M3 Volume 9… Available Now
[front and back cover art adapted from JP33.com]
There’s been a definite lack of activity around here over the last few days, mostly attributable to hosting issues and general sloth, but hopefully I can make it up to you with a little M3 Volume 9 action. That’s right, after weeks of empty promises, the hotly-anticipated (by like, two of you) ninth installment in the M3 series has finally arrived, in all its shimmering, summery glory. Despite it’s mid-August release, V9 has a definite late-spring/early-summer vibe about it, but without further adieu, let’s jump right into the tracklisting.Getting the proverbial party started is Travis’ vastly-underrated “Writing To Reach You”, a song which bore its way into British skulls via extensive radio play (it was the band’s seventh-highest charting single) in the late 90’s but went largely overlooked overseas, which is more or less always the case in these situations. Next at bat are a pair of similar-sounding sunny tracks from indie-pop darlings Death Cab For Cutie and Voxtrot, followed by Doves’ “Black and White Town”, which has proven over time to be one of the better singles of 2005. Next up is a stone-cold classic, The Cure’s timeless “Just Like Heaven”, which is the absolute favorite song of the absolute coolest girl I know, thus mandating its inclusion in the mix. The Britpop emphasis continues with Guillemots’ playful “Annie, Let’s Not Wait”, which keeps the vibe intact as we move onto Doves’ second appearance on the compilation, “There Goes The Fear”, possibly the finest track of their fairly-esteemed career, and Stars round out the first half of the mix with their excellent b-side, “Petit Mort”.The second half of the mix sees a shift in production values and brings the focus back to the U.S. with a bevy of lesser-known gems, as two blogger favorites, The Spinto Band and Page France, contribute the best songs of their respective careers in “Oh Mandy” and “Chariot”. A trifecta of brilliant yet underheard tracks follow Sub Poppers’ The Pernice Brothers’ “One Foot In The Grave” leading the way, a great track despite its blatant nicking of the intro to Ted Leo and The Pharmacist’s “Biomusicology”. Next up is a gem from the criminally underhyped Headlights, “TV” (one of the better tracks of 2006), and rounding out the trilogy is “Treetops” from virtually unknown Beat Radio, coming at you straight off the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Rounding out things is Islands’ always-delightful “Rough Gem”, which segues perfectly into the album’s final track, “Black”, brought to you courtesy of Okkervil River.Since this is the first M3 since the relaunch of the site let me just remind you that all songs included on any M3 compilation automatically come with the highest recommendation and those who would rather download the entire thing as a .zip file - as opposed to downloading each track individually - can do so below as well. I hope you have as much fun listening to this as I did making it, and I can promise that things will return to normal around here now that our hosting issues and the posting of M3V9 are behind us.
Download: M3 Volume 9 [follow link]
M3 Volume 9:
01. “Writing To Reach You” - Travis
02. “405″ - Death Cab For Cutie
03. “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives” - Voxtrot
04. “Black and White Town” - Doves
05. “Just Like Heaven” - The Cure
06. “Annie, Let’s Not Wait” - Guillemots
07. “There Goes The Fear” - Doves
08. “Petit Mort” - Stars
09. “Oh Mandy” - The Spinto Band
10. “Chariot” - Page France
11. “One Foot In The Grave” - Pernice Brothers
12. “TV” - Headlights
13. “Treetops” - Beat Radio
14. “Rough Gem” - Islands
15. “Black” - Okkervil River