14 months after my last monthly post, I'm daring to try this again. Maybe it will stick, maybe it won't. I'm going to take this opportunity to throw out 10 songs that I'm listening to lately that I haven't yet put up in this space. Maybe you'll find one of them interesting. Maybe not.
10 - "Ms. Communication", theMIND feat. Sun
Turn the bass up, and get ready for a little head nod. This comes to us from American theMIND with help from Montreal producer Da-P and Montreal vocalist Sun. Definitely seems like a housed-up Anderson .paak jam. Which is fine by me.
9 - "Older", Parcels
And now for something completely different... This is not the kind of song I would normally latch on to. And yet... sometimes a little Australian funk-pop takes things to the next level.
8 - "Hyperreal", Flume feat. Kučka
This song is not hot off the presses. It's so old that this still photograph video has somehow already racked up 6M views. THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE HERE. This song can be found on a companion EP to his 2016 release, Skin (the song most people know from that album is "Never Be Like You", though I think "Say It" was far superior...both songs were nominated for the APRA for "Most Played Australian Work" and the former release won the award.). I was just reminded via the Interwebs that Skin won the Grammy for best Electronic album in 2017. Cool.
7 - "Meridian", ODESZA
These guys from Seattle exploded across the internet in 2015 when it seemed that a new song was topping the Hype Machine charts every few weeks. I like me some electronic music, but their material never totally resonated with me. I think the first ODESZA track that I liked a fair amount was a remix of Emancipator's "Eve II"...but I like "Meridian" much better. It definitely reminds me of my past obsession with Deep Forest to some extent. LOL. Somehow, their song "Line of Sight" hit the US Alternative charts last year. I'm going to have to give that a listen now...I'm back. Song was just OK. Post-apocalyptic robot buddy video was neat. Poor chicken.
6 - "Not a Love Song", bülow
I'm starting to cheat a bit here. I haven't exactly posted this song explicitly on this site before, though it was on my list of favourite songs from last year. Some of the songs further on down the page are on the 2017 list as well. I didn't think that this song was getting around at all, but then it popped up on the Stingray "Hits" playlist the other day. Bizarre. Is this the best musical use of the finger-cheek-pop sound since Men Without Hats' "Pop Goes the World"? Coincidentally, it looks like bülow is going to be moving to Canada from the Netherlands this spring (her EP is produced by Mike Wise, who also produced Canadian acts Virginia to Vegas and Scott Helman)
5 - "Don't Tell Me", Ruel
Um, how old is this kid? Answer: barely 15. I really like the sound of this. Hozier/Bieber's love child? Ruel is just getting started so there's really no sign of whether he's going somewhere
at this point. Time will tell.
4 - "Cold Little Heart", Michael Kiwanuka
For any of you who enjoyed the TV series Big Little Lies, you should recognize this right away as the track playing over the opening credits. I had never quite figured out how Leon Bridges broke through while Kiwanuka's sort of stayed on the sidelines...but then I found this article in The Guardian that shed a little light. His I'm Getting Ready EP from 2011 is fantastic (it later got folded into his debut album Home Again).
3 - "Here if You Want (Pale Blue)", MOSSS
I love the sound of fingers slipping along guitar strings. I love falsetto. I am indifferent to triple letters in words.
2 - "Belong", FYFE feat. Kimbra
I listened to FYFE's "Solace" quite a bit back in 2013 and then never really heard anything from him (him's name actually being Paul Dixon) until this. This song had a much more pop feel to it and I love the melody in the verses. Kimbra has also darted in and out of my consciousness over the years since she and Gotye blew minds with "Somebody that I Used to Know". I'm hoping to see her show when she comes through town this summer.
1 - "Would You Ever", Skrillex feat. Poo Bear
This has become a total earworm for me. Apparently this came out at the start of last summer, but I only heard it for the first time in the fall. "Would You Ever" was released with three other tracks at the time, but has not put out any new material since. Wikipedia says that the song became a moderate hit in Australia, Canada (really?), Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. If you're wondering, Poo Bear is a major Justin Bieber collaborator and co-wrote "Where are U Now" and "What Do You Mean".
Enjoy!
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Music and me: 2017
We have a pulse!
