A lot of my tastes this week went more electronic; I think that tends to happen to me when I am very busy with work and life. I have been keeping it mechanical all day (and night) long until it is time to sleep, then time for some more Blind Pilot and smooth newcomers Alma Desnuda.

Radiohead - Meeting In The Aisle - Airbag/How Am I Driving? [EP]

As a palette cleanser, here is a short one that sounds like the tape heads in your old fisher price tapedeck are out of sync. This was used most famously in the brilliant “Meeting People Is Easy” documentary about Radiohead’s OK Computer tour. Blurred streetlights and supermarket signs through your breath condensation on the window.

Portishead - Machine Gun - Third

This is a “u-turn” album. Portishead’s Third is a good example of an artist being so good that you never want them to change; and for almost a decade they didn’t (there was a long sabbatical between this album and their 1997 eponymous sophomore offering). Their absence was to the point that no one was sure if we would ever be blessed with a new record from the mother and fathers of trip-hop. They did not make the album we wanted them to make, and we should thank them for this. For a few listens, I resented this, but I am ultimately glad.

In a lot of ways, this album is both gentler at times while also more embracing a more industrial sound. “Machine Gun” is very much the latter, sounding as though Trent Reznor is in the studio on the drum pads. Words I could use to describe Beth Gibbon’s voice: haunted, film noir… you know what, just look up forlorn in a thesaurus and you got it.

Radiohead - Up On The Ladder - In Rainbows [Disc 2]

How Radiohead happen to simultaneously own both the modern alt/guitar rock and glitch/electonica worlds is beyond me. Far stranger is managing to make their most potent contributions to the music world be when they overlap the two.

This track is a clear descendent of the Thom Yorke’s Eraser, and was a good candidate for the B-Sides (Disc 2) of the In Rainbows recording sessions. Played live commonly throughout the early date of Radiohead’s 2006 tour, it eventually dropped off the setlist in favor of the most approachable guitar rock found on In Rainbows (the band used the tour to road test material that would eventually make the album).

You can hear the angst and fear of the Hail to the Thief sessions combined with the Eraser-esque thump-thummp. Thom’s guitar work grinds along and no real closure is reached by the end. Oh well, they don’t all have a lesson.

Spoon - Chips and Dip - Love Ways

I still can’t resist a minor-4 chord change. It lends that 50’s feel to the song, but by the bridge breakdown it becomes clear that Spoon has a little too much “atmosphere” for that to be all. Nice drum-work too. I still say Britt Daniel is the new John Lennon.

Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation - Robbers and Cowards

Like a rag on a wet bar floor, there is a lot here to absorb. Alcoholism is put on the main stage here as everything takes a back seat to the main character’s addiction.

He pleads with you to consider him normal as he describes the donations he makes and the paychecks he brings home, but ultimately he neglects his responsibilities and mixes a gin and sinks into oblivion. Relying on the forgiveness of others, he is free to rationalize his borderline behavior to the point of no return. Love the rattlesnake shaker at the beginning and the ramshackle guitar throughout to really jam the point across.

Bloc Party - Ares - Intimacy

Bloc Party are hit and miss for me since their last album, but I still love when they resort to their tried and true: call and response vocals and “is that a guitar?!?” guitar solos. I will leave it at that, I didn’t pick it apart for meaning.

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park - In Ear Park

If there were always ornaments on pine trees - not for the holidays, of course - but just because they grew that way… this is how I would imagine they would sound in the wind in an snowy, echoing gulley.

Four Tet - Unspoken - Rounds

While I don’t listen to much hip-hop, instrumental hip-hop beats and trip-hop have attracted me since I discovered DJ Shadow back in 2004. I heard Four Tet for the first time when I heard some Radiohead remixes he had thrown down on, guy is very good at what he does. He keeps it clean and slow, but adds a little dust and chaos on the record too.

Jose Gonzalez - Teardrop - In Our Nature

Amazing cover of a Massive Attack song with… you guessed it, a nylon-string acoustic guitar. I know just the guy.

This is truly beautiful.

Yeasayer - 2080 - All Hour Cymbals

Tear for Fears could try to sound like this if they didn’t suck so well. Guitars are dialed and droning, drums hiss menacingly, and all the while vocals just seem, well, ’80’s. I can’t sum it up better than that… so why do I like it?

Blind Pilot - Poor Boy - Three Rounds and a Sound

Minor-seventh chords have that nice porch swing quality to them. I’ve said a lot about these guys, but I will let this one speak for itself. I will definitely be checking them out at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord on April 13.

Alma Desnuda - Walls - Alma Desnuda EP

Speaking of porch swings, this is a calming walk on a spring day with a loved one. Yeah, thats cliche, but somehow I don’t give a *&%^&$%. Check out their site.