peervalidated

While not exactly summer-fun-time music, Perfume Genius’ Learning is too good to save for the fall. It’s sad, has a compelling-if-true back story, a sound aesthetic similar to CocoRosie or early Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, and intimacy like swany Sufjan. I should probably be playing Jock Jams Vol. 1 at a one to one ratio to keep my mood in check.

Perfume Genius - Learning

In late March I listened to ‘Arkansas’ from Damien Jurado’s newest LP, St. Bartlett, on repeat for the duration of a lonely train ride from Chicago to Milwaukee. This song will stick with me. Here Jurado combines hopeful sound with hopeless sentiment. Instead of a fully drawn narrative the lyrics read like a response letter, where heartache is amplified instead of diluted by the lack of detail.
“…I never feel magic unless I am with you.”

Damien Jurado - Arkansas

Five years ago CocoRosie covered one Jurado’s finest songs into a telephone answering machine.

CocoRosie - Ohio

“…losing love is like a window in your heart, everybody sees you’re blown apart, everybody sees the wind blow.”

This is my life. 

The Tallest Man On Earth - Graceland 

It’s the middle of March, sixty degrees outside, and my roommate was just tanning on our deck. He should have been listening to this song.

Cold Cave - Life Magazine
http://mp3.peervalidated.com/coldcave-lifemagazine.mp3