Six Month Stickies # 17

As usual the tracks of music that got stuck in my head in the last six months, in order.
* Click image to download a ZIP of the compilation:

The Jackson 5

I Want You Back
ABC

I used to go to a small dance club when I lived in LA that would play the Jackson 5, and I always liked shaking it to these jams. I still feel the compulsion to get out on a dance floor when I hear these tunes.

Gorillaz

Rhinestone Eyes
Some Kind of Nature
Slow Country
Rock the House

I dip back into the Gorillaz every few years. They had a lot of solid songs/albums, I don’t know why the world seems to have so thoroughly forgoten about them.

DJQBert – Crosshairs (Feat. Bambu)

Honestly, this is one of the only Raps I’ve ever fully enjoyed listening to without hesitation. Maybe it’s true what they say that to appreciate rap, you have to connect with the lyrics. So I guess it took a nerdy rap song, enumerating the evils of a big brother state with a mercenary foreign policy, to finally get my attention.

Street Fighter II The Definitive Soundtrack

Guile’s Theme
Ken’s Theme
Ryu’s Theme

It was nice to finally get my hands on these official, polished up tracks. I can’t think of a stronger, more solidly hard wired sense memory. I can almost define my childhood by the cross section of images and memories these tracks conjure up. While the adult in me laments all the thousands of wasted hours mastering street fighter in the 90s, another part of me remembers the unbridled joy I experienced in arcades all across the country, beating college students with well rehearsed combos. It almost gives me chills just thinking about it.

Perfume Genius

Longpig
My Body
Fool
Queen

It’s funny how consistently I like this guys output. I don’t know what it is about his musical sensibilities, but it really gets under my skin.

Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Don’t ask me where this came from. I think I randomly woke up with this stuck in my head one morning. I used to love this song as a kid. I remember liking the video, so I looked it up, wincing with the expectation that it was actually terrible ( The usual consequence of looking up fondly remembered 90s videos), but the video is actually incredibly good. Such a weird song, but indisputably appealing, for some reason…

Carpenters – (They Long To Be) Close To You

Can we just stop for a second and be stupefied at how inhumanly, magically perfect, and clear Karen Carpenters singing voice is? I know the music is dated and cornball, but seeing how popular singing is in pop culture now, with elaborate flashy high wire trapeze style singing, as celebrated by reality television, it would do the world good to be reminded what simple, clear, beautifully precise singing sounds like.

Grouper

Holding
Clearing

Liz Harris does it again, creating magical under water, achingly gorgeous, music in Ruins. There is something strangely, dark, slowed down pop about these songs. Almost like she’s doing abstract covers of songs from A-ha, or Tears for Fears.

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