Wow, I'm back. It's been 12 months since my last post here and I had no idea that would be the case for 2017. Life got busier, I got more interested in podcasts and other things and generally spent less time poking around the Internet for new music. Hopefully, if there were awesome songs that I missed this past year, they'll turn up somehow a year (or more) down the line and I'll catch up at that point.
That being said, I did still spend a little bit of time checking in with my typical haunts (The Hype Machine, Spotify, the UK and Australian charts) as well as keep Shazam by my side when out in public (seriously, you never know when you'll hear that next special song) so I do have some finds to share with you. For whatever reason, I found myself listening to a fair amount of "Top 40" radio on the road this year (my kids have caught the countdown bug, it seems) so a few more mainstream hits than normal caught my attention in 2017.
As with the past couple of years, I've put together a youTube playlist of all of the songs on my top 100 list for the year. Click here to go listen to the whole list. The songs are organized from #100 down to #1 so nothing is spoiled by just starting at the top of the list. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my musical tastes and don't want to suffer listening through a bunch of lame tunes, I like accessible pop and electronic music with the occasional alt-rock or folk track mixed in. Strong melodies, syncopation, Scandinavianism, songs featuring male and female vocals, use of strings and fun with rhythm structure tend to score bonus points. Lyrics tend to take a back seat to the feel of a song. Metal and country tend to be non-starters with me.
My top 100 list is made up of songs that I heard for the first time either this year or late last year and figured prominently on my 2017 soundtrack. Missing from the list are two songs with no youTube presence: "Only God Knows" (#84) by Young Fathers featuring the Leith Congregational Choir and "Welcome" (#64) by Oded Tzur, Shai Maestro, Petros Klimpanis and Ziv Ravitz. These songs are sort of polar opposites too, one a punkish romp by a Scottish hip-hop band featuring a choir and the other an extended instrumental piece by a jazz quartet. If these tracks eventually surface, I'll add them to the list.
Enough with the pre-amble. Unlike last year where I just ran through my top 10, this year I'm going to highlight a few songs from the list that may be of interest. Let's get into it...
#89: "No Reason", Bonobo feat. Nick Murphy
Bonobo: disambiguation. This is the British DJ, not the monkey. I started listening to Bonobo when The North Borders was released in 2013. His music seemed to be a natural progression from the Four Tet songs I was listening to at the time. In the time since that album came out, I've gone all in on Chad Faker, a.k.a. Nick Murphy. When I saw this pairing, my interest was piqued immediately. Enjoy the trippy visuals.
#83: "Like Really", Oddisee
Another vet from my playlists from years gone by. "Like Really" is from his 2017 album The Iceberg and, as with his other material, offers some social and political commentary. I love Oddissee's flow and am blown away by the 15-second blasts at :54 and 2:12.
#73: "Be About You", Winston Surfshirt
This has very much been one of my jams lately. WS hails from Sydney and I get a mix of Anderson .paak and MGMT vibes from them. This is one breezy little number and should help get me through the winter.
#55: "In Your Eyes", BADBADNOTGOOD feat. Charlotte Day Wilson
I had the fortune of seeing BBNG play Montreal's Osheaga festival this past summer. Primarily, they are known for serving up instrumental jazz and were a good listen. But wow - those are some smoky soulful vocals from Charlotte Day Wilson! This Pitchfork review has me very intrigued to listen to some more. Shouts out to the CBC.
#44: "Not Gonna Let You Walk Away", LOLO
After I fell in love with "Year Round Summer of Love" enough to put it on my top 500, LOLO has become one of those artists that I will listen to whenever she releases something new. Just to see if I'm still in. I'm definitely in on this one. Doesn't sound like someone I'd want to cause trouble for in a relationship. This is off her debut full-length album, one that got some very positive reviews. Wishing I had time to listen to all the music. Sigh.
#36: "Best to You", Blood Orange
The sound of Dev Hynes a.k.a. Blood Orange is really tough to categorize. I find that his work is equal parts WOW!LISTEN! and WHOAnotinterested. The female vocals on this track come courtesy of Lorely Rodriguez, otherwise known as Empress Of. I kind of want to dub myself something like that. Listener Of. Seems sort of vague, I suppose.
