Plants and Animals - Lightshow

I'm really good at having weird dreams as of late. To recap my last week of very vivid dreams: they were all about surviving post-apocalyptic times (in my childhood neighborhood, in Mexico, and on an undisclosed mountainside in Austria) and I still can't seem to shake the realness and very strange nature of them all. Luckily there is slightly off kilter music out there that probably would have done a good job soundtracking these dreams. Like this new Miike Snow track called Black Tin Box (it's so new I can't even embed it yet). Or this amazing track that you should play on repeat by Plants and Animals. I expect big things from them this year.

Plants & Animals - Kon Tiki

I know I have been all amped up on summer songs, so you are just going to have to deal with it. All of my summer mixes from years past have been top notch playlists and now I am starting to feel the pressure. Luckily this is a perfect track for a backyard bbq mix.

Plants and Animals just released an incredible sophomore album, La La Land, that was recorded in both their home base of Montreal and also in Paris. Using the two studios added a nice diversity to the album. I am new to this band but their debut album, Parc Avenue, gained them a lot of attention and a Juno award with their summery rock tunes and hits like "Bye, Bye, Bye". (An absolute must listen.) There are mixed reviews out there of their second album with one blogger saying the album feels as superficial as L.A. itself which I think is too harsh. It is music that sounds like it could have come from the 70s, maybe from a prog-rock band, but with a comfortable familiarity that lures you in with catchy tracks like "Tom Cruz" and "The Mama Papa". The aimless haziness of "Kon Tiki" is the track that caught my attention. It conjures images of lazily drifting down the South Platte river on a 100 degree day, enjoying whatever influences you might be under. Like the band says, La La Land is not about L.A. but about that state of mind. I think they nailed la la land mentality with "Kon Tiki" in a wonderful way.