Watching Speak Time

Got three new songs that I've been listening to a lot.

#3 Porcelain Raft - "Unless You Speak From Your Heart"

I told you that there would be another Porcelain Raft song in my top three soon. While "Unless You Speak From Your Heart" is not quite as catchy as last time's "Drifting In and Out," it's still a fab song. Mauro Remiddi describes his music as "Sleepwalking Pop," which is an incredibly apt tag. Since Remiddi is 37 years old, I wondered where the heck he's been this whole time. Most bands in his category of music are in their 20s. Why didn't we find this guy sooner?

#2 Barcelona - "Watching Me"

Barcelona's Absolutes was my favorite album of 2009 and I still listen to the whole thing in awe of how genius it was. However, I will not hesitate to say that their follow-up released earlier this year, entitled Not Quite Yours, is a misstep for the band. Not only are the songs not as catchy, but the vibe is completely different sounding. The band decided to self-release the album and that probably has a lot to do with the poor attempt. They even raised money on Kickstarter to record the album. With no label and likely no really good producer, they fell flat. That being said, that doesn't mean that there isn't a good song on there. "Watching Me" is a nice tune that I really dig even thought it sounds like nothing I would expect from Barcelona. Hopefully they can find a good manager and a good label for their next release. Oh, and the live version of this song is good, too.

#1 Imagine Dragons - "It's Time"

Count this as another party I'm a little late to. Imagine Dragons have been pumping out EPs for the last three years, but their first full-length album, Night Visions, is due out here on September 4th. In anticipation for the record, I got their last EP called Continued Silence and have been loving every single track. They are all very good, so now the LP is something I'm super looking forward to. "It's Time" was actually on an EP they put out in March of last year and it's certainly their most popular song. It has been used all over the place from the trailer for The Perks of Being a Wallflower to Major League Baseball. It will appear again on their full-length, which is being produced by Grammy-winning producer Alex Da Kid. Expect good things to happen for these guys.

What have you been listening to lately?