Singled Out: Ten hot tracks to track down

By Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy

10) “Perfect Fit” by The Clues: Ex-Unicorns and Arcade Fire members collaborate to make spooky keyboard pop. Nobody’s reinventing the wheel here, but it’s all fun and games nonetheless.

9) “Wilco the Song” by Wilco: This is just so meta. In their televised swan song to Stephen Colbert, Wilco get all self-referential and wry while still managing to bust out the best guitar solos since A Ghost is Born.

8) “Kenya Dig It” by The Ruby Suns: All witticisms aside, this outfit from down under have quickly become the latest Sub Pop export. Touring with The Shins must have rubbed off—this track has all the pop perfection of the Albuquerque boys, plus an awesome drum section that sets the tone.

7) “Record Year” by The Decemberists: Colin Meloy and co. bust out the banjo for this acoustic ditty that shrugs off the robust melodrama from The Crane Wife to harken back to the band’s earlier records. Lyrics like “your lonely dress/was your only dress,” make for key melancholic rainy day listening.

6) “There are Maybe Ten or Twelve” by A.C. Newman: Despite all the hate from the critics over Challengers, The New Pornographers’ 2007 LP, I dug it—and this single from Newman’s new solo album could easily have fit in as a bonus track. I’m not totally sure what advice I should glean from the lecture-like lyrics, but the male-female harmonies (which have been a staple of the Pornographers for so long) win me over every time.

5) “Airport Surroundings” by Lonely Dear: The first single from the Swedish band’s forthcoming album Dear John, “Airport Surroundings” is a muted synth pop ode that perfectly echoes the feeling of being totally alone in a crowd full of people. Plug in the headphones and you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for a dance party for one.

4) “What a Fool” by The Bicycles: the Toronto quartet has done our fair city proud with their new release Oh No, It’s Love. This super-short track (it clocks in at under a minute and a half) is just enough of a taste to secure the band’s place as the new Apples in Stereo.

3) “Bruises” by Chairlift: Okay, so the iPod commercial slot means instant fame for these kids, but there’s no denying that catchy-ass beat. As singer Caroline Polacheck murmurs about shy love over a synth line that Hall & Oates would have killed for, one can’t help but find poignancy in lyrics like “I’ve got holes in my new jeans for you.” That’s true love, hipster style.

2) “What Down in the Hole” by M.I.A./Blaqstarr: M.I.A. gives Tom Waits’ tune the royal treatment in this chain-gang sing along. The duo minimizes the instruments, front the vocals, and send the devil back to Hell where he belongs.

1) “Vox Humana” by Deerhunter: It takes a gutsy band to try to build on what’s already perfect, but Deerhunter take on Phil Spector’s iconic beat from the Ronettes “Be My Baby” undaunted. What emerges is a big, spacey, messy, nonsensical sonic masterpiece. The title, which is Latin for “human voice,” is part of pipe organ, so named for its powerful auditory effects. There’s no need to mix metaphors here; if the sound doesn’t grab you, you probably don’t have a pulse.