We couldn’t wait any longer. And we also couldn’t choose just one more song from La La Land to share with the world. So we decided to stream the whole thing. But not all in one shot. Starting today we’ll be revealing La La Land piece-by-piece leading up to its official release on April 20th. So in addition to the lead-off track “Tom Cruz” that we dropped back in January, we’re now also streaming “Swinging Bells” and “American Idol,” tracks 2 and 3 on the La La Land page.
There are a few reasons behind this. Mainly we’ve been digging deep into this record for a few months now, and it’s still getting multiple daily rotations in the office. Everyone seems to have a different favourite track, but more importantly there’s no wasted space on this record. And while everyone is free to listen to a record that they buy any which way they like, or burn a hole in a single, we wanted to do justice to this front-to-back album by giving each piece of it a moment in limelight, in sequence.
So today we’ve got “Swinging Bells” and “American Idol” on the table, two of the album’s shorter offerings, partially due to the fact that were originally one complete song. “Swinging Bells” starts off with Plants and Animals at their most eerie and off-kilter, with delicate dabs of rickety 70s piano, but quickly builds to a rousing “la la la” peak that seems to introduce the record in earnest. The “la la las” that in part inspired the album name eventually land in “American Idol,” the upbeat sequel that, according to Nic Basque, “brought to life one of our musical dreams: to record a rock sax solo.” But there’s no irony here. With the help of sax all-star Colin Stetson (Arcade Fire), and some crazy Huey Lewis style arrangements from Warren and Nic, the song more than lives up to its over-the-top title.
But hey, for those of you that prefer to digest things via weirdo minute-or-less Youtube clips, the band has prepared a series of episodes starring their friend Joe Cobden, and a pickle.
We’ll have the next offering up on Thursday! Enjoy.
