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TrendRobot Rating: 10/10

Listen to Catapult from Cornerstone 10″

So it’s been a few days since Track of the Day has been posted . . . finals and looming financial burdens seem to creep into everyday life and TrendRobot seemed to take a backseat.  My deepest of apologies friends.  Throughout the trials and tribulations, music was there everyday of course, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an old mystery movie, complete with a noir soundtrack, written and performed by the new-look, new-sound Arctic Monkeys.

This band has morphed from the tongue-in-cheek, dancefloor punks from a few years ago, into a heady, dark band that is finding a new sound with an old formula.  “Catapult” seems like the sound that Oasis was trying to find all of those years and is just about as close to a Sgt. Pepper’s sound than anyone’s rolled out in years.  Mixing those dancefloor aesthetics and the dark, seductive weaving of intricacies that brings the Arctic Monkeys into a new, drug-induced realm.

mp3:  Insects
Listen to “Insects”
TrendRobot Rating: 8/10

Your slow transition from sleep to awakening begins as the sun rises and leaks between the curtains. The question of whether the day will be charged with nitrous or as placid as a drop of honey in a cup of tea depends entirely on your state of mind.  Emotionally charged or not, the movements are timed precisely.

“Insects” is a b-side from The xx, one of the most critically-acclaimed indies to hit the scene in the past year.

The track pushes it’s eminent sexuality and jazziness subtly on its captive audience.  Working it’s way through a stunningly abrupt, yet smooth, two minutes of sensual crooning; the track works its magic only to leave the listener waiting to write their own ending.

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Listen to What Would I Want? Sky from Fall Be Kind

Less than a year after Merriweather Post Pavillion topped  every “best of” list and was named one of the most important albums of the decade by Q Magazine and Pitchfork, Animal Collective has released an EP of new studio tracks under the title Fall Be Kind.

Animal Collective’s trademark style blazes through layer upon sonic layer of epic organs and keyboard symmetries . . . atmospheric would be an understatement for the track, “What Would I Want? Sky” as it fills in with clashing percussion pieces before falling into a melodic masterpiece.

Animal Collective proves, once again, to be as elusive as Jake Johnson.