It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week’s highlight is a track from the new Jens Lekman album, which you can grab today if you’re quick enough. There’s also more silliness from The Darkness, a free track from the OMBRE album that was released this week, the latest installment from Adult Swim’s consistently excellent Singles Program, unexpected renaissances for Andre Williams and Men Without Hats, and a whole heap more. Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump.
Jens Lekman — “Become Someone Else’s” It’s no secret that we’re salivating at the prospect of a new Jens Lekman album, so we were delighted to see this new track surface on KCRW’s Top Tune of the Day feature this morning. Lekman apparently wrote “Become Someone Else’s” for Everything But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn in return for a song she penned for him, and it’ll be on the aforementioned new album — in the meantime you can grab it (today only!) via this link.
The Darkness — “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” As far as bands that polarize opinion go, The Darkness are still very near the top of the list, a decade after they emerged from East Anglia in a haze of hairspray and silly poodle metal posturing. If you’re in the “no, they’re awesome!” camp, you’ll want to get downloading this track ASAP — it’s available via Spinner.
OMBRE — “Tormentas” OMBRE comprises Julianna Barwick and Helado Negro — we featured one of the tracks off their album Believe You Me a while back, and with the album’s release this week, another track was made available for download. It’s called “Tormentas,” and like pretty much everything Barwick’s ever been involved with, it’s gorgeous. Get it via Stereogum.
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan — “Lamia” There’s been much goodness coming out of Adult Swim’s Singles Program of late, and they’ve maintained their form this week with a new track from Montreal band Yamantaka // Sonic Titan. As per Pitchfork, where you can grab this song, there’s plenty more to come, including tracks from Liars and Death Grips. In the meantime, download “Lamia” here.
Men Without Hats — “This War” Good grief — a new track from Men Without Hats! (If you’re not familiar with them, they’re the ’80s synthpop types responsible for “Safety Dance.”) This track is taken from their new album, Love in the Age of War, which we must admit rather passed us by (it was released in June, apparently) — it’s endearingly absurd, and it’s available for free download if you’re brave enough to venture to Brooklyn Vegan.
Andre Williams — “Blame It On Obama” The Guardian ran an interesting piece yesterday about how the hip hop world has started to turn on Barack Obama, which is well worth a read over your morning coffee. Not so legendary lecher Andre Williams, however, whose new single is a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the tendency of voters (particularly those of a right-wing persuasion) to blame pretty much anything and everything on the president. It’s really rather great, and it’s available for download here.
No UFO’s — “Symbolic Demarcation” We’re always happy to see a new post on 20 Jazz Funk Greats, even if those posts seem to come more infrequently these days. The blog has been one of our favorites for the last couple of years, largely because it always manages to feature fantastic music from bands we’ve never heard of. So it is with this track from a group called No UFO’s — it’s a slow-burning and mildly ominous piece of electronic atmospherics, and it’s great. Download it right here.
Trin Tran — “Dark Radar” This song by Wisconsin solo artist Trin Tran is chiefly notable for being the first release on Drag City’s new offshoot label GOD?, and for sounding like an old Delta blues track made on a cheap synthesizer plugged into a homemade distortion pedal. You can get it via Pitchfork.
Mount Eerie — “World Heaves” This track is taken from a 7″ that’s part of a collection of charity records released via Graveface Records — there’s more information about the series here. In the meantime, “World Heaves” is thoroughly excellent — it’s rather reminiscent of some of Jason Molina’s work as Songs Ohia to our ears — and is available here.
Wolfhaus — Dubbed and Screwed Vol. 2 And finally, as your attorneys we advise you to slide through the rest of Friday with this dubtastic mixtape by Wolfhaus, which should do a fine job of taking the edge off what’s shaping up to be yet another hot and sweaty weekend. Get it right here.