Solid 2 sample (!) that sounds downright ghostly, and makes the track sound even more harrowing, and with all the manipulation the vocal sample receives, it’s easy to picture the singer drowning in his own desire. The whole of Untrue is infamous for its looming atmosphere, and this is one of its best moments.

Inspired by one of the songs that appears here (and no, it’s not that god awful Papa Roach song), this week’s list is admittedly rather depressing. But there really is something to be said for songs that not only can pull you into environments where you really don’t want to be, but can convince you to let them as well – especially if you’ve ever experienced any of the material expressed here. As usual, feel free to add anything I may have left out. Now, on with the sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows…

The National – Conversation 16

"The fuck are you looking at?"

Easily the most recent song on the list, Conversation 16 details a man’s disenchantment with the married family life, and how it slowly descends into apathy. Probably the saddest part is where he starts bargaining, with lines like “I’ll try to be more romantic, I want to believe in everything you believe” and their less-than-believable delivery. That haunting, echo-slathered harmonization makes the song feel even more harrowing and hopeless… so much so, in fact, that the “I was afraid I’d eat your brains” sounds startlingly genuine!

Depeche Mode – Precious

With the humans oblivious, the trees made their move

It’s so impressive to see a band this old still churning out great singles like Precious. Dave Gahan’s soothing voice really drives home the sad haplessness of Martin Gore’s typically poetic lyrics, with that catchy and strangely danceable melancholy as only Depeche Mode can do it. The notion of children being caught in the middle of a taxing divorce is nothing new of course, but the take here is just so heartfelt and honest, accepting the blame and acknowledging that no, everything is not going to be alright.

Bad Religion – 21st Century (Digital Boy)

I'd hate to run into these guys in an alle-...oh wait

Now we go from torn, caring parents to the ones who throw gifts at their children rather than attention. A subject that could easily have rendered the song an exercise in empty self-pity, Greg Graffin handles guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s lyrics very well. There’s a real edge to his voice with the delivery, and the chorus is of such a fun, anthemic sing-a-long quality that it avoids any real heavy handedness.

Placebo – Black-Eyed

"...and he thought I was a girl! Can you believe that??"

A bit of a different approach here, Black-Eyed comes across more as a mocking of people who quickly use bad childhoods as an excuse for bad behavior. It’s quite clever too, what with how tragic and urgent the music feels, and it really makes the song all the more indicting. Placebo has always been one of those bands to get flak for receiving more attention from their image than their music, but as Black-Eyed shows, they’ve had more than their fair share of good ideas.

Billy Bragg – Valentine’s Day Is Over

Oh yeah, they look nice now, but...

The sadly forgotten 80s indie figure paints a rather bleak picture of a wonderful courting period culminating in spousal abuse here, with just a bluesy guitar and his passionate vocal. The way Bragg captures the female perspective in this song is unexpectedly insightful, particularly how it moves back and forth from listless musing over the failed relationship to the harsh reality of the situation. Very dark, but with a slight glimmer of hope.

Company Flow – Last Good Sleep

El-P: If you don't like black and white photography, FUCK YOU

Speaking of dark, Last Good Sleep could well be one of the most disturbingly realistic depictions of spousal abuse ever committed to tape. El-P grabs you right away with the chorus, “At night I cover my ears in tears, the man downstairs must’ve drank too many beers,” and along with that incredibly sinister beat, he makes it clear that this story won’t have much of a happy ending. The perspective is from a young boy who witnesses as some truly vicious beatings transpire, simultaneously terrified and guilt-ridden by the fact that he is as helpless as his battered mother.

Eminem – Kim

It was loaded alright... with HILARITY

Even though this is essentially an anger purging fantasy, this is probably the only song of its kind that can stand up to Last Good Sleep in how fucking scary it is. Those sharp, stabbing piano notes are so extreme that the song is unnerving even before Em shouts “Sit down you bitch, you move again and I’ll beat the shit out of you!” Kim is one of the most fearlessly personal I have ever heard, and it gets very uncomfortable listening to him portray himself as this wounded monster who’s snapped into a homicidal rage – which makes it all the more remarkable just how spellbinding it is.

Stabbing Westward – Sleep

The male answer to a pretty girl surrounded by funny looking friends

And now we get into the child abuse. One of the better bands to come out of the post-Nine Inch Nails industrial boom of the mid 90s, Stabbing Westward was never a stranger to darkly intimate subject matter, but it probably peaked with Sleep. Backed by a very tense blend of samples, keyboards, and guitars, vocalist Christopher Hall tells a story of a young girl suffering abuse at the hands of her father, with a level of vagueness that only serves to heighten its upsetting nature.

Korn – Daddy

I needed a laugh... this week's list is really getting depressing!

I couldn’t have been older than eleven or twelve when I heard this for the first time, and it freaked me the fuck out…. to tell you the truth, it still kind of does. It’s not even the brutally graphic depiction of the act that gets me so much as the equally detailed parental apathy, and then when the song falls apart along with Jonathan Davis toward its end, there’s just no not feeling for him.

De La Soul – Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa

Scissors beats eye

Hip hop’s answer to Janie’s Got a Gun, by some of the genre’s earliest (and best) storytellers. There’s a very light foreboding to the song, cleverly splicing the in-the-moment obliviousness and after-the-fact hindsight that often accompanies a child’s sexual abuse. Despite the fact that the song culminates with the daughter snapping and killing the father, with an ending so abrupt that it almost startles, the beat is so gentle that the song never feels as grim as it should, and it works wonderfully.