Toronto’s Jack Breakfast has recently released The Escapers, a 35-minute song cycle about familial disappointment, love, and ghosts. This is Breakfast’s fourth album, and his first release since 2003. Breakfast fancies himself an amateur naturalist, and enjoys taking photographs of waterbirds in all seasons.
Big Star / Kangaroo The sounds, the scratches, the ghostly strings, the hammering percussion, the purposeful errors in production and performance, the lyrics (silly and heartbreaking all at once, somehow) and on top of it all, riding above, Alex Chilton’s shimmering haunter of a voice. This song has been breaking my heart since I was a boy and has taught me so much about accidentally-on-purpose musical arrangement.
Australian singer Lisa Mitchell first came to attention after finishing sixth on the reality television show Australian Idol 2006. Since then she’s forged a career on her own, opening for Jason Mraz in Melbourne during April and recording her debut album, Wonder, due for release in July.
Little Joy / The Next Time Around I bought the cheeky promo version of the album for three quid from a record store in Soho last week and fell in love with it. I love the Strokes, so I guess that’s how I heard about this band (the drummer from the Strokes is in Little Joy). But I just love this song to death, regardless.
Don’t be fooled! I’m From Barcelona are actually a 29 member Swedish pop group, whose sound has been descibred by Filter magazine as being ‘kaleidoscopic pop’. They released their debut album, Let Me Introduce My Friends, in March 2007. This Playlist by frontman Emanual Lundgren is either a collection of ‘eight sad songs with cheesy lyrics or eight cheesy songs with sad lyrics’.
Paul Simon / Still Crazy After All These Years The perfect it’s-3am-we-have-a-piano-and-a-bottle-of-wine-singalong. I would love to hear it covered by Tom Waits.
Jesse, Tommy and Ben from Washington indie rock starlets, Jukebox The Ghost, ponder the inponderable in their somewhat scattered, but never dull Secret Playlist.
Paul Simon / The Obvious Child [Jesse] It’s upbeat. I love the marching band drums on his album, Rhythm of the Saints. I can’t understand the lyrics at all, but they sound pretty profound. So I’m sure they are, right?
My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication. We invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. These are their words on the music that inspires them.
