September tunes

My son got an iPod for his birthday today and he is stoked to start making his own playlists and rock out in his own little ear-budded world. Sigh. Mini me. Here are the highlights from things I've heard over the past month and a bit:


10 - "Long Distance", Sam Gellaitry

Following the lead of other songs I've featured here like "This Girl" and "Sparta", "Long Distance" is hopping on the horn section bandwagon. Real deep lyrics on this one. She a talk to me, and me a talk to she, but the day is coming that we must meet personally. Sam is 19 and from Scotland, if you're keeping track.

9 - "3 a.m.", Honne

Honne's vocals don't tend to change much from one song to the next so I get caught up in the sameness of some of their releases. I tend to prefer their more uptempo releases...oddly enough "The Night" was my gateway to Honne and it's one of their dragger songs.

8 - "Friends (feat. Bon Iver and Kanye West)", Francis and the Lights

"I'm Francis". Awesome. Jason DeRulo aside, you don't hear a lot of artists name-check themselves in songs these days. Francis and the Lights seems to be primarily referred to as the "musical project" of Francis Farewell Starlite and "Friends" was first heard in Chance the Rapper's "Summer Friends", a track from Coloring Book that has gotten a lot of love online. I warned you recently that anything Justin Vernon gets involved in will likely end up on this blog. I'm just following through. New album drops September 30!

7 - "No Room in Frame", Death Cab for Cutie

DCFC opened up their Osheaga set last month with this track from Kintsugi. It occurs to me as I listen to this: can pop music still have guitars in it? I feel like as soon as you stick a guitar in a song, it becomes pop/rock at best. This is pretty solid pop to me, but format-wise, it probably falls in the cracks between alternative and pop. The deadly adult-alternative/AAA perhaps?

6 - "Don't Fight It", Gavin Turek

I'm trying to think of what 70s song the chorus makes me think of. The keys section in The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes"? I hate it when something sounds like something else and I can't place it. Anyway, if you're hard up for some light disco, then definitely hit play on this one.

5 - "Kevin (feat. Leon Bridges)", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Yet another PSA track from M&RL. This time, they're warning about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. FYI Leon Bridges should be guesting on more songs.

4 - "Drivers", Nick Leng

Ahh, sweet quirky percussion! Nick Leng hails from South Africa but now records out of San Diego. This is the title track off his June EP release. It looks like he has released a few other singles online, either to stream on Soundcloud or to purchase via bandcamp.

3 - "Brazil", Declan McKenna

No this was never submitted to be the theme of the Rio Olympics. Apparently, this 18 year-old Brit won Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition in 2015 and "Brazil" is written in protest of FIFA "for awarding the World Cup to Brazil in 2014 without addressing the extensive and deep poverty affecting the people of the nation" (thanks Wikipedia). This song had a minor run on American alternative stations earlier this year but does not seem to have put a dent in the Canadian airwaves.

2 - "Say It (feat. Tove Lo)", Flume

Flume is finally getting some mainstream shine with a cleaned-up version of "Never Be Like You". One of Australia's best electronic musicians, Flume has been remixing tunes and releasing albums for almost five years already and, now that Major Lazer, DJ Snake and the Chainsmokers have blown the EDM floodgates wide open, Flume might prove to be a good radio fit. This is my favourite track from his 2016 album Skin.

1 - "Leave Me Alone (feat. Shay Lia)", Kaytranada

I love this album. More tracks to follow in the coming months. Tropical deep house lovers to the dance floor please.

If I'm lucky, I might be able to crank another missive out later this month.