Songs I can’t get out of my head: Vol. 5

Dappled Cities – Fire Fire Fire

A fine indie rock offering from a weird little outfit that toured earlier this year with Tokyo Police Club. While at first this track seems like a sensitive groove, its appeal is really in the tongue-in-cheek humor of lines like, “you’re not a fire, so I will not dance in you.”

Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You

This cut, from one of the year’s best albums – Cease to Begin – is simultaneously calming and haunting with melodic guitars smooth southern vocals. The Carolina boys, who are label mates with the likes of The Shins and The Go Team!, manage to create an atmosphere on this album that transcends the individual tracks. If you haven’t already, definitely pick up Cease To Begin.

The Coup – My Favorite Mutiny

Here sounding a bit like The Roots, and including a line that references the miniseries of the same name, The Coup give us a funky groove featuring horns and a tinkling piano.

Timbaland + The Hives – Throw It On Me

This is a strange song and has been around for a while, but I heard it again recently (featured in a phone commercial, of course), and was reminded about the genuinely kitschy video featuring the girls of wrestling. A complete heist of “Sin City” – the video’s palate works thanks to the always impeccably dressed Hives who never deviate from their black-and-white ensembles (and score a couple of successes on their new disc “The Black And White Album”). In listening to the song again, one gets the feeling that Timbaland is out to prove that he can collaborate with anyone. As to whether he should, well, that’s another question.