17/13 - Indignation

First off, I'll tell you that I've been to the cinema four times this week, and all of the times were brilliant: First, John Boorman's smart stylish technicolor-thriller Point Blank (< just look at that trailer, what a marvel!), later, Pedro Almodovar's new flamboyant and audacious smile-fest I'm So Excited, and on Friday night – an all-time fav – the tour-de-force of perfect scene composition, Rushmore. But it was the premier I saw earlier that day that most gripped me; the new film from La Haine-director Mathieu Kassovitz: Rebellion. An unflinching, brilliantly realistic and absolutely infuriating tale from the dark side of neo-colonialism. And it is that disappointment with a world that doesn't look better than it does that may have coloured this week's list:

The Dead Weather - Jawbreaker

Well, it jumps out at you, doesn't it? Sets the tone.

Fugazi - Suggestion

Fugazi's looseness attracts me greatly. There's raw intelligence at work here, for sure.

Queens of the Stone Age - God Is On The Radio

One of the best rock-albums of the last 20 years or so if you ask me. Here's hoping their upcoming new album recaptures some of that heavy majesty.

The Wailers - Burnin' and Lootin'

Lately I've been thinking that this is one of Bob Marley's all-time greatest moments. Which may be controversial, given that in relation to his overall message of unifying love and understanding, this is downright sinister. But that's exactly why. All of the other lovely tunes get their weight from the fact that, just as any committed person would, at some points Bob could just go "Know what? I've had it. Fuck you with your oppression and your lies and your whole bloody system." And what makes it so gloriously menacing is not primarily the ominous synth-bass, or the sawtoothed backbeat guitars... it's those drawling, almost lethargic vocals on the choruses. This is the sound of people who just don't care what they might loose anymore. Pure terrifying. Stand up for your rights fuckers.

Keren Ann - It's All A Lie

Keren Ann has made a couple of mesmerizing and underexposed albums that I discovered many years ago, and on this track she quite reminds me of Low, which can never be a bad thing.

The lips of time
they kiss again
and I walk alone
into the night

Now, this is a bonus I forgot about last week, which I'm quite happy about, since it fits so well in with this week's tunes. Their track Husbands was one of my fav discoveries at the end of last year, but this, this absolutely tops it. From the opening statement to the magical crescendo/outro. So annoyed I'm not free to go see them play Glasgow on Thursday:



And as a send-off, another Jack White-video, because I think the darker of his backup-singers is sexay. (sorry to end on such a male-gaze kinda note, but she is amazing)