Joshua James’s “Dangerous” is this week’s song of the week.  “The Sun Is Always Brighter” is another recording that informed the vibe of Deconstruction, though clearly not as informative as Rick James’s “Bust’n Out.”

I like the way Joshua’s songs are served by his recorded performance; that the performance of each song becomes integral to the song itself.  Many of Bob Dylan’s recordings are this way.  It will be interesting to hear his next release which is supposed to have a bit more drive to it.

This week’s song of the week comes to us from the same musical hot spot as last week’s selection, Austin Texas.  It is as if that place has some kind of happening music scene.  Who knew?

Spoon’s album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”, which, despite what you may think, is not a tribute to our beloved 4th state, has been a spirit lifting addition to the rotation here in the McRoberts household.  Any of the songs from this record are worth featuring, but for the sake of keeping with my title, I’d suggest checking out “The Underdog.”

Spoon has a way of making quirky music that keeps its vibe and avoids being awkward.  The Underdog has an almost Billy Joel-esque character to it without taking us all the way back to Allentown.   Of course, any song with studio-recorded hand-clapping makes it to my “heavy rotation” list immediately.

I’ve been on something of an ambient rock kick for the last year or so.  My intro to ambient music began where most peoples does, but moved quickly into Sigur Ros (mainly the album Takk..) and most recently the likes of Eluvium and Mogwai.

But the band I have most enjoyed getting to know has been Explosions In The Sky. Something about the grainier, more earthy “people playing instruments” vibe has me addicted. The energy that makes my favorite Sigur Ros moments mafical is far more prevalent in EITS’s recordings.

For a perfect example of what I’m getting at, check out Catastrophe and Cure from the album “All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.” It’s this week’s Song Of The Week.

I picked up The National’s album “Boxer” after Paste Magazine rated it one of the best albums of the year last year.  It took me a few listens to start to appreciate Matt Berninger’s voice, reminicent of Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) without being as much of a characiture.

While the whole record should be emraced as a whole, the song that hooked me (and many others, it seems) is the song Fake Empire.  This is one of the records that informed my decision making during the production of Deconstruction.

This week’s song of the week is The Broken West’s “Terror for Two” from their newest release “Now or Heaven.” As a fan of 80’s New Wave, the record touches on some of the same melancholy tones as The Smiths or The Cars, but does so while engaging in larger subject matter than ones own broken heart.

I was originally captured by the mod-rock meets alt-country vibe of their 2007 release “I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On” and was really pleased to hear them experiment even further outside with “Now or Heaven.”  Melody holds the new album together just as it does “I Can’t Go On…”

If you’d like to “Dig Deeper,” Check out “Down in the Valley” from “I Can’t Go On…”