“These Diamonds In Our Hands” — Cris Cab’s “When We Were Young” melds Dave Matthews, Rob Thomas for robust single
This single by Miami-based singer-songwriter Cris Cab caught me by surprise this afternoon, a refreshing blend of Dave Matthews instrumentation with vocals which blend echoes of Rob Thomas with hints of reggae in the hook. The overall backdrop, when played on repeat, keeps drawing me back to Paul Simon’s Graceland, particularly when the horns come in strong at the 2:35 mark. This is a sunshine-soaked pop hit-in-the-making which should easily warrant proper headphone treatment followed by a proper blasting from your car’s speakers as you cruise down the highway.
If you dig the single as much as I have, check out his Red Road mix-tape, which arrives ahead of Cab’s upcoming debut album due this fall. The mix features collaborations with Hip Hop artists Mike Posner and Wyclef Jean, and can be streamed via SoundCloud.
FEATURED SONG: Blisses B – “Regal Goodbyes”
Blisses B definitely brings the hooks to break you out of the winter doldrums.
Fans of Vampire Weekend and Stornoway need to prepare for immediate auralgasms, because Blisses B’s single “Regal Goodbyes” is going to rock your world. Their album, Thirty Days, Sixty Years, has been out since late 2010, but the San Francisco band has yet to find its well-deserved breakthrough. Still, we have this song, and what a hook it builds, twisting psychedelic pop influences in with the genre-bending explorations of artists as disparate as Paul Simon and Andrew Bird, with enough sun-drenched melodies to make it the perfect antidote for the winter blues. Check out the song, then head to the band’s website to hear the rest. You won’t be disappointed!
FEATURED SONG: Paul Simon – “The Afterlife”
It’s clear after ten seconds of Paul Simon’s new single, “The Afterlife,” that the American songmaster is back in his best form, making So Beautiful or So What, his upcoming spring release, all the more difficult to wait for.
For all of you who are too young to understand why Simon is a legend of American songwriting, think for a moment about whose albums Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints inspired the complete sound of popular indie act Vampire Weekend. But when the man’s at peak form, he puts all the imitators to shame … “The Afterlife” is one of those perfectly “Simonesque” songs that sucks you in from the first hints of bluegrass-meets-zydeco bliss, and it’s distinctly him. Very few artists today can lay claim to such a solid blueprint.
