“Moon Song”
Karen O and Ezra Koenig
Charming, endearing and delightfully original, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O joins Vampire Weekend’s Koenig in a sweet, acoustic duet. Handcrafted for a Phoenix-Johansson romance in the acclaimed film “Her,” and not to mention up for a Best Original Song Oscar nomination, this track will strum at your heartstrings.
Written and recorded at Karen O’s dining room table, “Moon Song” came from the most humble of circumstances. But, her lovely lyrics and his simple guitar melody commingle to croon a love song so delicate and effortless it stands out amidst a woefully elaborate Arcade Fire and number of other nominations.
The track was already a beautiful affair on screen, but I think Koenig and O are a musical match made in heaven. Two intertwining male-female vocals is exactly what they envisioned when weaving together the composition.
“There’s things I wish I knew/ There’s no thing I’d keep from you/ It’s a dark and shiny place/ But with you my dear/ I’m safe and we’re a million miles away”
The overlay of lovesick lulls convey a love that’s a little more bleak and a little less blissful than the Scarlett Johansson rendition, but I find the duet version to be even more sincere.
“Hundred of Ways”
Conor Oberst
Indie-folk storytelling, alternative country twang and spurts of brass, “Hundreds of Ways” is a genre-jumping gem of a track, buoyant and light.
Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst gives us a taste of his upcoming solo album “Upside Down Mountain” to be released this May, his first album with new material since the band’s LP “The People’s Key” in 2011 and first time going solo since 2008.
Recording with his dad John Misty, producer Jonathan Wilson and guest vocalists First Aid Kit, the album is said to be about finding peace in the wake of trouble and unrest. In this track, Oberst rattles off “hundreds of ways to get through the day,” a slap-back rhythm on guitar paired with some snappy lyrics.
“Sometimes I get mistaken for this actor/ And I guess that I can see it from the side/ Maybe no one really seems to be/The person that they mean to be/ I hope I am forgotten when I die”
His so-what-live-it-up-now attitude is light and refreshing, recalling just how easy it is to idealize heroes, empires, complain about how unfair life is or turn boredom into violence. Lyrically, it’s nonsensical at times, but the carpe diem message is pretty clear and the melody sure is catchy.
Bright Eyes is working out a tour that will bring Oberst back to his hometown here in Omaha, a show scheduled for June 4 at Sokol alongside folk-rock band, Dawes. Tickets have been on sale a little over a week, so now’s the time to snag them online.
As for the actor he’s allegedly mistaken for, my bet’s on Tobey Maguire.
“North of Alabama by Mornin'”
Bobby Bare Jr.
Bobby pretty much has it made. Born into the Nashville music elite and son of a Country Music Hall of Famer the original Bobby Bare, he’s basically royalty by bloodline. But he doesn’t live and bleed country, nor does he call in any favors. He’s blazed his own path, an exceptional talent in his own right.
With ominous throbs of distortion, wailing electric guitar and a stomp-along beat, “North of Alabama by Mornin'” sounds like something off of a Lynyrd Skynyrd album. Unfettered and unhinged, Bare has a way of warping the classic Nashville sound into something new and eccentric.
The track kicks off with a staccato rhythm reminiscent of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom.” The waves of over-amplified guitar soon allude to an arrangement far more stringent. But, for a few moments there, I half expected Hooker’s “how how how’s” to surface, a track building on delta blues but mangled by metal.
He’s got the distorted angst of Jack White, the Allman Brothers blues and a Greensboro southern twang. Yelps and wails awry, some lines get lost in the distortion but his wordplay proves as humorous as it is ambiguous.
“North of Alabama by Mornin’ to North Hollywood/It smells like a wet monkey sweating in a leather suit/ North of Alabama by Mornin’ from North Hollywood”
Bobby Bare Jr.βs new album “Undefeated” will officially drop this April, but the pre-sale version is up for grabs. It’s his first release since 2010, what he has referred to as his “break up record.” After listening to this track, it’s easy to see why.