Guilty Pleasure-New Moon OST

This shouldn't be a Guilty Pleasure, the soundtrack contains Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, and Bon Iver among many others. When the track list was released there was all of this fury and hubub around the blogosphere about selling out to something that so blatantly opposes indie culture. I couldn't disagree more about "selling out" as I have probably said many, many times. I saw New Moon, and honestly, enjoyed it. Aside from the obvious porn-y quality, the soundtrack is far above that average teen movie and the artist who participated were undoubtedly handsomely rewarded. This handsome reward allows these artist to take a break from touring and write new, progressive material.

That said, most of the album is a little too catchy. Lykke Li's track "Possibility" could have easily come off Youth Novels. It is perfect within the context of the film and will garner her a much larger audience of album purchasing teenage girls. The Grizzly Bear song sounds just like them, but its not going cause the shows to fill up with cougars looking for some action. It's not the catchiest track on the album and it's too simplified to sound like they wasted precious days working on it. It's stripped down backing up Victoria Legrands vocals for large sections of the track. No love lost there. Bon Iver's song sounds exactly like his work for Blood Bank, so it doesn't hint at what may be in the future for a new album (unless he plans to flush out that EP in this style).

On the whole the album is decent, and for the most part the artist wrote catchy songs, so in some cases it feels like a bit of a departure from the artists' natural instincts. That's fine with me though. I am not sure why indie artists are held to different standards than everyone else, they apparently are not supposed to be interested in supporting themselves and their families. By all means write a catchy song, get these teeny boppers to buy your album, and let them feel overwhelmed by your actual music. Maybe I'm trying to be too much of a soothsayer, but that is my hope for the future of these kinds of projects: more money for the artist, not overcrowded shows.

Happy Holidays friends...

<3 The Elephant

Album Review: Lykke Li, Youth Novels

I was initially put off by this album because I don't like the first track. I just don't feel that it showcases the her best, which I believe an opening track needs to do. As a result of this little snafu I was not getting into the album the way I could have months ago when I first started talking about her.

So if you can get past the first song, the second song is "Dance, Dance, Dance" which was my introduction to Lykke Li last winter. It typifies her sound of percussion and vocals, sung very evenly at the same dynamic and vocal range. I arbitrarily decided to listen to her album starting on the 3rd track at work the other day, and was so pleasantly surprised. Actually, every song after the first is pretty good! My favorite tracks include "Little Bit", "Breaking it Up" and "Time Flies". Her sound remains bare bones percussion accompanying her breathy vocals. I like to think of this album as relaxed pop, since it seems to always put me into a happy zen place. Music always has such a strong effect on me, and I think this might the first album that causes me to feel calm, even down to relaxing my shoulder muscles.

I know that I complained all summer about having nothing new to listn to, and no shows to go to, but that has really turned around this fall (as it always does....maybe I should stop acting like such a whiney little girl every summer, and instead focus on my excitement for the upcoming Fall releases. Doubtful.). Lykke Li sold out 3 NYC shows during CMJ, and was recieved very well. I couldn't make it to any of the shows, but I am now regretting that decision (I actually missed a lot in October).

So if you are feeling stressed out, put on some Lykke Li and feel the zen flowing through your veins.

<3 The Elephant

Lykke Li and Bon Iver....a surprisingly good combo

So she looks much like an Olsen twin here, but thats not her fault. A solid showing.



via Music Slut
you like?


<3 The Elephant

Lykke LI, again

Hot Shit. Courtesy of her MySpace.

Well folks, today is a big day. Its thursday. That means that tomorrow is friday, and there its the last day of work this week. Thank God. This has no relation to anything to do with the title, so I will talk a bit about Lykke Li again.

I stumbled upon her again on some music blog somewhere, and I gave her a third re-listen. I really do like her sound, it is pretty. Lets be honest, there is a stereotypical Northern European Nordic sound, you know the one, with off-kilter female grumbly vocals, building layers of sound, and a sense of really intense serenity. Silje Nes and Lykke Li both embody these attributes, but while Nes is a bit downtrodden and melancholy, Li has an upbeat, happy sound. It's almost as if she is happy on the other side of a dark window, so we get the idea that she's excited, except we can't quite experience it ourselves. Maybe that is a terrible analogy, but I'm standing by it. When I find a really, really good song/artist, I get this knowing rush in my blood. I can feel it immediately. With Lykke Li I don't quite get that feeling, but I seem to be trying to feel it. Hopefully it just needs to grow. Her songs do all sound sort of similar, not that thats bad, but it is somewhat true. Check out her myspace link above and be your own judge.