Revenge, "14K"
Revenge is Peter Hook's (Joy Division, New Order) band after leaving the latter of those bands. They put out one record and a smattering of singles, one of which gives us this song. And, look - Revenge wasn't very interesting. It was just kind of there. If you're a big New Order fan, as I was when this stuff was coming out, you might trick yourself into getting excited for it. But don't fall in that trap!
Prefuse 73, "Plastic"
I really enjoy Prefuse 73 the most when there's someone rhyming on the track. Most of his work is really rooted in hip-hop anyway, and so it feels complete when you have the vocals present. It's not to say I don't enjoy the instrumental stuff, but the vocal tracks are often a highlight.
Eef Barzelay, "Thanksgiving Waves"
This comes from Barzelay's first solo record, 2006's Bitter Honey, when he was on hiatus from leading Clem Snide and put out a couple albums under his own name. They're pretty spare, especially compared to the pretty lush arrangements on the Clem Snide records immediately pre-hiatus. Apparently he agreed, and returned to the Clem Snide moniker and resumed recording albums that way again. The two solo records are really for completists, I think.
Palace, "Long Before"
Ooh, fun contrast! Both Barzelay's and Palace's songs are fundamentally a guy with a guitar, playing a country-inflected, introspective tune. It's tough to pin down what makes one track more interesting than another, other than appealing to different tastes. Whatever formed my personal perspective on music placed me in a position where I can listen to these two songs and definitively say which one is my favorite (this one). I can't untangle the inputs into that. I can't trace the lines through my brain, the source of them and where they lead and the patterns they make. The ones that light up more when I hear Will Oldham warbling than when I hear Eef Barzelay warbling. I don't really want those inputs to be cleared up, mind you. It's good to be mystified by the operation of your own brain. I just enjoy occasionally getting a reminder of all this stuff, getting just the tiniest glimpse of the sparks ratting around up here, before letting it all subside back and just letting my tastes continue rumbling forward autonomously.
The Apples in Stereo, "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go) (acoustic demo)"
OK, Plex, fuck off with this, that's enough strumming.