Sonic Bliss #1: My favourite songs of the week

If you’ve even glanced at this blog in passing, it will have become fairly obvious fairly quickly that I love music. To an almost unhealthy I-should-go-to-rehab-or-get-shock-therapy-while-strapped-to-a-gurney-in-a-1950s-hospital degree, and even then I suspect it likely wouldn’t work. And frankly I wouldn’t want it too. Music is vital, wonderful and without a vibrant ever-changing soundtrack, I don’t think I would enjoy life as much as I do. Certainly it would be way quieter.

So it makes sense that I have an ever growing mountain of wonderful music desperate to burst forth from my pod (in the Apple equivalent of the scene from Alien). It would be a crime of epic proportions – oh hyperbole I love you and wish I could have your children – not to regale you with my favourite songs of the week so here they are!

Of course picking just 5 songs from my ever growing, ever mutating list was a challenge of Herculean proportions but I finally settled on these gems.

Enjoy, and oh… you’re welcome.

(1) “Sinful Nature” – Bear in Heaven

Hailing from Brooklyn, this psychedelic rock/pop quartet pack a punch. But it’s a punch wrapped inside the most intense and seductive of melodies. This song in particular, which is the lead single from their forthcoming album, I Love You, Its Cool,  is gorgeous and I can’t stop listening to it.

 (2) “Golden” – Future Unlimited

They’re a synth-pop duo based in Nashville, and while they have kept a deliberately low profile till now, rest assured you will hearing a lot about them soon. The song that is attracting all the buzz at the moment is “Golden” and it’s not hard to see why – its bold, confident and lures you in without once coming close to let you escape its grip. Frankly why would you want to?

(3) “We Should Be Swimming” – Zulu Winter

A London-based band that is barely out of the creative womb, having only been formed in early 2011, they are already being hailed as the future of literate indie rock. Not afraid to get down and dirty, their music is seductive and sexy as this track amply demonstrates.

(4) “All the Rowboats” – Regina Spektor

Inordinately talented, Regina’s intense emotionally-rich pain-driven pop is as intelligent as it is heart-stoppingly melodic. Based in New York, she has garnered a worldwide reputation for clever accessible pop that moves the soul and engages the mind. Plus the lady can really sing!

(5) “Safe and Sound” – Capital Cities

They may look like refugees from an Amish collective with a sideline in wacky novelty sunglasses but the music this New York-based duo make is quirky bouncy pop that will have you shimmying like a mad man or woman in no time flat. The remix of this song by DiscoTech is pulsing shiny fun of the highest order. I dare you not to dance.

What are your favourite songs of the moment? I’d love to know what you’re listening to especially if it’s something new and wonderful I haven’t heard!