NPR: Top 5: Like Eagles Above a Forest of Freedom

Top 5: Like Eagles Above a Forest of Freedom

Hey, it's the Fourth of July. I should do a bunch of patriotic songs, huh?

Instead of that, how about I go see the Feelies and Sonic Youth play a show in Battery Park and leave you with five more songs that have been stuck in my head since last Friday?

Happy Independence Day.

After the jump, Ladyhawk, Young Jeezy, and more.

LIARS -- Houseclouds (from Liars)
The opening to this song has been bouncing around in my head since the self-titled Liars record came out last year. I started using it as return music in the show this week. Angus Andrew almost sounds like Beck. Somebody needs to get these guys to produce a rap record.

LAURA MARLING -- New Romantic (My Manic & I EP)
Laura Marling, just 18, plays finger-picked guitar and sometimes sings in a high, strong voice that'll score comparisons to Joni Mitchell. Marling talked with Ari Shapiro and played a few songs from her debut album, Alas I Cannot Swim, on Morning Edition today. This older song is as sharp and romantic as the tracks on the new one, and packs a wit.

LADYHAWKE -- I Don't Always Know What You're Saying (from Shots)
Four dudes from Vancouver, BC just across the Canadian border from my hometown. Sounds like soaring over the tops of an evergreen forest. What, you've never soared over the top of an evergreen forest?

YOUNG JEEZY ft KANYE WEST -- Put On (single, from the forthcoming album The Recession)
I stole this one from Tom Breihan, who closed the doors on his great blog Status Ain't Hood this week. Jeezy sounds as confident as we've come to expect rapping about home, and in rapping (singing?) about feeling like he doesn't have one, Kanye finds an auto-tune trick that T-Pain hasn't worked to death -- rapper as sad robot. Kanye, meet Wall-E.

THE RAVEONETTES -- Blush (from Lust Lust Lust)
Love songs frequently use melodrama to mirror the emotions in the lyrics, but the Raveonettes bury their sweet melody under waves of insulating static and feedback. I don't think I've heard a sexier song all year. The line "I can still make you blush," does, almost every time.

Jacob Ganz

11:25 AM ET | 07- 4-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

listen to raveonettes

Sent by roy | 7:59 AM ET | 07-08-2008

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