Three Must-Hear New Songs From The Vaselines, Young Buffalo, Jenny Hval And Susanna

Three very different projects caught my ear in the past week -- both for the songs and the stories behind them.

The first is The Vaselines, the Scottish band who formed in 1987 and is now releasing its third album. Yes, you read that right. Three albums in 27 years. The group broke up just as its debut record was released. But Kurt Cobain and Nirvana were fans (they covered the Vaselines on Incesticide and MTV Unplugged in New York), so the legend slowly grew -- until its members finally reunited and produced a second record, 2010's Sex With An X.

Now, V For Vaselines comes out on Oct. 7, but you can check out the lead single, “One Lost Year,” right now. I mean it. Right now. Do it.

The second track comes from Young Buffalo, an indie pop band out of Oxford, Mississippi. You may know this particular Oxford as the home of William Faulkner -- or Eli Manning, depending on how you spend your free time. Young Buffalo's new album doesn't come out until February of next year. But to keep your interest, the band is releasing a cover of an old Brian Eno song -- "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" -- the lead-off track from Eno’s second album, the wacky yet magisterial Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), from 1974.

Eno covers are pretty rare; his own recordings are so sui generis that finding a way in can be tough. Perhaps taking a cue from Eno’s description of another track from that record, “Third Uncle,” as “the fastest song ever written,” Young Buffalo plunge through their version, upping the manic ante of the original.

The third project is a striking combination of two of Norway’s most distinctive and occasionally unsettling singers: Jenny Hval and Susanna (full name Susanna Wallumrød – she has recorded some beautiful albums under that name for the ECM label). Their album, Meshes Of Voice, comes out tomorrow. In reviewing the album for Wondering Sound, I called it “a fever dream of sensuality and darkness,” which could sound like purple prose -- until you hear the record. The two voices entwine around each other, or echo each other, or answer each other, over a haunting mix of piano or guitar with wisps of electronics, rumbling drones, and occasional bursts of noise. “I Have Walked This Body” is one of several killer tracks here, and the one you can hear in advance of the release.