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The 50 Greatest Summer Albums, 1963-2013

By Tom Hawking on

Summer officially arrives this week, bringing with it afternoons in the park and rooftop parties and beaches. The thing is, though, every summer needs a soundtrack, and while every year there seems to be a rush to anoint a certain tune The Song of the Summer™, Flavorwire decided to go one better and choose a quintessential summer album for every one of the past 50 years, as something of a sequel to last month’s list of the 50 albums you need to own, 1963-2013. Click through and get… Read More

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Music

The 10 Best New Songs We Heard This Week: The National, Jay-Z

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday afternoon, which means that we’re resolutely ignoring the rain as we contemplate the weekend, and also looking back over the best new songs we heard this week. Over the last seven days, we’ve gotten all gloomily excited about the new National album, reminded ourselves that Jay-Z can still actually rap every so often, got all summery to new songs by Beaches and Woods, marveled at how beautiful the new Eluvium track is, enjoyed new stuff from Standish/Carlyon and Tin Trails, and more. All these tracks await you below — get streaming and/or downloading, readers! … Read More

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Music

The 15 Most Underrated Albums of 2012

By Tom Hawking on

It’s December, which means the music industry’s listomania is now in full swing. But wait, if on the off chance you haven’t written your own personal end-of-year list, then have a quick look at this one before you start anointing one of the usual suspects — Grimes, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Swans, Fiona Apple, etc. — as the best of 2012. We love all those records, but there are a heap of great albums released in 2012 that we think haven’t gotten anywhere near the amount of end-of-year love they deserve. We profiled some of them in June — read on to find out our selections from the second half of the year, and let us know if you reckon we’ve missed any. … Read More

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Music

Album of the Month: Woods’ Beautiful, Autumnal ‘Bend Beyond’

By Tom Hawking on

It’s finally starting to feel like fall, thankfully — the oppressive humidity of summer is gone, the leaves are starting to change color, and there’s a chill in the air at night. This is my favorite time of the year, and it needs a soundtrack, preferably one that’s quiet and shot through with just the right strain of melancholy. And since those Nick Drake and Radar Bros albums are starting to get worn out, thank goodness for perpetually underrated Brooklyn psych-folk band Woods, whose new album Bend Beyond arrived right on cue last week. … Read More

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Music

10 of the Year’s Most Unfairly Overlooked Albums

By Tom Hawking on

It’s the middle of the year, which means it’s time for the music industry’s first round of 2012 listomania — and lo, the first “best of 2012 so far” roundups have already begun to crop up across the Internet. It’s been pleasing to see that some of our favorite albums have had plenty of love on such lists — we’re sure you don’t need us to tell you any more about the likes of Lower Dens, Chromatics, Liars, Death Grips, Leonard Cohen or, of course, Grimes, who may well actually rule the entire world by the end of this year. But there are others that we haven’t been seeing mentioned a whole lot, and thus we figured we’d repeat the feature we did at about this time last year, focusing on albums that everyone seems to have overlooked so far in 2012. We suggest you catch up ASAP, as December’s coming sooner than you think. … Read More

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Music

10 Free MP3s You Need to Download This Week

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness, both from around the web and from our own servers. This week there’s an entire album of beautiful ambient synth work from D’Eon, plus new tracks from Beach House and Clams Casino, the return of Bobby Womack, a couple of whacked-out remixes and a song from a singer who’ll go into your iTunes under “Finnish/Ethiopian”. In other words, there’s plenty of interesting sounds awaiting you after the jump, and since they won’t cost a penny or land you an RIAA lawsuit, as your attorneys we advise you to start downloading immediately. … Read More

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Music

The Flavorpill Mixtape XXII: Blonde Redhead, Band of Horses, Mystery Jets

By Andrew Hwang on

In addition to the bigwigs (Blonde Redhead/Band of Horses) and mainstays (Woods/The Antlers), this week’s mix also features bands that have been under the radar because they’re either from across the Atlantic (Mystery Jets/Pony Pony Run Run) or just completely new to us. Get familiar with the next ten, and be sure to Right click + Save As the songs you like after the jump. … Read More

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Music

Download 10 of 2009′s Most Under-Appreciated Gems

By Zara Golden on

Best of the Year lists shouldn’t bring the end. After all, these lists make for a great way to catch up on all that you might have missed while you were spinning that new Phoenix album endlessly. Making this time of discovery easier yet, Insound.com has rounded up their 50 most downloaded of 2009, and is offering everyone 10 free MP3s for download.

Looking at their list, we’ve eliminated albums that weren’t from 2009, and skipped over the obvious-es–the Grizzly Bear’s, the Pheonix’s and the Passion Pit’s. Those are for everyone else’s lists. Here are 10 deep cuts, just for… Read More

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Music

The Flavorpill Mixtape III: Downloads from Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Flight of the Conchords

By Stelios Phili on

Exciting news: Your latest Flavorpill Mixtape has arrived. Your ears are salivating. Your fingers are ready to click ctrl + left click and “save as.” Ten essential downloads from this past week in music after the jump — all free for the taking! Take a listen, and then leave us a comment with what you… Read More

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