Playlist: Guilty Pleasures

I really shouldn't have any "guilty pleasures" - if I love a song or an artist than I should embrace it, right? *hiss*

1. Will Smith - Miami
2. Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

3. Destiny's Child - Jumpin' Jumpin'

4. Dean Martin - Sway
5. Coldplay - Yellow
6. Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody
7. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
8. Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
9. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts (okay, this become more of a rainy-day-pretty-sad playlist)
10. Richard Marx - Hazard
11. Charley Pride - Crystal Chandeliers (there you go, Mum)
12. Usher - Climax (not too embarrassing a track, but a bit melodramatic. Look! The Dirty Projectors cover!)
13. Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
14. Rihanna - We Found Love (maybe it's just 'cause of the Mancunian intro and the Irvine Welshish atmosphere)

Remember: Icehouse

Icehouse - "We Can Get Together"

So good.

Album: "I Awake"

Sarah Blasko - "I Awake"

I'm a bit late to the game on this one (Sarah Blasko's I Awake was released in October last year), but it's tricky to stay atop new Australian releases from over the ditch (excuses).

Where As Day Follows Night had equal measures darkness and light, I find I Awake submerged fully in shade. As with her 2009 release, the new album features beautiful arrangements and truly interesting instrumentation, but unlike the warmly wistful single "All I Want" or the strong and plodding "Bird On A Wire", I Awake at first appears more fragile and despairing in nature.

The album opens with the title track, "I Awake" - tribal drums and open harmonies are met with a persistent tambourine and horn stabs. It's reminiscent of big-band rockabilly. And yet it's really not: the overall sound is very unique and this can be attributed to Blasko's husky voice, I think. It seems to pull the strands together and ground it within a familiar, but still different place.

Fresh: Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear - "gun-shy"

Almost too-close-for-comfort, the new clip from Grizzly Bear is a gross/magical document of the band members' being subjected to various medical examinations. Also check out some animated gifs of the video right here.