Today’s theme is a sad one. Goodbyes are hard but sometimes a sweet melody can help ease the pain. Sometimes, not so much. Still, we have to carry on and for that we turn to the Postmarks. Their self titled album from last year is littered with hushed heartbreak delivered in sugar sweet tones of sadness. The video for “Goodbye” is suitably charming and painfully autumnal. It looks like the most melancholy children’s book ever come to life (Madeline and the Bad Break-Up, perhaps) and also reminds us that it’s just about time for their next album! Hopefully the band can wipe away the tears soon and get it together in time to soundtrack the broken hearts of this autumn.

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It’s hard to imagine a meeting between Marc Bolan and Prince. What would the two pint sized wizards talk about? How hard it is to find pants in x-tra small? How easy it is to score with women when your talent far outstrips your shoe size? I guess we’ll never know, but we can listen to a musical mash-up of the two thanks to Pop Levi. While the UK based Levi’s first album, The Return to Form Black Magick Party, quite pleasingly leans toward the mystical bump and thud of T. Rex, his new song seems to lean toward recapturing “Kiss”-era Prince and dipping it in some pretty thick glam sauce. We’ve got video evidence here but a quick trip to Levi’s MySpace page also provides a few more previews of the forthcoming Never Never Love album, which will be unleashed sexily later this summer.

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My Bloody Underground, BJM’s first full length after 2004’s Dig! documentary, shows the band reinventing itself with even more elements of shoegaze and noise pop. It’s their best and most trippy album in many moons, and to celebrate, Anton’s made equally psychedelic videos for every song on the album. The footage includes shots of the singer getting a lip tattoo, shadow dancing, and starting fires in his underwear. Prepare yourself and click on the vids below:

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Hey there, Bunky. Did you have a rough night? Maybe there was a cat outside your window singing opera or the neighborhood canine population was auditioning for AmIdol. Perhaps you were up all night wishing you had studied law, medicine or something that actually came in handy later in life. Are you having a tough morning? Maybe you woke up alone. Maybe you didn’t wake up alone. Maybe your cellmate, um I mean, cubemate will! not! stop! TALKING! What you need is Cub. Really, trust me. It’ll make everything okay.

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Orange Juice worship will get you far with the AllMusic blog. Chic + the Velvet Underground is the kind of musical equation that can’t be topped when calculated properly. Quick examples: Edywn and the lads on “I Can’t Help Myself”, Franz Ferdinand on “Take Me Out”, and now the Lodger’s “The Good Old Days”. The UK trio’s first album was fleetingly great indie pop with nice hooks and some songs you’d want to throw on a mixtape, but it lacked the one big song to help them break out and really be something special. “The Good Old Days” is the one, a sparkling summer jam for the sweater set to fall in love with. The soon to be released (May 19th on Slumberland) album Life is Sweet is destined to be a classic if the rest of the tunes are up to this level of gooey goodness. Keep your fingers crossed …

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Photo Credit: Ginny Suss

It took two long years, but Al Green’s Lay It Down is just about ready for the street: the new album drops on May 27 from Blue Note. It was produced by drummer Ahmir Thompson (a.k.a. ?uestlove) from Roots, and keyboard giant James Poyser, whose work with Erykah Badu and Common are well known. Some of the other players are heavyweights as well: the Dap King Horns are part of the mix as are the voices of Corrine Bailey Rae, Anthony Hamilton, and John Legend. Rounding out the band with Thompson and Poyser are guitarist Spanky Alford from the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and Joss Stone’s band, and Jill Scott and bassist Adam Blackstone (Jill Scott, DJ Jazzy Jeff), to name a few more. While it’s true that some superstar collaborations have been underwhelming, there is something kinetic about the vibe on this set.

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Tilly and the Wall’s first two albums (Wild Like Children and Bottoms of Barrels) are wildly passionate, barely under control blasts of post-teen angst and desperately romantic emotions that spill out of the grooves like big fat teardrops.

Their big gimmick was using tap dancing as a rhythmic base and it worked pretty well, though it may have distracted listeners with short attention spans into thinking the group was some kind of novelty act, which they most definitely were not. No, they were dead serious every minute — until now it seems. Their new single “Beat Control” is a silly, dancefloor-friendly slab of chunky disco with no audible tap dancing, cheerleader-esque backing vocals and few deep sentiments beyond letting the beat control your body and getting as wild and loose as possible. The song isn’t on their upcoming album (O, which has a June 17th release date scheduled) so maybe the goofy, light-hearted sound of the song would be out of place among all the broken-hearted intensity, or maybe the record is so amazingly good there was no room to include a brilliant pop single.

Check out the video:

That last time most of us probably remember seeing Jewel, it was back in 2003 when she was getting hosed down in front of a fire truck in her video for “Intuition.” A catchy, irony-soaked ditty about commercialism that — ultimate irony — ended up helping sell a bunch of Schick Intuition razors, “Intuition” was a hit (although the album 0304 sold poorly) and helped re-invent the often dire, if still cute, singer/songwriter into a campy pop pin-up.

“Intuition” also threatened to alienate most of her fanbase who misunderstood Jewel’s intentions and brought on accusations that the singer had sold out. Not surprisingly, Jewel’s 2006 follow-up Goodbye Alice in Wonderland was a return to her introspective folk roots. The album wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t have any strong radio hits and largely went unnoticed.

In 2008, Jewel has reinvented herself yet again as a contemporary country artist, and though it’s unclear what her fanbase will make of the switch, based on the lead-off single “Stronger Woman,” she may have finally found her true self. Hooky with a message of self-empowerment to woman that is both personal and universal, the track makes the most of Jewel’s knack for twangy, intimate melodic pop. Plus, as evidenced by her gold open-toe high-heels and shiny, metal girdle-belt, she hasn’t sacrificed any of the stylish glamour she’s earned over the past five years.

Furthermore, given the move toward stylish divas like Faith Hill, Shania Twain and now Carrie Underwood in country music, Jewel’s mix of high glam and down-home twang is even more justified. And heck, the woman grew up using an outhouse and yodeling in Alaska. If that ain’t country I don’t know what is.

Check out the video for “Stronger Woman” here.