Teasing their upcoming SXSW showcase show, 4AD is giving away free downloads of a mini, five-song compilation, featuring new or recent songs from five of the label's acts: M. Ward, St. Vincent, Anni Rossi and Camera Obscura, who contribute the show-stopping title track to their upcoming album, My Maudlin Career. The track has been floating around the blogosphere for a month now, but it's worth downloading if you haven't heard it yet. Filtering the Scottish group's doe-eyed indie-pop through the wall of Jesus and Mary Chain-esque haze and culminating in a ringing guitar solo and defiant declarations of "I don't want to be sad again," it bodes very, very well for the full-length.
Meanwhile, St. Vincent's eager, twitchy—and in its climactic moments, roaring—little song "The Strangers" almost makes me understand why so many people love St. Vincent. Almost.