#31: "Second Nature", Stalking Gia
I know nothing about Stalking Gia. I searched. Found a FB page. Seems like this might actually be a woman actually named Gia. So am I stalking her? Self-fulfilling prophecy? She's from NYC and "Second Nature" was sampled on a song from the recent Blackbear album.
#28: "Good Love", Zola Blood
If "Second Nature" was your cup of tea, I suspect this song might be too. A little more electronic-feeling, but a similar vibe. I'm listening to this one quite a bit right now, as well as "Nothing", another track from the London group's most recent album, Infinite Games.
#25: "Who Tells Your Story", The Roots featuring Common and Ingrid Michaelson
I am NOT a musical guy. What little I have heard of the Hamilton soundtrack convinces me that I couldn't listen to it straight up and enjoy it. Something about the affectations and enunciation - possibly with the visual performance to accompany it, perhaps that would work. But The Hamilton Mixtape...this ended up being one of my favourite albums this year. And this was the song that stood out the most. It caught my ear after "Helpless" and "My Shot", but it came out on top and I guess that's what matters. I forgot how much I used to like listening to Common. Still love his voice and flow.
#23: "Yellow Eyes (acoustic)", Rayland Baxter
This one goes out to my friend who strongly suggested that I see Rayland play the Ottawa Cityfolk festival in the fall of 2016. It occurred to me, after I picked up his Soho acoustic EP earlier this year that some of the songs from his set were performed in the acoustic style of the EP rather than the studio version, possibly to promote the EP. I remember thinking that the acoustic portion of the set was my favourite part so when I eventually got this EP, I played the heck out of it. This was my favourite of the album's five tracks.
#22: "Out of Sight", Jonwayne
This song wins the belt for "biggest comeback": going from being generally disliked on the first listen to becoming a bit of an earworm for me in the end. Is that some backwards commitment?
#19: "Elegy", Leif Vollebekk
I remember hearing this come on CBC Radio 1 in the van while driving with my wife. We had been talking about something and the song was so interesting that we both sort of latched on to it and abandoned our conversation. It's still an interesting listen to me now with some enjoyable rhymes in there (basement and face meant might be my favourite). I missed Leif at Osheaga, thinking that I'd be able to catch him at the Black Sheep in the fall but then life intervened. Next time.
#14: "Gold Angel", Minke
If "Second Nature" was your cup of tea, I suspect this song might be too. Wait, I've already used that line? Crud.
#1: "Dangerous", The xx
At the dawn of 2017, I picked up The xx's most recent effort I See You, excited to tuck into it based on the strength of "On Hold". Unfortunately, I found that I didn't care for the album as much as I had anticipated (despite the fact that it is on most critics' Best Of lists this year). On the bright side, though, the album produced my favourite song of the year: "Dangerous". A more boisterous number than 75% of xx fare, this track sounds like it would have fit in nicely on Jamie xx's In Colour album. Ergo I like it.
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!
Wow, I'm back. It's been 12 months since my last post here and I had no idea that would be the case for 2017. Life got busier, I got more interested in podcasts and other things and generally spent less time poking around the Internet for new music. Hopefully, if there were awesome songs that I missed this past year, they'll turn up somehow a year (or more) down the line and I'll catch up at that point.
That being said, I did still spend a little bit of time checking in with my typical haunts (The Hype Machine, Spotify, the UK and Australian charts) as well as keep Shazam by my side when out in public (seriously, you never know when you'll hear that next special song) so I do have some finds to share with you. For whatever reason, I found myself listening to a fair amount of "Top 40" radio on the road this year (my kids have caught the countdown bug, it seems) so a few more mainstream hits than normal caught my attention in 2017.
As with the past couple of years, I've put together a youTube playlist of all of the songs on my top 100 list for the year. Click here to go listen to the whole list. The songs are organized from #100 down to #1 so nothing is spoiled by just starting at the top of the list. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my musical tastes and don't want to suffer listening through a bunch of lame tunes, I like accessible pop and electronic music with the occasional alt-rock or folk track mixed in. Strong melodies, syncopation, Scandinavianism, songs featuring male and female vocals, use of strings and fun with rhythm structure tend to score bonus points. Lyrics tend to take a back seat to the feel of a song. Metal and country tend to be non-starters with me.
