Weekly Top 10: Island Songs

As per usual on Thursdays, we've got a playlist of sorts. This week, due to us being on vacation in a fairly coastal area, we decided to use island songs as our theme. What constitutes an island song in this case? A song which is more of a stand-alone track from an artist who normally wouldn't be classified as reggae, surf rock or any other type of tropical music (though there is one artist here who could fall either way, but we decided to include him). Hopefully that clears up any concerns about the omission of certain artists. Enjoy below.

John's Track of the Week: "Cuando Maravilla Fui"

Track: Cuando Maravilla Fui

Artist: El Guincho

Album: Alegranza

Year: 2008

I've been posting about older songs for the past few weeks, so I figured I'd give my take on something a little bit newer, and lesser-known.  El Guincho, the recording alias of Spanish musician Pablo Diaz-Reixa, also of Coconot.  His latest album, last year's Alegranza, is a fantastic combination of traditional Spanish music, as well as Animal Collective style freak-folk and some Caribbean afro-beat sounds.  

Out of all of the tracks on the record, I felt that "Cuando Maravilla Fui" was the one which most displayed the contrast of style and texture careening throughout Alegranza, and had the most potential listening appeal to someone who hasn't heard El Guincho before.  The track is fun and seemingly free of limitations, as is the rest of the album.  I'd highly recommend this to fans of the aforementioned Animal Collective, as well as The Ruby Suns and maybe even Vampire Weekend.  Enjoy.