Playground magazine

Here come the songs from our review of the best of the month at PlayGround. This August there have been advances and cuts included on new albums that have cheered up our days. Now it’s time to choose the ten best ones and count them down from 10 to 1.

10. The Fresh & Onlys: “Presence Of Mind”

The Fresh & Onlys - about to release their new album, “Long Slow Dance” on 4th September via Mexican Summer - are sharing another of the songs that will be included on the work with their followers. Their new weapon is “Presence Of Mind”, which moves away from psychedelic indie rock towards jangle pop, much in the vein of contemporary projects such as Wild Nothing.

9. Karen O: “Strange Love”

It looks like Karen O has developed quite a taste for animated movie soundtracks. She has already strut her stuff with The Kids on the score for “Where the Wild Things Are”, and now she's back at it with “Strange Love”, a new song that will be part of the soundtrack for Tim Burton's “Frankenweenie”. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer told Rolling Stone magazine that she found inspiration in “the same era of B-movie fright film references sprinkled throughout the film. I went in the direction of exotica and calypso stylistically because it’s quirky, good vibes music of that era, and when you throw in a Theremin solo, it’s a marriage made in heaven. I remember Beetlejuice introducing me to the genius of Harry Belafonte’s calypso record, so I wanted to give a nod to that, too.” And with great results, we would add.