My top 100 list is made up of songs that I heard for the first time either this year or late last year and figured prominently on my 2017 soundtrack. Missing from the list are two songs with no youTube presence: "Only God Knows" (#84) by Young Fathers featuring the Leith Congregational Choir and "Welcome" (#64) by Oded Tzur, Shai Maestro, Petros Klimpanis and Ziv Ravitz. These songs are sort of polar opposites too, one a punkish romp by a Scottish hip-hop band featuring a choir and the other an extended instrumental piece by a jazz quartet. If these tracks eventually surface, I'll add them to the list.
Enough with the pre-amble. Unlike last year where I just ran through my top 10, this year I'm going to highlight a few songs from the list that may be of interest. Let's get into it...
#89: "No Reason", Bonobo feat. Nick Murphy
Bonobo: disambiguation. This is the British DJ, not the monkey. I started listening to Bonobo when The North Borders was released in 2013. His music seemed to be a natural progression from the Four Tet songs I was listening to at the time. In the time since that album came out, I've gone all in on Chad Faker, a.k.a. Nick Murphy. When I saw this pairing, my interest was piqued immediately. Enjoy the trippy visuals.
#83: "Like Really", Oddisee
Another vet from my playlists from years gone by. "Like Really" is from his 2017 album The Iceberg and, as with his other material, offers some social and political commentary. I love Oddissee's flow and am blown away by the 15-second blasts at :54 and 2:12.
#73: "Be About You", Winston Surfshirt
This has very much been one of my jams lately. WS hails from Sydney and I get a mix of Anderson .paak and MGMT vibes from them. This is one breezy little number and should help get me through the winter.
#55: "In Your Eyes", BADBADNOTGOOD feat. Charlotte Day Wilson
I had the fortune of seeing BBNG play Montreal's Osheaga festival this past summer. Primarily, they are known for serving up instrumental jazz and were a good listen. But wow - those are some smoky soulful vocals from Charlotte Day Wilson! This Pitchfork review has me very intrigued to listen to some more. Shouts out to the CBC.
#44: "Not Gonna Let You Walk Away", LOLO
After I fell in love with "Year Round Summer of Love" enough to put it on my top 500, LOLO has become one of those artists that I will listen to whenever she releases something new. Just to see if I'm still in. I'm definitely in on this one. Doesn't sound like someone I'd want to cause trouble for in a relationship. This is off her debut full-length album, one that got some very positive reviews. Wishing I had time to listen to all the music. Sigh.
#36: "Best to You", Blood Orange
The sound of Dev Hynes a.k.a. Blood Orange is really tough to categorize. I find that his work is equal parts WOW!LISTEN! and WHOAnotinterested. The female vocals on this track come courtesy of Lorely Rodriguez, otherwise known as Empress Of. I kind of want to dub myself something like that. Listener Of. Seems sort of vague, I suppose.
#31: "Second Nature", Stalking Gia
I know nothing about Stalking Gia. I searched. Found a FB page. Seems like this might actually be a woman actually named Gia. So am I stalking her? Self-fulfilling prophecy? She's from NYC and "Second Nature" was sampled on a song from the recent Blackbear album.
#28: "Good Love", Zola Blood
If "Second Nature" was your cup of tea, I suspect this song might be too. A little more electronic-feeling, but a similar vibe. I'm listening to this one quite a bit right now, as well as "Nothing", another track from the London group's most recent album, Infinite Games.
#25: "Who Tells Your Story", The Roots featuring Common and Ingrid Michaelson
I am NOT a musical guy. What little I have heard of the Hamilton soundtrack convinces me that I couldn't listen to it straight up and enjoy it. Something about the affectations and enunciation - possibly with the visual performance to accompany it, perhaps that would work. But The Hamilton Mixtape...this ended up being one of my favourite albums this year. And this was the song that stood out the most. It caught my ear after "Helpless" and "My Shot", but it came out on top and I guess that's what matters. I forgot how much I used to like listening to Common. Still love his voice and flow.
#23: "Yellow Eyes (acoustic)", Rayland Baxter
This one goes out to my friend who strongly suggested that I see Rayland play the Ottawa Cityfolk festival in the fall of 2016. It occurred to me, after I picked up his Soho acoustic EP earlier this year that some of the songs from his set were performed in the acoustic style of the EP rather than the studio version, possibly to promote the EP. I remember thinking that the acoustic portion of the set was my favourite part so when I eventually got this EP, I played the heck out of it. This was my favourite of the album's five tracks.
