It’s a bit late, but I promised: The monthly mix is back! 

I’ve entitled it Let Love Rule after a line in an Alphabeat track early in the mix. The title encompasses its loose theme; it is about the deceptive similarities between love and lust. Cupid is featured on the cover (below) because - aside from the obvious - he is referenced in two tracks of the mix. The painting is called “A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros” which, even in title, completely conveys the main conflict that binds together all the tracks within Let Love Rule’s theme:

Should one succumb to the allure of lust, or let love rule?

Note: Not all the tracks fit the mix’s theme. It is much more a mix of tracks that I have enjoyed the last few months than a straight themed mix. I think tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 14, 15 should be the ones considered in theme. 

So without further ado, put on your dancing shoes and Let Love Rule:

LET LOVE RULE
[A Siulelbon Mix: Spring 2009]

CLICK THE LINK OR THE ART ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MIX!

1) Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Let me take you down the rabbit hole with this track.My favorite from Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s Blitz, “Heads Will Roll” is a morbid take on “dance now, bitches”  theme that seems to be common in music lately. It’s also, probably linked to Through The Looking Glass in some way. I read recently that the band was recording the album in El Paso when the drug war began picking up steam, maybe the song is about the violence in a place that’s just a stone’s throw away. It could be about violence within/self loathing and how dance can relieve us of it . I’m not sure, but it’s an addictive beat and it’s a damned good track. What’s your interpretation?

2) Love (Get Out Of My Way) – Milke

This track exemplifies the desire for love, but indulgence in lust. Cupid wins, but here’s where Cupid is difficult. Does Cupid bring true love, or is it only lust? That’s what makes this song  so interesting. Is it a request to be enveloped in lust and remove love from the equation, or is it a final and futile attempt to stay away from love before giving in? You decide. Milke’s “Love Get Out of My Way” sounds like putting 2000s pop, (the artist again known as) Prince, and The Eurythmics in a blender and – instead of a goopy mess – you have a delicious creation. This track has one of the catchiest hooks I’ve heard from an indie group in ages. The opening lines of the vocal melody sound like they’ve been lifted from a Prince track. There’s a certain inflection that vocalist Ra uses in his delivery that makes Prince’s influence clear as day. (Though I think Prince would have gone with a falsetto for the chorus.) Through the beat and synth stabs employed, you can feel the heavy 1980s new-wave/synth pop influence in how producer/band member Friendly has put the track together. I’m especially digging the subtle vocal stabs in the background.

3) Boyfriend – Alphabeat

The name of the mix comes from this song. “My friends say I’m uncool, but I let love rule… It’s just because I’m crazy in love.” It’s a funny track because it’s simultaneously a love song and a “don’t you touch my man!” song. And it’s true, love can make us crazed and jealous, but there should be a sweetness within. I think this song captures it well. The track is built incredibly well, with a funky base and a fun synth outer layer, not to mention an incredibly catchy hook. Why is it that these Northern European bands create such great dance pop music? Alphabeat is most definitely the 2000s answer to ABBA, but in a good way (no A*Teens similarities here).

4) New In Town – Little Boots
I’m loving this track off of Little Boots’ upcoming debut. “New In Town” opens with some epic synth stabs followed by half a second of silence. Just then you know it’s going to be amazing. The chorus is catchy the first time around, but it took a second listen to make me love it. It’s a great track that shows us a “real good time”. Way to keep your promises, Boots. 

5) Love Game – Lady GaGa

Is it me or can you not get away from Lady GaGa lately? The strange thing is, I don’t mind at all. I thought the “Love Game” would be very fitting for this mix. This song is about… well, it’s fairly obvious. “The story of us always starts the same: a boy and a girl and an UNGH and a game!” – kinda sums it up. I especially like the line “got my ass squeezed by Sexy Cupid”. The whole thing is both vile and incredibly enjoyable. This song embodies lust. I mean, a disco stick, really? And yes, I love it. The dirty beats, catchy chorus and the guttural vocal stabs from GaGa make this song undeniably awesome. 

6) Electric Island – Timid Tiger

This track reminds me, incredibly, of the party/novelty rock tracks of the late 90s by terrible groups like Smash Mouth, but infinitely better! I think it’s because the song produces the effect that those songs wish they could really produce: an infectious euphoric effect produced by carefully crafted melodies that are memorable and not grating. The last part is what Smash Mouth and the like got wrong. This song is in no way grating. I think it’s the coolness the band oozes through the speakers that makes this party-ready track killer. 

7) Little Toy Gun – HoneyHoney

Innuendo, much? This song, while being incredibly dirty, is so enjoyable. Without getting into too much, the song is about pleasure and what it means when one takes matters into their own hands (so to speak) and the seemingly disastrous effects which could ensue. Yeah, OMG (no, that’s the next track in the mix). I really enjoy the smoky vocals by Suzanne Santo that are very obviously jazz inspired. Ben Jaffe’s guitar work is brilliant – I can’t really place what it reminds me of. It’s a high energy track with an overall low-fi feel that I’m really digging; I also think that it’s great in juxtaposition to the tracks that have come before it in the mix. 

8.) Oh My God – Ida Maria

I just found out the coolest thing about Ida Maria. She has synesthesia – a condition where a person literally sees music when they listen to it. Maybe that’s why this song is so fantastic. The raw-  but loud – instrumentation along with Maria’s rough vocals makes passionate magic in “Oh My God”. The song seems to be about some sort of neurosis and dealing with a person who doesn’t understand it. 

