“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.