THE ANTI-HIT LIST
AN ALTERNATIVE TOP 10
10. NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
“Cortez the Killer” (2012) The first thing you need to know: it’s 37 minutes long. After an eight-year hiatus during which Young reunited both CSNY and Buffalo Springfield, he has once again saddled up the loudest of his configurations, and reintroduced it in typically eccentric fashion. Showcasing the band’s Zenlike bludgeon, this visceral recording/ video (featuring only inanimate objects) is split almost equally between a meandering instrumental jam and an extended run at one of the most beloved entries in Young’s canon. What comes next is anybody’s guess. (neilyoung.com)
9. EXLOVERS
“Starlight, Starlight” Sometimes it’s a relief to encounter no deep biographical background, no cultivated (or default) image, no subtext begging to be noticed. What this U.K. band delivers is jangly, skilfully rendered British indie rock that sounds like Teenage Fanclub or early R.E.M. might have if they’d been fronted by a woman. That, it turns out, is enough. (From Moth, bit.ly/ exstar)
8. FLEETWOOD MAC VS. SIA
“Her Breath Is the Wind” This surprising combination works largely because “Breathe Me” by Aussie singer Sia Furler (at bit.ly/ siame) is so aurally spacious, it has more than enough room to accommodate the swirling textures of Stevie Nicks’ signature song. Hard to imagine, but the result actually makes “Rhiannon” sound even more like the work of someone waving a wand around at midnight on the moors. (bit.ly/fleetsia)
7. CULTS
“Everybody Knows” Just when you’re tempted to write this New York duo off (as we pretty much did last week), they go and pull off something like this. Part of an online series called Old Ideas With New Friends (bit.ly/cohennew), tied to Leonard Cohen’s new Old Ideas album, this bristling interpretation bends the oft-covered 1988 I’m Your
Man track to Cults’ own style without severing the tie to the original. You can still spot it from here, waving in the distance. (bit.ly/cohencults)
6. DAVID BYRNE & CAETANO VELOSO
“Dreamworld: Marco de Canaveses” A decade and a continent may separate them, but the ex-talking Head and the Tropicalia pioneer sound like they not only grew up in the same neighbourhood but occasionally had sleepovers in each other’s bedrooms. Captured in concert five years after they wrote and recorded it for 1999’s
Red Hot + Lisbon benefit album (bit.ly/ dream99), this unplugged version is a considerably more relaxed affair. Stripped of the percussion of the studio recording, it feels less like a languid dance than the soundtrack to a daydream. (From Live at Carnegie
Hall, out March 13, p4k.in/byrnelive)
5. MMOTHS feat. KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS
“Heart” This teaming of two downtempo electronic-pop acts has one particular defining characteristic: its staccato sound. Warm and hypnotic in a way that will be familiar to fans of female-fronted bands from the Cocteau Twins to Everything But the Girl, this rarely stops pulsing as it washes over you. It’s the aural equivalent of climbing into a whirlpool after a very long day and planting yourself an inch away from one of the jets. (bit.ly/mmheart)
4. JACOB MOON
“The Way It Is” You might recall this Hamilton-based singer-songwriter’s solo, live-on-arooftop remake of Rush’s “Subdivisions” (still viewable, and well worth six minutes of your life, at the URL at the end of this entry). Here, Moon finds a way to transform one of the most recognizable piano hits of the past 25 years into an acoustic-guitar showcase, a feat he caps off by playing the instantly recognizable riff entirely with harmonics. (bit.ly/ moontunes)
3. IMOGEN HEAP
“Xizi She Knows” Even after she broke through with 2005’s vocoder-driven hit “Hide and Seek,” Heap could hardly be accused of following a conventional career path. Her new music features crowdsourced sounds and — in the case of the “3-D” EP that features this song — crowd-sourced (and paid for) images. Part of an ongoing project that will culminate in a full album, the music here is, Heap says, “made up of field recordings from 24 different locations around Hangzhou on my 34th birthday over a 24-hour period in Hangzhou, China.” The result succeeds admirably in making the familiar sound strange. (on.fb.me/ knowsheap)
2. THE RUFFLED FEATHERS
“All My Cities” It’s not that this Canadian-american five-piece — its members hail from Vancouver; the GTA; Nelson, B.C.; Arizona; and small-town Oregon — is necessarily breaking new ground here, but it is definitely more willing than most to at least till the same soil with different implements. The lineup includes trumpet, mandolin and ukulele, and the song follows what might be characterized as an unpredictable tempo. Definitely one to watch. (From Oracles, theruffledfeathers.com)
1. PEPPER
“Wish It Away” The seductive shorthand being applied to this big-voiced, former U.K. reality-tv contestant (first name Katie) is “the dubstep Adele.” Like all abridgements, it manages to contain a kernel of truth while leaving out some crucial information. The dubstep part comes courtesy of British grime star/producer Dizzee Rascal, who, to his credit, has tastefully draped this single with the trappings of the genre — fat, looping basslines, hyperactive percussion, a restrained string arrangement — even though the song really doesn’t call for them. To hear what we mean, check out the obligatory, look-she-can-really-sing acoustic version here at pepperofficial.com. (bit.ly/pepperwish) For this and previous Anti-hit Lists, bookmark this link: bit.ly/antihit