9) Sick Muse – Metric

This is the song that made the mix come together for me as Let Love Rule. A beautiful track from Metric’s inspired album, Fantasies, “Sick Muse” is about the human desire for Love (in the purest and most confusing of terms), how it’s so very hard to find and, in turn, accept. It’s a heartbreaking track – love is a sickness  in a world consumed by lust. Cupid is not a fun little cherub-like creature in this song; he’s not playful or sexy. In this track, Cupid’s golden arrows bring Love  and it’s a debilitating factor in a normal/cynical life. Haines sings painfully,”Get your little arrows out and let me live my life”. The track was called “Cupid” when Metric first toured with it, but the name changed to “Sick Muse” (which is identified as money in the lyrics) in a fitting change. I was tempted to call the mix “Sick Muse,” but I’ve come down on the side of Cupid. The music and melody are as incredible as its lyrics. The verses are heavy with foreboding guitar and staggered semi-spoken vocal lines, but the chorus has soaring guitars and a beautiful melody dousing the track with hope. Beautiful. 

10) November Was White, December Was Grey – Say Hi

 I thought a song about depression in Winter would be very fitting for a Spring mix – it lets us appreciate what we have when rubbing aloe vera on our sunburns. I love how Say Hi plays with channels in this track. When heard on headphones, this song is a masterpiece. The melody is simple, catchy, and gorgeous.  The tracks understated nature is what makes is fantastic. And, way to pick a great title – a lesser singer songwriter would have gone with “When the Winter’s Gone” or something. 

11) Four Winds – The Killers

It takes a lot for a band to cover an already phenomenal track; there must be a reason. The song is about many things: religion, western civilization, human life, and a mural of a girl who’s survived the Apocalpse. Make sense of it how you will, it’s an incredible piece of art. I think The Killers must have a great love for Conor Oberst’s song and I appreciate that. I think stripping “Four Winds” of its folk backing and giving it an electro wave style opens it to a completely different interpretation – in true Killers fashion. This cover has had a lot of flack for some reason, but just because Flowers doesn’t scream the vocals (like Oberst does) doesn’t mean that there isn’t feeling behind it. There’s beauty in a softly delivered melody. Even so, I think that his sentiment comes through strongly in the “it brakes!” bit.

12)Geraldine – Glasvegas

“Geraldine” is deceptive. You’re about halfway through the track when you realize it’s not a love song. This twist is revealed when James Allan sings “my name is Geraldine and I’m your social worker.” The soaring guitars and the lovely melody make it hard to believe until that line comes around again. It’s one of the most bittersweet tracks off the band’s outstanding self-titled album. This track opens the British portion of the mix. 

13) Last of the English Roses – Peter Doherty

This song is about a schoolboy crush on a girl who has everything a young man is looking for in terms of a companion. It’s lovely in its purity. It’s refreshing because it’s not about about the sexual attraction he feels, but the mundane aspects of the girl’s personality that make her “The Last of the English Roses”. It’s got a very British pop feel with great lazy drug-addled vocals by Doherty. I especially like the French mumblings at the end of the track. Despite its theme, it’s a moody sounding song – what I like to call a cloudy day single. It sets a certain atmosphere with its trudging beat that couldn’t really emanate from a sunny day track.

14) A New England -Billy Bragg

“A New England” is possibly one of the cheekiest breakup tracks I’ve heard. I hadn’t discovered Billy Bragg’s solo endeavors until recently (I’d only heard Guthrie’s Mermaid Avenue album he and Wilco had collaborated on) and I just can’t get enough of this track.  The line “I don’t feel bad about letting you go, I just feel sad about letting you know,” sums up the tone of the track. It’s studded with little lyrical gems like that. Just brilliant. I also love that it’s only a vocal track and guitar – a style he uses throughout his 1987 album, Back to Basics. Very raw, very enjoyable. The song, besides the obvious breakup bit, is about the hardships in finding love and how you can be mistaken about it when you’ve found someone you enjoy spending time with.

15) I Am Not A Robot – Marina and the Diamonds

Marina Diamond is someone to look out for. This British singer/songwriter capitalizes on the electronic atmosphere in today’s music by creating a cooky track covered with beeps and boops and some great, layered vocoder work. The song is about her frustration toward a lover who has put up layers of protection hiding a lovable inside. It’s all put forth with the metaphor of  the robot.”Guess what? I am not a robot!” she sings in frustration -’cause he’s not one either. It fits into the mix because, like in “Sick Muse,” the cynical nature of the day can make us robots in our relationships – creating emotional walls that prevent us from experiencing love. 

16) Anonanimal – Andrew Bird

Back to America with Mr. Andrew Bird. My favorite track from his newest album, Noble Beast, “Anonanimal” is lyrically strange; when read it looks like a poetic interpretation of something being digested by a sea anemone with a seemingly unrelated middle section about loving a song he can’t remember. But, let’s look deeper: “Underneath the stalactites the troglobites lost their sight.” Salamanders, called troglobites, lose their sight when in an enclosed space for a long enough time and  sea anenomies take the shape of an enclosed space. The anemone has covered the space in which the troglobite resides alone. “I will become this animal – perfectly adapted to the music halls. I will become this animal - Anomalous appendages, A non-animal” It seems to me that Bird is the digested troglobite, now part of the anemone. A non-animal. He is surrounded, but he believes he is in isolation. Once digested, he becomes part of this non-animal which has mutant appendages. I think the anomalous appendages are emotional boundaries he has crafted to work between himself and the audience he plays to while on stage Remember he says “I will become this animal – perfectly adapted to the music halls.” The anemone has taken the music hall’s form and enveloped him. It is an examination of Andrew Bird, the musician (the non-animal) versus Andrew Bird, the man (the troglobite). It’s an exquisite piece. 

[DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MIX BY CLICKING THIS LINK!]

BONUS TRACK:  Let Love Rule (Justice Remix)  -Lenny Kravitz

What do you think of Let Love Rule? Please leave me a comment with your reactions toward the mix. They’d be greatly appreciated.