iTunes Mixery

For those who don’t know, this is the eleventh iTunes Mixery. Here’s how it goes: I play iTunes on shuffle -> tell you which song comes up -> provide the mp3 and a tidbit -> continue until five songs and embarrassment are complete. Again, nothing’s off-limits – I don’t “fix the mix”. Have a look into my life…

1. The Shins – “Pressed in a Book” [MP3] (from Oh, Inverted World). Well, even if James Mercer never comes back to The Shins, we still have a pretty great back catalogue. This song isn’t the candiest of Shins pop; it’s actually fairly rocking and raw.
2. Cloud Cult – “Chain Reaction” [MP3] (from The Meaning of 8). Hey! This song came from an album that made our top 35 albums of the decade list. That means nearly every song on the album is a required listen. So click that play button! (Have I mentioned how much I love Cloud Cult’s instrumentation and off-kilter arrangements? Because I do I do I do ooh.)
3. New Ruins – “Lake” [MP3] (from We Make Our Own Bad Luck). With the lead singer’s baritone reminiscent of Matt Berninger’s (Yuh huh, I said it! But not as smooth, duh) and a soaring, atmospheric background, New Ruins create a pretty great indie pop tune here.
4. Nicole Atkins – “The Way It Is” [MP3] (from Neptune City). Seductive, hazy, grazy (made up word, but you can figure out what it means in context), beautiful. What a powerful voice. Nice choral harmony at the end too. Mmmm.
5. The Mountain Goats – “Original Air Blue Gown” [MP3] (from Full Force Galesburg). Vintage Mountain Goats, vintage Darnielle. Because it’s stripped bare with just the softest sounds, when one instrument comes out more than the other it has that much greater of an impact.

So…that was an impressive Mixery. It progressed really well, from pop to pop folk to folk, with The Mountain Goats fragile melodies as the closer. If you plan on ending a mix with The Mountain Goats it should probably be pretty epic (this isn’t, I’m just saying), because no one wants to hear them as a closing track unless they’re in “that mood”. You all know what I’m talking about. ‘Til next time!