Add Radiohead and Lykke Li to the Mix

From PJ Harvey to Radiohead to Lykke Li, my head is about to explode with awesome new music. Lykke Li's album isn't out yet (March 1st!), but she leaked it last week online. I posted some PJ in my last post, so here are my two favorite songs from Radiohead and Li.

New PJ Harvey

"Let England Shake", the new album released today by PJ Harvey is pretty remarkable. On my third round; each round brings about new understanding. This is a war album, and it shows. Marching beats and explicit references to death sprinkle almost every song. Highly recommended.

OMG! Obama a Christian!

Apparently, Obama's team finds it necessary to underscore (yet again!) that he is in fact a Christian. I get it. A lot of Americans vote by their faith, and a lot of Americans are Christians. A politician must exploit his belief system in order to cater to the concerns of his more religious constituents. (Well, technically, nobody ever HAS to do anything, but politics is certainly a game of "whatever it takes to get on top".)

(Here's the article on Yahoo!, which if you've ever read the comments on Yahoo! articles, you'll realize why it's pretty apropos that it's a major headline there. Even articles on cute cat tricks inevitably contain comments praising Sarah Palin as an angel and Obama as a demonic socialist.)

So, even though I understand the necessity for this, I still find it pretty unnerving. I believe Obama. Being the US President is a tough job and it is often under extremely stressful situations that people turn to faith. I totally buy every quote he's spewing out; however, it's the reason that bothers me.

The reality is, if Obama wants to get reelected in 2012, he is going to need to build a stronger base among typically conservative Christians. This is a great start to a necessary PR scheme. All I'm saying is, I don't have to like it.

Lia Ices

Lia Ices. Music as smooth and comfortably cold as her surname. She peers over the fence at all the waif-sounding, dime-a-dozen song fairies, but doesn't climb over. Instead she runs back to all her friends (like that Bon Iver guy) and they sing songs by the fire of pretentious genius - but, you know, they just sing and dance around it, totally unaffected.

Check out the album, Grown Unknown, released on January 25 (coincidentally, also the best day of the year... ahem).