"It Kills Me" leaked last year and I've been loving on it ever since. It's a rare thing when a single this catchy grabs my attention for a while... and then won't go away. There are, like, ten different hooks in this thing. Collect them all.
I guess the hugeness and theater of it give it a Supremes/Motown quality but for some reason I hear Ennio Morricone and the scores he did for the epic Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns.
D. Grant is the drummer in Alkaline Trio and this year he released a three-song EP (downloadable as one 11-minute mp3) called The Purple Trilogy, which features my friend and former bandmate Arun Bali on axe.
D. Grant "The Purple Trilogy (feat. Arun Bali)"
It's really hard to believe that the first song, "Betray U, Betray Me," is not an actual Prince composition. The second is a purple original, but was never properly recorded by its maker, and–– well, I'll just let D. Grant explain. From the myspace blog post where you can download the file: This is the culmination of nine years of work, my "Purple Phase" as it were. It started as a new wave project with my friend John Reynolds, turning briefly into a collaboration with Hunter Burgan, and ended up essentially a solo project (with the aid of guitar maestro Arun Bali.) The basis of "Betray U, Betray Me" came from a song written back in 2000, originally performed in the vein of Tubeway Army. It has been rewritten here in the spirit of the project. "Electric Intercourse" is an unreleased Prince song - originally written for the Purple Rain soundtrack, i stumbled across a live version of the song and desperately wanted to hear a proper recording. Members of The Revolution were consulted in using the correct gear and getting the right sounds. Both of these songs sat unfinished for many years, until I recently recorded vocals while staying with a friend in Detroit. Recognizing that I had two slow R&B jams on my hands, I needed something to complete the picture. "After Funk" comes from another idea penned back in 2000 - a short, explosive instrumental number again showcasing the talents of Arun Bali on guitar. Clocking in at 11 minutes and 11 seconds - this is the Purple Trilogy.
Kid Cudi requires no further hype. His debut "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" hasn't even dropped yet and it already feels ubiquitous. But I'm happy to jump on this man's bandwagon.
Cudi is a protoge of Kanye West and West's new minimalism is a welcome influence here. Cudi's arrangements are really well thought out and uncluttered. Simplicity rules. One of the best examples of this is the song "Pursuit of Happiness," which features MGMT (as well as Ratatat) and manages to sounds as blissful as a MGMT song without any of that group's sonic mess.
Not all that glitters here is gold, and the one-note-ness of Cudi's autobiographical subject matter (Cudi didn't fit in/couldn't get girls, now he made it - so everybody can suck it, literally or figuratively) get's monotonous. But the following four songs here, in particular, are certifiably unstoppable and are some of the best new music I've heard all year.
Kid Cudi "Heart of a Lion"
Kid Cudi "My World (Feat. Billy Cravens)"
Kid Cudi "Sky Might Fall"
Kid Cudi "Pursuit of Happiness (Ft. MGMT and Ratatat)"
