THE ANTI-HIT LIST
AN ALTERNATIVE TOP 10
10. FIONA APPLE
“Werewolf” Of the three songs that have surfaced online from Apple’s wildly anticipated fourth album, this piano-led ballad is both the simplest and the most deceptive. The lilt of the 3⁄ time
4 signature obscures a mood that could be described as rueful—“I could liken you to a werewolf, the way you left me for dead/But I admit that I provided a full moon” is the opening couplet – and the prominence of the voice and keyboard makes it seem like they’re the only things going on here. That impression fades with each passing listen. (From The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, out
June 19, bit.ly/nufiona)
9. KENDRA MORRIS
“Wicked Game” Doesn’t matter how many versions you’ve heard of Chris Isaak’s signature hit. We’re pretty sure you’ve never come across a cover of “Wicked Game” quite like this one. That’s not a general observation. This New York singer approached this with a specific idea in mind: to combine Isaak’s brooding sensibility with the space-rock of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of
the Moon. The guitar lines, in particular, echo that album’s “Breathe,” an effect that only heightens the original’s sense of floating in mid-air. Now it feels like it’s orbiting above the planet. (bit.ly/floydgame)
8. YOUNG KATO
“Lights” Two competing forces are at war with this on-the-verge U.K. six-piece: One, their pedigree-by-association, which includes Gordon Mills, Jr., (his writing credits include a track from Ed Sheeran’s debut album) and Ian Dench, who penned the massive hit “Unbelievable” for ’90s band EMF. Two, they look like a boy band, an observation that becomes forehead-slappingly obvious on the video for their current single, “Drink Dance Play” (bit.ly/playdd). This track, on the other hand, is more ambiguous. It’s unabashedly catchy, but it also sounds more like a well-versed homage to the first generation of bands spawned by U2. (bit.ly/yklights)
7. TAYLOR SWIFT VS. SKRILLEX
“Blue Love, With You” Simply making over Swift’s dewy “Love Story” as a pounding dubstep number would have been both pointless and way too easy. What makes this unlikely mash-up with Skrillex’s “With You Friends” truly work is the tactical decision by one DJ Wobby to protect the melody. Even with the addition of an eight-bar rap, this remains, at its core, a pop song that’s been pushed to the edge by wellchosen genre flourishes. (bit.ly/ taylex)
6. SQUACKETT
“Sea of Smiles” In prog rock’s heyday, a collaboration between members of Yes and Genesis would have qualified as a genuine event. It also would never have happened. Now that the stakes are considerably lower, longtime Yes bassist Chris Squire and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett are free to carry on a four-year, no-pressure back-and-forth and come up with something that’s better than either camp’s fans probably had any right to expect, even if it does manage to rhyme “moving on” with “rubicon.” (From Squackett, bit.ly/squasea)
5. MUTEMATH
“Fallin” On which the New Orleans alt-rock band replaces the implied root material of the Alicia Keys’ hit – James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” – with one closer to its own roots: The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” That the result so easily accommodates such a fundamental shift is a testament to both song and band. (Warning: There’s some PG language in the pre-song interview. Skip to the one-minute mark to go right to the music.) (bit.ly/ mutefall)
4. MICHAEL JACKSON
“Don’t Be Messin’ Around” Featuring a snazzy opening that steals a sideways glance at Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” — or, more accu- rately, its jazz source material, Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” (bit.ly/silversong) — this previously unreleased demo jumps out for its Latin-rock feel. It might not add much to the upcoming anniversary reissue of Bad, but compared to the heavily retouched sketches that dominated the posthumous Michael, this feels like a minor revelation. (From Bad 25, out Sept. 18, bit.ly/mjdont)
3. THE BLACK KEYS VS. LED ZEPPELIN
“Lonely Breakdown” What do you get when you conflate the former’s unabashedly Zeppelinesque “Lonely Boy” with the real thing’s “Communication Breakdown” (bit.ly/cbled)? A mash-up on which the latter sounds even more like the real thing after it’s been made part of something patently inauthentic. (bit.ly/mashkeys)
2. SAN ZHI
“Black Holes” A guy from Bournemouth (Peter Howarth-Brown) meets a girl from Egypt (Suraya) and they end up making music that doesn’t sound like it came from either country. This hypnotizing electro-pop track may float by on a fat, sing-alongable refrain, but it also features a whack of impressively idiosyncratic percussion and an ambitious sense of dynamics that only reveals itself after you’ve had your fill of the chorus. (bit.ly/ sanholes)
1. GRIZZLY BEAR
“Sleeping Ute” Along with Bon Iver and Arcade Fire, this Brooklyn band feels like one of a handful of acts that has a real shot at lasting as long, and at a similarly lofty level, as a storied predecessor like Radiohead has. This taste of their first album since 2009’s acclaimed Veckatimest — untitled but due out Sept. 18, eight days before they visit Massey Hall — has an effortlessly epic quality about it. While the first three minutes move relentlessly forward in 6/8 time, the song switches to a beat-less 4/4 for the final bit, which recalls the restrained feel of Genesis’s “Carpet Crawlers” (bit.ly/ ccgenesis). As with Radiohead, they can impress the hell out of you without showing off. (bit.ly/utebear) For this and previous Anti-Hit Lists, bookmark this link: