Rodents and Avians

The sheer volume of new music that IA recieves daily, makes it nigh impossible for me to thoroughly check out even half of what comes my way. As such, a few things tend to catch my eye off the bat. Of course, if it's a band I already know, a track I've already heard, an interesting bio/PR pitch letter, then I tend to automatically give something a try.

Martina Topley-Bird, whose album hits March 23rd, falls somewhere in-between. I had no idea who she was, the pitch letter was so/so, but then that something special made me hit the ol' download function.

"The Blue God is produced by long time friend DangerMouse."

Now, I have no idea if Ms. Bird and Mr. Burton actually are true buds or, if by "friend," they actually mean, "paid associate," but it really didn't matter to me. Ever since I first heard The Gray Album, DM has had me hooked. While I tend to prefer his more hip hop oriented fare, his tastes obviously are ecclectic enough that I'm willing to give pretty much anything the guy does a try (speaking of which, I cannot wait for the new Black Keys CD he produced).

The first single here, "Valentine," does not disappoint. While I wouldn't have had the slightest inkling that DM had anything to do with this, it's a stunning track. It's got a slow burner, jazz crooner feel. It oozes sexiness in the right places, yet remains subdued with light guitars with an almost surf sounding appeal, lightly brushed drums and those ever so important "ooh oohs" in all the right places. MTB's vocals are by no means over the top, but have a certain hook to them nonetheless. Personally, I'm pretty jazzed for March 3rd.

Valentine