Janelle Monáe, "Tightrope (featuring Big Boi)" (2010)
find it on the "Tightrope" single

It was one of those weeks where two songs were fighting it out for my Best Song This Week love. The runner up was appropriate for the rainy day that DC's having: a grey song that explodes into a shoutout middle with some excellent guitar.

But it was too appropriate, so it's "Tightrope", which has been a constant earworm for the last month or so. The titular tightrope could as well refer to the sound line between a classic soul sound a perfectly modern R&B that's being expertly balanced here. There's a scorching smoothness that's all too rare.

There was much rejoicing around these parts this week with the announcement of the long-awaited return of Scotland's Teenage Fanclub. Merge will be releasing the bands' eighth proper album, entitled Shadows, their first since 2005's stellar Man-Made. Check the details here and while you're at it grab an mp3 of a new track, "Baby Lee". A tour of the States is expected to follow this autumn. In the wake of last week's sadness, this comes as an especially apropos pick-me-up.

If you're a fan of Teenage Fanclub, you're in luck, as STACKS is proud to present a whole bevy of fab TFC rarities. Collected here for your enjoyment are some fantastic b-sides from my two favorite TFC albums, 1995's Grand Prix and 1997 Songs From Northern Britain. Culled from five different singles, we have offerings from all three of the bands songwriters, Gerard Love, Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, as well as a cover of a Bevis Frond track.

Been listening to this all afternoon and I must admit: it plays like some long-lost Fanclub album. Enjoy!

Getting Real (Mellow Doubt, 1995)
That's All I Need To Know (Sparky's Dream, 1995)
Headstand (Sparky's Dream, 1995)
My Life (Neil Jung, 1995)
Every Step Is A Way Through (Neil Jung, 1995)
The Shadows (Neil Jung, 1995)
Traffic Jam (Neil Jung, 1995)
Hi-Fi (Neil Jung, 1995)
Broken (Ain't That Enough, 1997)
The Count (I Don't Want Control Of You, 1997)
Middle Of The Road (I Don't Want Control Of You, 1997)
He'd Be A Diamond (I Don't Want Control Of You, 1997)

More new stuff from JoyOrb. His new EP is floating around. The London, grime/dub/bass (whatever) sound has not always done it for me, but...this guy is quite the beat-artist. I would post off the new EP, but his label is sensitive. If you are into electronic anything, check him out.

Also, in the spirit of my co-bloggers weekly diligence Mondays are now BRKYN CLLN days on Naive Harmonies.

Brooklyn Calling (most weeks)

Joy Orbison, 'BRKYN CLLN' (2009)

Slow Club, "Our Most Brilliant Friends" (2010)
find it on Yeah, So

The good part:

"Our Most Brilliant Friends" is that now-rare slice of perfect indiepop. Its lyrics worry about friends, it has a brilliant and enormous chorus, and it has a delicious tambourine sound. It's that cozy catchiness and a bigness that's pure joy and meant for friends and not for fame. For anyone who doesn't get what indiepop is, this is indiepop.

The bad part:

Buy this album and drop it into your CD player/iTunes and you'll notice that it says this track is over ten minutes long. Oh, no. But oh, yes. There's another song glued to the end of the end of the track. It is (and I cringe even just typing this out) a hidden track.

This is annoying enough on a CD. But in the digital age, who on earth still thinks it's clever, funny, interesting and anything but highly annoying to merge two songs together on one track? It honestly blows my mind that people are still doing this. We have ways of splitting up songs, you know. But it really bugs us to have to do it. Why put in obstacles to enjoying your music?

A great song badly delivered.

The weird thing about this week's edition of STACKS is that I honestly had it all planned, half written in my head, at least 24 hours before I heard the terrible news that Alex Chilton had suddenly passed away at the too young age of 59.

I had planned on writing about one of my favorite songs off of Big Star's #1 Record, a track called "Thirteen". I didn't have anything incredibly enlightening or especially insightful to share. Then again, little else really needed to be said; its writer had already done all the work. The song speaks for itself. I'm not exactly sure what age Alex was when he wrote "Thirteen" but he nailed those awkward early adolescent feelings of romance and love.

I wanted to share a few covers of the song as well, by Wilco, Evan Dando and Elliot Smith respectively. All three choose to play it relatively straight here. When a song as fully formed and perfect as "Thirteen" comes along, there's no use in trying to change things up.

In a way, it now seems more appropriate than ever to share other artists' interpretations of Big Star's music. For as much as I love the three albums the band gave us, they actually gave us so much more than that.

Big Star's influence was simply staggering. So many of my favorite bands -- and probably your's too-- cited Alex Chilton, Chris Bell and Big Star as formative influences. Can you imagine a world without the music of REM, the Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, the Posies and so many countless others?

Thankfully, we don't have to. We owe at least some small part of that thanks to one Alex Chilton.

Big Star, "Thirteen" (alternate mix, 1972)
find it on Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino Records)

Wilco, "Thirteen"
find it on Big Star Small World (Koch Records)

Evan Dando, "Thirteen"
find it on Live At The Brattle Theater (Modular Recordings)

Elliot Smith, "Thirteen"
find it on New Moon (Kill Rock Stars)

See Also: PRS from The Middle 8 (who introduced this listener to Big Star) mourns the loss of Alex Chilton.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, "Bartomolo and the Buzzing of Bees" (2010)
find it on The Brutalist Bricks

There's nothing complicated or groundbreaking about "Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees". It's a rock song with a great melody that repeats through the song and is complemented by a harmonizing bassline. It's immediately striking, but doesn't have a whole lot of layers. It mostly just rocks and catches.

But that simplicity gives it that wide open feel that makes great rock songs great. I hope Ted Leo is closing his shows with this song, because it's the kind of song that would send you out into the night with a head-to-toe feeling that life is great and fun and there's amazing music being made.

Field Music, "Share The Words" (2010)
find it on Field Music (Measure)

My mom makes the best meatloaf sandwiches. I used to try to copy her sandwiches, but inevitably, I got too greedy and put on too much of some ingredient or couldn't resist adding something extra that threw it all off. She got everything exactly right, though: never too many or too few ingredients and with the exact right amount of each.

Field Music is like my mom's meatloaf sandwiches. In concept, it's sloppy and indulgent, but with everything in perfect proportion, it tastes like fine dining. There's just enough rawk in the chorus of "Share The Words" to want to take the air guitar out of its case, but not enough to feel heavy or cheesy. The guitar in the verses has just enough of a funk hitch to keep it from sounding mechanical, but not enough to sound like it has anything to do with the genre. It's gritty, but feels real and never lo-fi. It's thoughtful but heartfelt.

It's really tasty.

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