Happy February! First up, I am pleased to announce that only two of the songs below are brought to you by Disclosure, Tom Misch, CHVRCHES or Jamie xx. So I'm mixing it up a little more this month as compared to last month. Let's get it started.
10 - "The Trouble With Us", Marcus Marr & Chet Faker
I am an unabashed Chet Faker fan. This is some nice stuff coming out of a collaboration with British DJ Marcus Marr. The two got together to put out an EP called Work about two months ago and it works for me. The single has hit the top 10 in Australia, Belgium and now the New Releases chart on this blog. Congrats, guys!
9 - "Grace", Jacob Banks
Once Leon Bridges broke open the floodgates on the old-school soul sound becoming relevant in modern recordings again, it seems to have popped up all over the place. "S.O.B." had some of that gospel rock and now on "Grace", 23-year-old Banks fuses soulful vocals with electronic and symphonic music for a really nice package. iTunes says the song is explicit, but it lies.
8 - "Unlearn the Hatred", New Order
It's been a long climb for New Order to get on this list. I first heard the new album, front to back, while I had a date lunch with my wife in a nice local establishment. After buying Music Complete, while I liked many of the songs on the album (including "Restless", "Singularity", "Superheated" and "People on the High Line") but it took a while for one to really sink in. This is the one. Harder-hitting than many of their former synth masterpieces, "Hatred" has a good thing going on. I'm a fan of them. Possibly in part due to "Regret" being one of my 10 favourite songs of all time.
7 - "Gibraltar", Beirut
The first genre Wikipedia attributes to Beirut's music is "Balkan folk". Yeah, when I think of Santa Fe and music, I think Balkan folk. Gibraltar is Track 1 on Beirut's latest album, No No No, released last June. Apparently the album hit the top 50 of the Hot 100 - I suppose they have some sort of a following then.
6 - "Time to Run", Lord Huron
I'm really falling for Lord Huron. I'd still not gotten enough of "Lonesome Dreams" (featured last month) when I stumbled onto this track. Sorry, "Dreams", "Run" blows you out of the water. This risks getting as much run around here as "Fool for Love" did. High standards. Enjoy yet another oaty video from Lord Huron.
5 - "Have Mercy", Eryn Allen Kane
This one's been in the hopper for about a year. A very simple song with not much going on lyrically, but some powerhouse vocals. Kane has worked with Prince already so she's being noticed by some big players. Her debut album Aviary, Act 1 was just released. As in her release party is in Chicago this next week. Cool fact: this song is all Kane's vocals - no instruments.
4 - "Still", The Japanese House
Amber Bain is the woman behind The Japanese House and this song was all over tastemaker best-of lists last year. It's pretty fantastic. The title track from Pools to Bathe In wasnt so much my cup of tea, but this is a beautiful piece of music. Interestingly enough the EP Pools was released in October and then The Japanese House released a second EP, Clean, just a month later.
3 - "Hark (feat. Alfa Mist)", Tom Misch
Another easy-listening instrumental slow jam from Tom. Not really much more to say. By the way, Alfa Mist is a British DJ. Feel free to check this out for more info.
2 - "Tearing Me Up", Bob Moses
Cue the Canadian content! I was a little surprised when searching around for tidbits on Bob Moses to find that they had an interview sitting up on Billboard (read it here). There's a lot in this song that sounds reminiscent of last month's feature "Nightcall", but it's much smoother.
1 - "High Enough to Carry You Over", CHVRCHES
I love when bands can switch up the vocalist. I love CHVRCHES for switching vocalist from male to female as well. Martin Doherty's tracks have a very different feel to them than Lauren Mayberry's and they combination switch things up nicely when listening to a CHVRCHES album as a whole.
Thanks for listening!!
