What the CL Music Team is listening to on this fine Monday to rocket launch the work week. Click here to check out previous entries.
Shae – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Twice Upon a Time: The Singles (1992)
Sometimes the only way to get through a Monday is to put on some music and chair-dance in your office. My chair-dancing music today? Twice Upon a Time: The Singles by Siouxsie and the Banshees. When this album first came out, I'd just turned nine. I first listened to the album, though, during my goth-lite phase in high school, where I dressed in all-black threads purchased at JC Penney and listened to Siouxsie, Rasputina and Diamanda Galas — pretty much anything that smacked of drama and that no one else I knew would listen to (*NSync was big at the time).
But by college, both my sartorial and musical tastes had changed, and Twice Upon a Time gathered dust until a few weeks ago, when my boss asked me if I was listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees (no, it was Rykarda Parasol; yes, they are somewhat similar). This reminded me that I used to listen to "Dear Prudence" and "Peek-a-Boo" and "Kiss Them for Me" while lying on my bedroom floor, scribbling in my journals, bemoaning the injustice of the world. Putting the album on now, it feels safe — sticky sweet instead of edgy, like a subdued Lady Gaga. I don't feel like a badass anymore when I listen. But I do chair-dance.
Joel – Shearwater, Animal Joy (Out tomorrow, Feb. 14, 2012, via Sub Pop)
I confess, I'd never heard of Shearwater up until a few weeks ago, but their resume speaks for itself — half a dozen albums over the past decade and history that intertwines with fellow Austin indie band Okkervil River. Animal Joy manages both warmth and gloom with its lush arrangements and Jonathan Meiburg’s syrupy New Wave croon. I dig their groovier rock side on "Breaking The Yearling" and unsettled album closer "Star Of The Age." Check out "You as You Were" after the jump along with the rest of this week's entries…
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.