Smooth Sounds From The Twin Cities

Published October 14, 2013 at 1:50 PM EDT

As he does every Monday, NPR Music writer and editor Stephen Thompson is here to freshen our playlists and recommend a new song for us.

This week, Thompson bring us a band from the Twin Cities called Poliça.

Thompson describes Poliça’s sound as “very cool, sleek, kinda slinky music.”

He singles out Poliça’s vocalist, Channy Leaneagh.

“It’s not just that she has a lovely voice, which she does — it’s what the band does to it,” Thompson told Here & Now. “They run her through all sorts of filters and Vocoders, and she’s not really articulating super-clearly to begin with, so her voice becomes almost like another machine in the mix,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s favorite song on the band’s new album, “Shulamith” is called “Smug.”

“It’s a strangely, for lack of a better word, sexy song, but it’s largely unclear what it’s even about,” Thompson said. “The sexiness of it isn’t driven by someone’s words or personality or phrasing, so much as the overall effect created.”

Guest

Stephen Thompson, NPR editor and music writer. He tweets @idislikestephen.