New Music: Mumford and Sons, The Mountain Goats, and Amy Winehouse

Despite the weather turning sour and the year drawing to a close, we have no shortage of new music these days. I haven’t been able to post that much this week (NaNoWriMo is occupying much of my free time), but there are a few great songs that I couldn’t not share.

• I’m not the hugest Mumford & Sons fan. But since I’ve recently begun playing mandolin, I’ve been trying to dabble in music that has more of a bluegrass tinge to it. Though this is mostly indie alt rock, there’s definitely a bluegrass taste to this band and this track – “Ghosts That We Knew,” which they debuted on Philly’s Radio 104.5.
• John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats captivates my attention whenever he releases anything at all. The ID3 tags that Mr. Darnielle put on this track before releasing in on Twitter define the genre as “plaguecore” as the song does happen to be about a plague. The song is called “Thucydides II-58” so my guess is that JD is talking about the Plague of Athens, which Thucydides – the Greek historian and inventor of scientific history – survived. History aside, it’s a great lo-fi acoustic track.
• And finally, two of Ms. Amy Winehouse‘s songs have been posthumously released. We have a collaboration with Nas called “Like Smoke” which juxtaposes Amy’s soulful voice with Nas’ flow, and a poppy soulful number called “Our Day Will Come.” Hearing the tracks is bittersweet; that they’re so good only shows us how great of a talent we truly lost.

Mumford & Sons – Ghosts That We Knew

The Mountain Goats – Thucydides II-58

Amy Winehouse (feat. Nas) – Like Smoke

Amy Winehouse – Our Day Will Come

Amy Winehouse: 1983 – 2011

It was with sadness that I turned on the computer after Shabbat this week to discover that Amy Winehouse had passed away. Her life was a tragically brilliant one, with her unbelievable talent weighted down by her demons of addiction. Her sultry jazz voice was well beyond her years, and the beautiful songs she wrote didn’t always seem to match her persona.

And while the gossip columnists will spend the next few weeks hypothesizing about the cause of death, at the end of the day that’s irrelevant. What we had here was a fantastic singer and songwriter who was taken well before her time – joining the terrible 27-club already populated by Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain. Now, Amy Winehouse too, is a member. She has tragically joined the ranks of a legion of brilliant musicians who all died well before their time.