Over the past week or so I have received some great submissions for our song of the week feature here on The Futurist from our faithful (and very knowledgeable) listeners. I am going to highlight two of the listeners here today on due to their excellent choices. If you would like to be considered for a future SOTW Listener Edition, please send me your choice, following the rules laid out in this post.

Enjoy these choices, and feel free to leave some comments telling them how you think they did…..

Katybeth (Falling Leaves on our WOXY.com message boards) - Beirut - Cliquot from the CD The Flying Clup Cup
The story goes that Beirut appeared on the new Final Fantasy album in exchange for the use of the Arcade Fire’s Masonic church recording studio and their never-ending toy box of instruments. Whether that’s the case or not, Owen Pallet (aka Final Fantasy) contributes string arrangements to many of the tracks on the new Beirut album, “The Flying Club Cup.” On his sophomore effort, Zach Condon and his crew of gypsies give their take on French chanson and folk, rich with accordions, mandolins, and the aforementioned orchestrations. The end result is a thoroughly charming album that’s a slice of European yesteryear and certainly one of the best mood pieces of 2007.

The folks behind La Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows hit on a great concept that’s a perfect companion piece to the album, recording each of the songs on The Flying Club Cup for a full-album series of performances, available at. While Owen Pallet provides vocals for the album version of the show-stopping “Cliquot,” Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear takes the lead part in the video version here,
beautifully filmed inside a Brooklyn apartment.

Piers - Sambassadeur - Subtle Changes from the CD Migration

Okay, I’m a sucker for pretty girl voices, slick, nearly-syrup orchestration, sleazy saxophone middle eights and pizzicato string fade outs, and “Subtle Changes,” the first single from Sambassadeur’s Migration album, delivers all of these in all the right proportions. I had hopes that some enterprising soul would remix “Kate,” from last year’s “Coastal Affairs” EP, into a dance-floor sensation, drawing the attention it deserves to the song’s AWESOME bass hook, but sadly, it was not to be (though the song DID feature prominently in a Payless Shoe commercial…)

The bass-line in “Subtle Changes” is toned down a bit, and the orchestration is more prominent, with the disco turned up to 11, but the overall effect is the same, mature yet naive, compelling, luxurious and subtly dramatic. And that saxophone solo!

I’m still hoping and waiting for Sambassadeur to explode the way those other Swedes have done, and this new release could easily do it.

Sambassadeur - Subtle Changes

If you sent one in and it is not being used today, no worries as we may use it in a future installment…

Thanks to all who submitted!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 10:47 am and is filed under MP3's, Song Of The Week, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.