March: Ryan Adams & The Cards - Death and Rats

"It's not supposed to rain today."

I've been listening to the newish Ryan Adams & The Cardinals a lot and love the song 'Death and Rats', in particular. Smithsy, jangly guitar is usually a pretty decent blueprint for a song to follow. Scary that this was something he'd just knocked out and wasn't even planning on releasing.

In other news, something I very much liked this month was Will Sheff's take on those people who were complaining that they'd never heard of the person who won 'Best New Artist' at the Grammys...

"I read pages and pages of people shouting in all caps "I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THEM" as if that's a valid musical critique, as if that's anything but a braying declaration of proud ignorance."

Will Sheff is fast becoming my hero.

February: Okkervil River - Mermaid

"And my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear."

I came across Okkervil River by complete fluke, about nine months ago. I clicked on a friend's Stumbleupon link to look at something completely different (it was some pictures of cakes, not so surprisingly for those who know me well...). Then, once I'd looked at that, I clicked on the 'Stumble' button and it brought up a list of the ten best Valentine's songs that people probably wouldn't have heard. Okkervil River's 'A Stone' (from their album 'Black Sheep Boy') was one of the first tracks I...erm...'stumbled upon'. And I loved it.

Back to the future and I'm now a huge Okkervil fan, so was well pleased to find out this week just gone that their new album ('I Am Very Far') is out in May. And before that, they've released this single, 'Mermaid', which won't be on the album for some maddeningly bizarre reason.

There's so many little touches on this which you only pick up on closer listens. Like the use of mandolin strings to conjure up the sound of the mermaid's "freezing fins fluttering" or the drum patterns which batter and blow the song and ship towards its stormy finale. The fact that everything here was recorded 'live', except for Sheff's vocals and the string section, is pretty damned amazing.

Another reason that I'm such a big Sheff and Okkervil River fan is the guy's poetry. I love a great tune and melody but a song that also gives you great lyrics and which tells a great story is worth double, to me.

"With a sickening flick of her tail, circling,
Her gills fill with cold, salty water.
She thrashes and twirls,
Her freezing fins, fluttering.

"My hands meet and they press to a point in the air,
But my mouth fills with more panic than prayer."

Like many Okkervil River songs, I found that I only started to get the best out of Mermaid once I'd listened to it a couple of times to really hear what's going on beneath the surface and to truly get a feel for the lyrics and metaphor at play. It's this blog's first 'record of the month' but I reckon it'll go some way to be beaten.