?Y.A.L.A.? ? M.I.A.?Y.A.L.A.,? which stands for ?You Always Live Again,? is a track off of M.I.A.?s predictably polarizing November album release, ?Matangi.?With a sleek, squealing synth background and rattling percussion perfect for bouncing in the club, this song is ripe for rocking on a party stereo. The song plays on the phrase ?Y.O.L.O.,? and M.I.A. comments at the end with her usual swagger: ?Y.O.L.O. / I don?t even know anymore / If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit?? ?She Ain?t Speakin? Now? ? Of MontrealDeep on Of Montreal?s recent fantastic return-to-form, ?lousy with sylvianbriar,? ?She Ain?t Speakin? Now? is a folky ballad-esque cut, bubbling with picked mandolin and strummed acoustic guitar.It is filled to the brim with heady guitar-stomping romps bombarding the harmonized refrain, ?Her eyes, they seem cast and fatherless.? A brilliant song on a brilliant album.?Normal Person? ? Arcade FireAnybody who has kept up with the indie rock scene as of late is probably sick and tired of hearing about Arcade Fire?s upcoming release, ?Reflektor.?Well, this song is evidence of why it receives all the hype: a booming atomic bomb of celeb-frustration in a four-minute barn-burner from a usually stoic and stone-faced band. ?Banger ? ? Schoolboy QHoly cow. This beat, man. Schoolboy Q may not be the top dog of Top Dawg Entertainment?s lyricism category, but he does make a dang meaty amount of, well, banging. This song is like pirate cannons shooting at a gangsta army, while shots fire from artillery guns on battleships and Schoolboy Q plays Battleship with the beat. A hell of a lot of dark, dank, dirty fun and that is all you really want from a Schoolboy song. ?Jackie? ? IceageProprietors of the spectacularly writhing ?You?re Nothing? LP released earlier this year, Danish post-punk band Iceage have released a 7? of two covers, one of which is this Sin?ad O?Connor re-imagining. What the band has done in this cover is, in essence, taken a slow-burning gloom-pop song and amped it up with adrenaline, nihilism and brute force. The song lacks a true climax, but this lends to its purpose ? it is a song about a story without resolution, so there can be no ?resolving? of the song. The bass is loud, the guitars are brittle, the drums are loud as hell and the vocals impassioned to the point of almost falling apart ? this is one rampaging buildup you want to hear.
