Downloads of the Week
Shakira feat. Rihanna
“Can’t Remember To Forget You”
★½
She’s been gone for a while, so it’s understandable that Shakira would lean on Rihanna to launch herself back into the public eye. But even RiRi’s presence isn’t enough to save this single from mediocrity. The weak ska-influenced and guitar-driven chorus feels like novelty, and the duo’s vocals don’t convince. “Can’t Remember To Forget You” isn’t all bad, just completely forgettable.
Young the Giant
“Crystallized”
★★
The Californians attempt to go to heavier and slightly more complex directions on their second album “Mind Over Matter,” but it’s the big pop choruses of songs like “Crystallized” that make their otherwise bland indie rock worthwhile. Singer Sameer Gadhia doesn’t have an especially notable voice, but it’s his passion that makes this single a cut above the rest of the album.
Jenny Lewis
“Completely Not Me”
★★½
For those who want the full navel-gazing experience, the new season of “Girls” has it’s own soundtrack (out on Feb. 11) and a preorder now will get you this surprisingly bouncy indie-pop track from the Rilo Kiley frontwoman. She also gets an added half-star for managing to rhyme “confessed” with “hubris.” It shouldn’t work, but somehow Lewis makes it happen.
Mogwai
“Simon Ferocious”
★★★½
With their eighth album, “Rave Tapes,” the Scottish band has added even more depth and texture to their instrumental rock with this track that captures them in a hypnotic, electro mindset while still leaving room for their trademark noise assault. Whoever the real Simon Ferocious happens to be, he should be flattered to have his name associated with such a great band.
Albums of the Week
Against Me!
“Transgender Dysphoria Blues”
★★★
Although Against Me! has been a punk-rock staple for 15 years, they’re currently attracting a new wave of attention due to the fact that singer Tom Gabel has come out as transgender and is now known as Laura Jane Grace. After hearing their sixth album, the rubberneckers will realize what a great band they’ve been missing. Unsurprisingly, Grace uses her own experiences to inform the conflicted and often enraged characters in songs like “Black Me Out” and the brilliant title track in which the lyrics “You want them to see you like any other girl/They just see a fa - - ot,” are particularly pointed. It creates an added power, but ultimately the songs still have the raucous euphoria that has always been at the heart of the band. What does it matter whether it’s Gabel or Grace? Let’s rock!
A Great Big World
“Is There Anybody Out There?”
★★½
Thanks to their Christina Aguilera-assisted “Say Something,” A Great Big World has accidentally secured themselves a reputation as mopey balladeers. But if you’re looking for an album to sob your way through, this is definitely not it. For the most part, chirpy piano-pop is dominant throughout. Heavy shades of Billy Joel and Ben Folds Five run through opener “Rockstar,” and on the deliberately silly “Everyone Is Gay,” they tackle the spectrum of sexuality as though they were writing an educational song for “Sesame Street” — which is no bad thing. There’s nothing that sounds even remotely likely to eclipse “Say Something” here, but A Great Big World deserve some credit for pursuing their own unusual paths instead of just sticking to the one that brought them a hit.