Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - "Kindness Be Conceived" ft. Joanna Newsom

Here we have some pretty charming alternative folk music brought to you from Portland based group Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.

The track is cut down to its bare minimum in terms of musicianship making the primary focus vocal harmony between Thao Nguyen and Joanna Newsom. It's a pretty grand harmony at that, both vocalists have a lovely high singing voice that at many times seem to match and become one. Although, it is pretty clear that Joanna has the more powerful voice of the two and therefore shine, but altogether this is a very pretty song to swoon to.

Robin Pecknold- “Olivia, in a Separate Bed”

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes has released this song demo where he pines for the love of a woman named Olivia. The song being a demo is pretty stripped down, and features Pecknold's strong vocals over some lightly strummed acoustic guitar. The vocals in combo with the lyrics display a great contradiction of beauty and sadness. In some ways the song resembles a courtly love poem of a man being smitten with someone he has little contact with. It is an uncharacteristically sad tune for Pecknold and he has said it is likely going to change. This track offers the range of his songwriting and some of the different directions that Fleet Foxes or Pecknold himself could take, which is something I wouldn't mind seeing.