Song of the Day: Vaadat Charigim - Ein Li Makom

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Ein Li Makom” by Vaadat Charigim from the 2015 album Sinking As a Stone on Burger Records.

Vaadat Charigim - Ein Li Makom (MP3)

We're not going to make a big deal about this being Israeli shoegaze - only because we've done that already here and here. We also won't again try to justify the appeal of the Hebrew lyrics, which while they can galvanize listeners who speak Hebrew and perhaps already understand the Israeli experience, also serve as emotive cues for deeper, inarticulable feelings that can be inferred regardless of language. We'll just note that Vaadat Charigim's second album, Sinking As a Stone, is a terrific blend of moody and atmospheric psych rock, post-punk and dreamy shoegaze that adeptly follows the premise of their debut. While 2013's The World Is Well Lost seemed a more stricken response to a life surrounded by chaos and war, Sinking As a Stone is an even more thoughtful existential inquiry into a state of martial malaise (the album's name literally translates from Hebrew to "The Boredom Sinks In"). But never will you consider yourself anything but enthralled as you listen to today's featured song, "Ein Li Makom" (meaning "I Have No Place").

The only place you'll find Vaadat Charigim right now is in their home town of Tel Aviv. They have a show scheduled there in August, but otherwise, there are no future dates on their calendar. While we wait for them to return to the Northwest, keeping checking out their Facebook page watch the full performance of their recent in-studio session at KEXP when they were recently in Seattle: