Ry Cooder
BLUES
Mutt Romney's Blues
Ry Cooder, from the forthcoming Election Special (Nonesuch); streaming here.
Every dog has its day, some more than others. A galumphing, clanking blues from the politically-minded guitarist has Seamus the roof-riding Irish setter warning a nation about his master – woof, woof, woof, indeed.
FOLK
Titanic
Tim Heidecker; streaming here.
Tim Heidecker is a comedian, but with his allegorical, fiddled, nasal-voiced, 15-minute-plus epic on the boat too big to fail – as well as the movie it inspired – he beats Bob Dylan to the punch, not punch line. (It was announced last week that Uncle Zimmy's upcoming Tempest album would include a 14-minute Titanic track.)
ELECTRONICA
This Isn't Helping
Shout Out Out Out Out, from Spanish Moss and Total Loss (Six Shooter); streaming here.
There's a percolating bustle to the new one from the Edmonton electro-popsters, and yet a robotic vocalist is frustrated, glum and resistant to the droning bop (and, perhaps, energy drinks).
FOLK
Christ for President (live)
Wilco; streaming here.
Step off, Obama. Withdraw, Romney. The carpenter named Nazarene is just the ticket. Jeff Tweedy and Wilco opened their set at this weekend's Newport Folk with a 1998 tune that adapts rabble-rousing lyrics penned by Woody Guthrie.
VIDEO
Laura
Bat for Lashes, from the forthcoming The Haunted Man; streaming here.
"Drape your arms around me and softly say, 'Can we dance upon the tables again?' " An inspirational ballad deservedly receives an elegant video, in which the dreamy-eyed Natasha Khan comforts someone in a "pale blue dream" with empathetic choreography.
Brad Wheeler