#22: "Out of Sight", Jonwayne
This song wins the belt for "biggest comeback": going from being generally disliked on the first listen to becoming a bit of an earworm for me in the end. Is that some backwards commitment?
#19: "Elegy", Leif Vollebekk
I remember hearing this come on CBC Radio 1 in the van while driving with my wife. We had been talking about something and the song was so interesting that we both sort of latched on to it and abandoned our conversation. It's still an interesting listen to me now with some enjoyable rhymes in there (basement and face meant might be my favourite). I missed Leif at Osheaga, thinking that I'd be able to catch him at the Black Sheep in the fall but then life intervened. Next time.
#14: "Gold Angel", Minke
If "Second Nature" was your cup of tea, I suspect this song might be too. Wait, I've already used that line? Crud.
#1: "Dangerous", The xx
At the dawn of 2017, I picked up The xx's most recent effort I See You, excited to tuck into it based on the strength of "On Hold". Unfortunately, I found that I didn't care for the album as much as I had anticipated (despite the fact that it is on most critics' Best Of lists this year). On the bright side, though, the album produced my favourite song of the year: "Dangerous". A more boisterous number than 75% of xx fare, this track sounds like it would have fit in nicely on Jamie xx's In Colour album. Ergo I like it.
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!
Friday, December 30, 2016
10 Favourite songs of 2016
2016 has almost drawn to a close and it's time for me to unveil the songs that got the most run around my house, van and earbuds this past year. As with 2015, I checked back over the monthly lists of songs I was playing a lot and recommending to everybody either in person or on this blog and assembled another YouTube playlist for those of you who like perusing playlists that way. I don't think every track is on Spotify so I couldn't quite put a playlist together on that site. Then again, Beyonce, Kanye and Disclosure made it relatively impossible to even assemble a YouTube playlist so my apologies for strange versions of those songs in the playlist. Click here to go listen to the whole list. The songs are organized from #100 down to #1 so nothing is spoiled by just starting at the top of the list. Well, unless you keep reading this post.
Without further ado, my top 10 songs of the year. Okay, one bit of ado - Kaytranada's "Lite Spots" is notably absent from this list as it only crossed my radar late in the year. It will definitely appear on the j500 someday, it just didn't have enough total longevity this year to crack the top 10.
#10: "Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)", Death Cab for Cutie
Yes, Kintsugi was released in 2015. I heard "Black Sun" last year and mistakenly let that song (for which I didn't care very much) represent the entire album. Like a total dork, I found Kintsugi at the public library this past year and took it out. Good thing: "Help", "No Room in Frame" and "El Dorado" became three of my favourite songs of the year. If only I had an infinite amount of time to go through all of the albums of artists I'm interested in to mine gems like this. And if only my library had more of those albums available when I stop in :).
#9: "Flesh Without Blood", Grimes
Another song from an album released in 2015 but that really took hold with me from the early part of this year through the summer. This is also the second of two acts in the top 10 that I was fortunate enough to see perform at Osheaga this past summer. DCFC didn't vomit offstage in the middle of their set, though. The video here features "Flesh" backed with the brief (related) video for "Life in the Vivid Dream".
#8: "Evil Twin", Krrum
I still don't know too much about Krrum. Then again, with only 200,000 streams of this track (2 or 3 of which are probably mine), few others do either. He's 21, from England and has both a beard and an electronic EP to his name. This past year seemed to be the year that I stumbled across a large number of horn-infused electronic tracks. Not sure if that's a thing or a coincidence...
#7: "Learning for Your Love", Chet Faker & Marcus Marr
I was a little surprised that I had listened to this song so much this year. It's doesn't jump off the page as much as (spoiler alert) the other CF & MM track in the top 10 but I was hooked nonetheless. Australian Faker and Londoner Marr apparently recorded the EP Work, released in December 2015, in a scant four days. The EP is chock-full (as much as possible in only four tracks) of catchy fusions of electronic beats and Faker's soulful vocals. I'm awaiting Faker's next album, although apparently he will be releasing it under his given name, Nick Murphy.
