Word: songful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Yalira” (“sound” in Chichewa), a warm hymn of welcome and sweeping promise of the sounds to come. “You are all welcome / Let’s all dance because the fire is burning,” the song begins (in English translation) “Hey London!/ Hey New York! / Hey Paris! / Hey Lilongwe!” This song serves as the album’s thesis: the music is not about the past, its influences, or what critics will think; it’s simply about sound and enjoyment...
...other universals. The topics are sweepingly large, but The Very Best has the musical muscle to match. On the track, Mwamwaya spreads his bracing, multi-tracked vocals across the crisp, rollicking synths of Radioclit that would be equally at home in an ’80s pop hit. The song moves between the peaks of Mwamwaya’s choral cries and the hushed intimacy of the calming and repetitive beat, creating moving dynamics that keep it from becoming repetitive...
...these songs, however, pale in comparison to “Mfumu,” or “King,” the best track on the album. The glitchy bells and high-hat dance across the sturdy beat of the kick drum while Mwamwaya performs aural acrobatics high above. Listening to this song is like staring out of the open moon roof in a moving car on a clear night: grand, yet intimate, life-affirming and filled with wonder...
...Walkabout” is one such song, a collaboration with musician Noah Lennox aka Animal Collective’s Panda Bear. From start to finish, “Walkabout” is four minutes of musical genius. Led by drums, carried by a buoyant rhythm, backed up with a pronounced electronic riff, and topped off with a serenade of jolly vocals, it’s a track to be reckoned with. “What did you want to see? What did you want to be when you grew up?” Lennox asks repeatedly during the song?...
George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, once said of George Harrison that he was “always there yet somewhat elusive.” The same could be said of Scott Kannberg.Kannberg was Pavement’s everpresent enigma, writing a couple of songs per album but without a readily discernible style or persona. His songs tended to be impenetrable as well; even his moniker, Spiral Stairs, was adopted in order to give the band an air of mystery. Spiral Stairs was always secondary to Stephen Malkmus, the chief songwriter and public face, but as the 1990s wore...