Songbook Xtended: Fleeting Youth

DJ Shadow - Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life) (2023) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: The Prophecy

DJ Shadow - The Prophecy (2023) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Fly To You

Caroline Polachek feat. Grimes & Dido - Fly To You (2023) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Welcome to the Opera

Anyma & Grimes - Welcome to the Opera (2023) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: As It Was

Harry Styles - As It Was (2023) [Original Post]

Obvious allusions to reality TV pop music supergroups melt away as Harry Styles dances his way to one of the best songs of the year. An anthem for our age, soaked in bitter nostalgia, and increasingly populated with a grim sense of mourning. Some of this is my own inflection, a song arriving at the best - or worst possible time. Yet for all its tart lyrical ambivalence, there's a triumphant energy -- sweetness and light bursting out of the darkness with bells chiming. A rare instance of enjoying a Top 10 single, this one has a great video to boot, and my only real criticism is that it's so damned short. I guess I'll just have to keep it on repeat. Something I never really expected to want from a One Direction alum.

Songbook Xtended: Tears Can Be So Soft

Christine and The Queens - Tears Can Be So Soft (2023) [Original Post]

Actively looking for new music and not being immediately revolted, so that's nice. Nostalgia continues to push through the eighties into familiar territory of the nineteen nineties and new millennium. There's an obvious debt to Massive Attack and Teardrop here, as well as feeling like a fusion of a catalogue of influences from 1990 to 1992. There's enough here to be satisfied, but it's hard not to be distracted by the prickly creep of nostalgia for a time that was exciting for its experimentation and sense of discovery. A reasonably comfortable fit, but one that's been worn before.

Songbook Xtended: Summer Glass

Julie Byrne - Summer Glass (2023) [Original Post]

More new release dreampop that I happened to stumble upon. A reminder that there is a lot of interesting music out there - it can just be a little harder to find. Mortal words swim in an ethereal stream of chimes, tone, and string. It's warm and cool all at the same time. Like a chilly, orange lit evening in summer filled with sentiment. I haven't connected with the other Julie Byrne songs I've heard quite as strong, but this one is a keeper. A stand-out lyric: "You were the family that I chose."

Songbook Xtended: On & On (Again)

Confidence Man & Daniel Avery - On & On (Again) (2023) [Original Post]

It had to happen. It's been threatening to for a while. At long last, the heavy weight of eighties nostalgia that's held pop music (and culture at large) in a death grip has finally broken -- moving on to the nineties. Maybe even the early two-thousands! There's a hit of awkward, self-consciousness to the presentation of Confidence Man that isn't quite the earnest, slick cool of the period it's emulating. Maybe it's all parody, but it doesn't really seem like it. Either way, this is a throwback that hits its mark well enough to break the uncanny valley of it all. I might not stay on this ride, but I'll at least enjoy taking this one. Another entry in the season of new music, and a reminder of the turn-of-the-millennium dance music that evaporated during the mid-2000s apocalypse.

Songbook Xtended: Don't Let Me Down

Gus Dapperton & Benee - Don't Let Me Down (2023) [Original Post]

Benee does the heavylifting on another dose of dreamy pop in collaboration with Gus Dapperton. This one has higher, warmer musical aspirations than pandemic anthem Supalonely, which I actually also quite enjoyed. Benee is the rare exception in the current, disposable pop music scene -- a name that warrants immediate attention. I look forward to listening to this one on repeat, and enjoying more new music. It seems to be the season for it.

Songbook Xtended: Bored

Monnie - Bored (2023) [Original Post]

Remember fun? Fun for fun's sake? Remember that? That's pretty good. We should get more music that's just fun. Monnie delivers Millennial Auspop with a low effort vibe that evokes morning and afternoon in the Summer of 2000. I'm not saying it's the best song in the world, but I can't fathom how this hasn't cracked 10,000 views on YouTube. I'm less bored, and more on board. Check it out. Tell a friend. Get it in your regular rotation. You'll be better for it. Bouncy and alive, it's a much needed burst of energy, and a welcome dose of enjoyable new music.

Songbook Xtended: Tattoo

Loreen - Tattoo (2023) [Original Post]

Sweden does it again! There could really only be one winner from this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Loreen brought the same A-game that made Euphoria an anthemic stand-out from the 2012 show, blasting the doors off with another bona fide hit in the same mold. It's not perfect. When you really listen and think about it, it's a little odd to describe "violins playing" as if pitching a scene for a film, instead of simply expressing the genuine feeling that would solicit that type of theatrical treatment -- but lets not worry about it! It works. It sounds fantastic. It fills my chest with the stuff that makes a fella want to fight for something. Does it sound a bit like a snotty four year old talk-crying? Look, it doesn't matter. All I care about is love!

Songbook Xtended: Spalarkle

Felicita feat. Caroline Polachek - Spalarkle (Alys) (2023) [Original Post]

Recent tastes converge in an abrasive electroclash featuring Caroline Polachek buried somewhere within the warblings of Ladytron's worst harlequinned nightmare. God help anyone named Alice listening to this song. Don't get me wrong. I like it. I'm just seeing it from somebody else's perspective. The ineffectual nagging chant of "Alys" is bound to drive somebody clinically insane. Not me, though. The dissonant hyperpop is just keeping on the rails enough for me to call this a good time. They tell me its a new thing, but it really feels like a throwback.

Songbook Xtended: Smoke

Caroline Polachek - Smoke (2023) [Original Post]

Once again Caroline Polachek makes catching the charts & new releases worthwhile. If I had reservations about Welcome to My Island, Smoke delivers exactly what I needed. A full sound, consistent throughout. Big drums like CocoRosie's Rainbowarriors, with a jubilant Enya does End Credits vibe that makes me want to dance in the dirt in the setting sun. Or is it rising? I don't know if anybody cares about making music for me any more, but Polachek at least gives me hope and lifts my spirits. I only wish this single were longer. Its euphoric context over too soon. A hot, wet euphoric sound captured in a video that doesn't seem all that dissimilar to some of Polachek's live stage production. I believe she said somewhere she wanted it to reflect how it feels to perform the song. It seems pretty amazing to me. So does she. I hope it continues.

Songbook Xtended: Kool Nuit

M83 feat. Kaela - Kool Nuit (2023) [Original Post]

Did Justin Bieber kill pop music, or is it just getting harder to find & connect with the good stuff? I was excited to check out new music from M83, even if I wouldn't characterize myself as a fan. That's not a knock. I just meant to say I'm a weary traveler who's bumped into them from time to time. I've liked M83's airy meditations on a protracted captured moment. Kool Nuit has some of that cool breeze, but is more cinematic in its scope. It wraps and surrounds -- at least in its first section. It is a song of two characters. The sweetness of the first half becomes more unsettled as the drama ratchets up and sweetness becomes tempest. I can only apologise for the cover art so much. I'm not feeling it. I am very much feeling this song though. An exciting real-time addition to the 2023 CDClub Songbook chronology. Rarity.

Songbook Xtended: Ghosts Again

Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again (2023) [Original Post]