#6: "Omen (featuring Sam Smith)", Disclosure
One of my major musical disappointments this year was missing out on seeing Disclosure live this summer. They were set to play right before festival-closer Radiohead at Osheaga, but a missed connection from Lollapalooza left them on the wrong side of the border. Sadness. At least I got to play their album Caracal to death this year. This track, bringing back Sam Smith after "Latch" helped break Disclosure to the mainstream, was my favourite off the album. Wiki says that if you're interested in watching the whole series of music videos, the video for "Holding On (featuring Gregory Porter)" precedes this one and the story is continued in "Jaded".
#5: "The Trouble With Us", Chet Faker & Marcus Marr
OK, not a lot of sonic variety on this year's list it seems. Sorry. This funky little number was the first release from the Work EP and actually spent a bit of time on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart this past year. It was also up for an ARIA for Song of the Year, but lost to Troye Sivan's "Youth".
#4: "Sorry", Justin Bieber
Two. Billion. Views. Insane. I remember that a few music sites put this on their "videos of the year" lists last year as a beautiful answer to the assortment of lyric videos out there. Why just read lyrics when you can watch dance troupes get down to your favourite songs? The ladies in this video are members of the New Zealand ReQuest and Royal Family dance crews. Also, who knew that two Canadian boys would bring dancehall (influences, at least) to the masses this year? After Skrillex teamed up with the Biebs for his comeback hit "Where are Ü Now?", Skrillex also produced this track. In the end, this was Billboard's #2 song of the year, right behind JB's own "Love Yourself" (a track I don't care for much at all), making him only the third artist to score the top 2 songs of a year (after Usher and The Beatles).
#3: "Morning Sun", Melody Gardot
Finally, some diversity. Nothing like a little jazz to take it down a notch. Jazz seems to be experiencing a bit of a comeback, as noted in The Hype Machine's Zeitgeist 2016. The jazz of which they speak is not quite in the same vein as this slow jam, though. Out of curiosity, I checked out her discography on Wikipedia and it looks like she's a bigger hit in Europe than anywhere else. People in Germany and France, in particular, seem to be buying most of her albums.
#2: "St. Ides", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Man did this album ever get panned when it was released. As with Kintsugi, I dodged it despite my affection for the artist, based on the first track released ("Downtown" in this case), yet ended up discovering it thanks to the local public library. I didn't care for the album as much as "The Heist", but did enjoy some of the tracks ("The Train", "Kevin", "Bolo Tie", the hilarious "Dance Off"). "St. Ides" came out on top, though, and reminded me of some sort of cross between "Neon Cathedral" and "My Oh My".
...drum roll...
#1: "Rewind", Kelela
Although this was buried in the middle of the pack of songs highlighted in my March post, "Rewind" rose up to dominate my 2016 playlist. Airy vocals coupled with a good beat (0:43 mark drop ftw!) and that old-school Miami bass vibe. I'll be playing this song for years. If you want to listen to Kelela deconstruct "Rewind", I invite you to check out Episode 63 of the excellent podcast Song Exploder.
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!
Without further ado, my top 10 songs of the year. Okay, one bit of ado - Kaytranada's "Lite Spots" is notably absent from this list as it only crossed my radar late in the year. It will definitely appear on the j500 someday, it just didn't have enough total longevity this year to crack the top 10.
#10: "Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)", Death Cab for Cutie
Yes, Kintsugi was released in 2015. I heard "Black Sun" last year and mistakenly let that song (for which I didn't care very much) represent the entire album. Like a total dork, I found Kintsugi at the public library this past year and took it out. Good thing: "Help", "No Room in Frame" and "El Dorado" became three of my favourite songs of the year. If only I had an infinite amount of time to go through all of the albums of artists I'm interested in to mine gems like this. And if only my library had more of those albums available when I stop in :).
#9: "Flesh Without Blood", Grimes
Another song from an album released in 2015 but that really took hold with me from the early part of this year through the summer. This is also the second of two acts in the top 10 that I was fortunate enough to see perform at Osheaga this past summer. DCFC didn't vomit offstage in the middle of their set, though. The video here features "Flesh" backed with the brief (related) video for "Life in the Vivid Dream".
