Under the wire! As opposed to the list of things I've been listening to over the past month, it's more what I was listening to in April. Too much time this month hanging out with family and out-of-town friends. Priorities! Anyway, please lend an ear anyway.
10 - "Be Mine", YesYou
This song takes me back to some of those tracks on Moby's Play album: techno laid on top of a bluesy vocal sample. These guys hail all the way from Brisbane and have been recording for over five years. Looks like their debut album was due out "early this year" but I haven't seen any evidence that it's out yet.
9 - "Ch-ching", Chairlift
It's seriously been eight years since Chairlift's "Bruises" was used to launch the 4th generation of the iPod Nano. I still have one of those bad boys and I'm still listening to Chairlift. "Ch-ching" came out last year but I only came across it a couple of months ago. I'll have to listen a bit more to their latest album which apparently name-checks Ottawa in one of the track titles.
8 - "Freazy", Wolf Alice
About a year ago, North Londoners Wolf Alice released Your Love is Cool, an album which spawned a moderate alternative hit in "Bros". Not quite as big a hit as "Moaning Lisa Smile" (a track that earned the band a Grammy nod), nor as catchy to my ear as another song on the album "Freazy". Not too sure what is up with this video, but it seems like they had fun doing it.
7 - "Fight for Us (feat. Rochelle Jordan)", Sepalcure
And we're back to Brooklyn for a slow jam dressed up with some twitchy beats. Sepalcure is Travis Stewart and Praveen Sharma and they released their self-titled (and critically acclaimed) debut album a few years ago. Word on the street is that they were supposed to follow this up with another last month but, as with the YesYou album, I see no evidence that it came out.
6 - "Guard Down (feat. Kanye West and Diddy)", Ty Dolla $ign
Ty$ managed to release six singles off this album since late last year and this wasn't one of them. Regardless, I somehow heard it (I don't typically trawl through hip-hop websites so the entire genre tends to fall through the cracks) and after enough time it took hold. If you're wondering about Diddy's involvement, the spoken word intro and outdo are all him.
5 - "To Know You", Wild Nothing
Wikipedia lists Wild Nothing as an indie rock/dream pop band. There's definitely an element of chillwave in behind the guitars. Some of the vocals remind me of Washed Out. While the track is included on their early 2016 release Life of Pause, it and three other tracks were actually released as singles prior to the album's release.
4 - "Smooth Sailin'", Leon Bridges
Those who have read this blog over the past couple of years know that there are some aspects of songs that draw me in right away. One of those is a little call-response between male and female vocalists. Leon Bridges is one smooth dude and that little aspect of the chorus really hits home for me. Ever since "Coming Home" blew up, I've kept an ear out for Bridges and this is the first of his releases I've enjoyed this much.
3 - "Cheap Thrills", Sia
Apparently now this song is circulating on radio with some Sean Paul mixed in. Not sure that's necessary. As with most of the other songs on Sia's latest album, this song was originally written for someone else (namely, Rihanna, in this case) but then reclaimed by Sia herself. Sia has written so many songs for other artists, it's actually fairly impressive. I've mentioned it here before, but I still go back and listen to her early work with Zero7 and love it tremendously.
2 - "Skipping Stones (feat. Jhene Aiko)", Gallant
Apparently this dude had the sneaky best moment of Coachella this year when Seal hopped on stage with him to perform a couple of songs, including "Weight in Gold", the song that introduce Gallant to the world. Jhene Aiko is a beautiful fit on this track and it certainly looks like Gallant is on track to become the next Miguel.
1 - "Feedback", Kanye West
Kanye is the new Prince. Good luck finding anything of his to share online. There are a lot of really, um, interesting "covers" of his TLOP material online. Guitar covers, theatrical reenactments, learn-to-play keyboard tutorials, you name it. Anyway, best of luck finding a clean version of this song online. But do look. Don't sleep on it, have a good snoooooooze.
Thanks for listening!!
