“Takes So Long” The Weepies, Hideaway (2008.)

With the distinctively lovely vocals of folk darling Deb Talan, “The Weepies” play a simple strummy folk that might make you fall in love at first listen. I first heard Talan’s rough-edged, rawly emotive voice on her solo albums, the very excellent Something Burning and A Bird Flies Out. There, her skilled lyrics and bravely unadorned vocals invited comparisons to other folk-pop songstresses such as Shawn Colvin, Lisa Loeb and Sarah Harmer.

Now, going under the moniker of The Weepies, her husband’s guitar strumming and vocal backing add a texture and harmony that absolutely sings. Their mellow, Sunday morning music is shot through with the colors of homey contentment, and even songs tinged with sadness or sorrow are still soaked in bliss. “Takes So Long” is a relatively simple, straightforward song, but one that finds complexity in the tiniest of pitch shifts. Each time the pseudonymous chorus repeats, their voices ask its question a slightly different way, bringing this spare song a new gravity. Take some time to do the dishes, weed the garden and allow the distinctly un-lachrymose Weepies to accompany you on your way.

(The Weepies’ newest album was released this year, but I haven’t gotten my ears on it yet.)

“The Moon Asked the Crow” by CocoRosie, Grey Oceans. 2010

Plinky plonk music box chords begin this strange dive into the subterranean weirdness of the music of sisters CocoRosie. This song, off their 2010 offering Grey Oceans, sees their unearthy Donald-Ducky voices carried by a funky baroque tune that lends a gravity to this otherwise weightless song.

Less a fan of their singing style and lyrics, I was literally stopped in my tracks when this song first played across my headphones, its outright oddness soon subsumed by the diverting build of its disparate instruments.

Is it weird for the sake of being weird? Possibly. Is it pretentiously arty for the sake of being pretentiously arty? Probably. Still, it isn’t every day you hear something entirely, utterly new. And some days, that’s enough for me.

“On and Ever Onward” Bjork and Dirty Projectors

It’s a team-up for the ages: lyrics and arrangements by Dave Longstreth, backing vocals by Dirty Projectors’ ladies, and lead singing by the incomparable Bjork. Throw in the fact that all proceeds from this mini ep—Mount Wittenberg Orca—go straight to the National Geographic Society Oceans Project, and what could be better?

The choral harmonics sweeping and punctuating the background provide such a lovely framework for Bjork’s joyful, affecting singing. Though the lyrics are quite spare, their simplicity is earnest and beautiful, almost a paean to the natural world and our progression through it.