Today's Track - Camera Obscura: "French Navy"

The first song revealed to listeners from Camera Obscura's upcoming April release, 'My Maudlin Career,' (the album sharing the same name) was alright, I guess. Nothing special: it was considerably darker than previous Camera Obscura material; however, it did contain what I call the 'Camera Obscura Chord Structure' - 'let's play a chord a few times, then go up a tone and play that chord, then next bar, go down again, then up, and down'....and so on. It gets pretty tired after a while. Especially when it was used on almost every song on their previous album.
However, what that first song lacked in originality was made up for in the first official single from MMC, titled "French Navy." I've read somewhere that (the lead singer) Traceyanne's voice is 'woozier' than previously - whatever that means - but I must agree. The song (and in particular, her voice) flows with great tempo and ease when leading up to the chorus, though when the chorus is finally reached, we're presented with a snappy 2-beat segment in which Traceyanne declares, "I wanted to control it / But love, i couldn't hold it"
But the band can certainly hold this song, and hopefully, their April release will be filled with the splendor brought to the table in today's track.

Today's Track - Beirut : "My Night With The Prostituate From Marseille"

I have found myself listening to a great amount of Beirut lately - a few tracks from 'The Flying Club Cup' are among my most played songs on itunes, and 'Postcards From Italy' has overtaken me in the past few days. Today's track I've owned for at least a month now, and have found myself listening to it A LOT. The new EP from which it is taken is satisfactory at best, but when listening to it, I rarely get past this song. The song demands to be played and played and played. Lyrically superb and with the distinct voice of Zach Condon, the song is perfect for any time of the day. It's an advancement from the electronic feel of 'Scenic World' from Gulag Orkestar, and significantly different from his past two albums musically, yet seems oh so Beirut - he's one unpredictable guy. Keep at it.