“Back to Black” – Beyonce and Andre 3000
Amy Winehouse fans will hardly recognize this cover of “Back to Black” by hip hop powerhouses Beyonce and Andre 3000, which will appear in the Great Gatsby soundtrack. The cover still has the same melancholy feel that Winehouse’s had but this version twists the original with a haunting synth line. Andre 3000’s vocals are deep, sensual and completely opposite from anything he’s done for Outkast. Of course, Queen Bey is perfect as always.
“Your Life is a Lie” – MGMT
MGMT is currently on the road, and have been surprising fans with new music. The latest track to be debuted is “Your Life is a Lie,” a nice little psychedelic-rock gem that with smooth, dark vocals. The sample’s quality isn’t the greatest but it’ll be enough to keep MGMT fans going until the studio version is released.
“Run and Kill” – Sia
Is it any surprise that the Great Gatsby’s star studded soundtrack would also include Australian pop star Sia? While the songstress is well known for her collabs with house DJ David Guetta, “Kill and Run” is solo Sia, with breathy vocals and a toned down piano backing her beautiful voice.
“Together” – the xx
We can’t seem to get enough of the Great Gatsby’s upcoming soundtrack, so here’s another track off it, by English indie pop band the xx. The track is dark, dramatic, haunting, moody and fully embodies Gatsby’s spiral out of control. Minimal instrumentation frames singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim’s quiet vocals perfectly.
“Call on Me” – Kelis
Kelis’ new track is completely different from anything she’s released so far. Produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, “Call on Me” has a great pop-African beat with tribal drums, trumpets, and a funky bass line. The track will transport you straight back to the 70s with its vintage feel and Kelis does great expanding her boundaries past dance pop tracks.
Xanthofficial have created a really beautiful cover of MGMT’s “Kids,” which is a really electronic-driven song. In the cover, the guitarist named Sam uses a technique called “slap guitar” to cover the song. Basically, it consists of a lot of percussion-esque moves on the guitar that end up creating a beautiful beat. Sam also has a pretty angelic voice, which only adds to the swoons I am having from the cover.
Check out this really cool interview with MGMT from AUX.
After their wildly successful debut album Oracular Spectacular, two-man electro-pop group MGMT is back with their second shot at things – and they’re letting you hear it early.
While their sophomore album Congratulations is expected to be released on April 13, the band has posted the full album on their website after finding out that it was leaked all over the Internet.
“Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us,” says a post on the band’s website, www.whoismgmt.com. “We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn’t make sense to anyone but us.”
After a wildly popular debut, they have finally resurfaced.
MGMT have unveiled a song from their upcoming sophomore album, Congratulations, reports rollingstone.com. A free download for the track “Flash Delirium” was put on their website last Tuesday, March 9. The song, which will hit record stores as part of Congratulations on April 13, is different than the MGMT that fans are used to.
Martina Sorbara’s music career has been like one one-night-stand after the next.
The lead singer of Electro-Pop group Dragonette has been involved in many projects – both as a solo singer and in group settings – but she has yet to be part of a follow up album – until now.
Dragonette’s second album Fixin to Thrill, was released last month, and Sorbara’s feeling of the album’s completion is sublime.
“It’s a huge deal for me,” Sorbara, 31, tells andPOP. “Just putting out a second album is kinda like a milestone. I just think that every time we finished a song, that was a big high point for myself.”
The line between electro-rock and hip-hop was never exactly straight in the first place, but this year has more or less witnessed its disappearance. The most recent installments in the collabo hall of fame popped up on Pitchfork this week.
First, there was Matt & Kim’s reworked “Daylight (Troublemaker Remix).” Now, this song is perfect just the way it is but with rap legends De La Soul on the remixed track, there is a whole other dimension of mind-boggling pop mastery.
The signature chorus (“Cause in the daylight I don’t pick up my phone”) is looped atop an amplified version of the song’s backbeat, with a spaced out synth riff to boot. In between, De La Soul spit their classic rhymes (“Leave your message after the tone/while I lay around actin’ like I’m too old for this shit”), transforming the song from hair-shaking hipster dance party to a groovy soul redub.
The song will be featured on the NBA Live 2010 soundtrack when the game is released on Oct. 6. It will also appear in every playlist I make for the next month.
