Random 10 for September 19, 2008

1. Marina Celeste, “Under My Skin.” Nouvelle Vague was a slight but perfectly enjoyable pleasure with its gauzy Francophile renderings of New Wave classics, but it’s been a nice launching pad for its vocalists, including Camille and Marina Celeste, who have both excelled at oddly seductive videos.

2. Outkast, “God Interlude.”

3. Marvin Gaye, “You.”

4. VHS or Beta, “Bring On the Comets.”

5. Todd Rundgren, “Hello It’s Me.” One of the most exquisite ballads in pop history. Until I was about 13 or so, I thought it was a Carole King song because the arrangement, chord progression and even the vocals dovetailed so closely with Tapestry. One day, and I guess it was at a point where I was predisposed to hearing things a little differently, ”Hello It’s Me” came on the radio and blew my mind. The melody is fairly straight-forward, but the bridge is all over the place with a time signature change, the sax filigrees and a series of notes that are just plain hard to sing. Also, the whole thing is built on a peculiar rhythm, but not nearly as peculiar as Todd’s butterfly eye shadow and Eno-circa-”Here Come the Warm Jets” outfit on this clip from the ”Midnight Special.”  

6. Radiohead, “All I Need.”