#8: "Evil Twin", Krrum
I still don't know too much about Krrum. Then again, with only 200,000 streams of this track (2 or 3 of which are probably mine), few others do either. He's 21, from England and has both a beard and an electronic EP to his name. This past year seemed to be the year that I stumbled across a large number of horn-infused electronic tracks. Not sure if that's a thing or a coincidence...
#7: "Learning for Your Love", Chet Faker & Marcus Marr
I was a little surprised that I had listened to this song so much this year. It's doesn't jump off the page as much as (spoiler alert) the other CF & MM track in the top 10 but I was hooked nonetheless. Australian Faker and Londoner Marr apparently recorded the EP Work, released in December 2015, in a scant four days. The EP is chock-full (as much as possible in only four tracks) of catchy fusions of electronic beats and Faker's soulful vocals. I'm awaiting Faker's next album, although apparently he will be releasing it under his given name, Nick Murphy.
#6: "Omen (featuring Sam Smith)", Disclosure
One of my major musical disappointments this year was missing out on seeing Disclosure live this summer. They were set to play right before festival-closer Radiohead at Osheaga, but a missed connection from Lollapalooza left them on the wrong side of the border. Sadness. At least I got to play their album Caracal to death this year. This track, bringing back Sam Smith after "Latch" helped break Disclosure to the mainstream, was my favourite off the album. Wiki says that if you're interested in watching the whole series of music videos, the video for "Holding On (featuring Gregory Porter)" precedes this one and the story is continued in "Jaded".
#5: "The Trouble With Us", Chet Faker & Marcus Marr
OK, not a lot of sonic variety on this year's list it seems. Sorry. This funky little number was the first release from the Work EP and actually spent a bit of time on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart this past year. It was also up for an ARIA for Song of the Year, but lost to Troye Sivan's "Youth".
#4: "Sorry", Justin Bieber
Two. Billion. Views. Insane. I remember that a few music sites put this on their "videos of the year" lists last year as a beautiful answer to the assortment of lyric videos out there. Why just read lyrics when you can watch dance troupes get down to your favourite songs? The ladies in this video are members of the New Zealand ReQuest and Royal Family dance crews. Also, who knew that two Canadian boys would bring dancehall (influences, at least) to the masses this year? After Skrillex teamed up with the Biebs for his comeback hit "Where are Ü Now?", Skrillex also produced this track. In the end, this was Billboard's #2 song of the year, right behind JB's own "Love Yourself" (a track I don't care for much at all), making him only the third artist to score the top 2 songs of a year (after Usher and The Beatles).
#3: "Morning Sun", Melody Gardot
Finally, some diversity. Nothing like a little jazz to take it down a notch. Jazz seems to be experiencing a bit of a comeback, as noted in The Hype Machine's Zeitgeist 2016. The jazz of which they speak is not quite in the same vein as this slow jam, though. Out of curiosity, I checked out her discography on Wikipedia and it looks like she's a bigger hit in Europe than anywhere else. People in Germany and France, in particular, seem to be buying most of her albums.
#2: "St. Ides", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Man did this album ever get panned when it was released. As with Kintsugi, I dodged it despite my affection for the artist, based on the first track released ("Downtown" in this case), yet ended up discovering it thanks to the local public library. I didn't care for the album as much as "The Heist", but did enjoy some of the tracks ("The Train", "Kevin", "Bolo Tie", the hilarious "Dance Off"). "St. Ides" came out on top, though, and reminded me of some sort of cross between "Neon Cathedral" and "My Oh My".
...drum roll...
#1: "Rewind", Kelela
Although this was buried in the middle of the pack of songs highlighted in my March post, "Rewind" rose up to dominate my 2016 playlist. Airy vocals coupled with a good beat (0:43 mark drop ftw!) and that old-school Miami bass vibe. I'll be playing this song for years. If you want to listen to Kelela deconstruct "Rewind", I invite you to check out Episode 63 of the excellent podcast Song Exploder.
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!
Sunday, November 13, 2016
November tunes
OMG. I need to distract myself from this election coverage. Music!!
10 - "Neon Experience", Júníus Meyvant
While much of this month's list is sugary pop, this one is a throwback to the 70s for sure. Júníus is the alter ego of Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson, a singer-songwriter who grew up on an island off the coast of Iceland. OFF THE COAST OF ICELAND. Júníus won this year's Best Icelandic Newcomer music award and was up for best male vocalist as well. This is an oddly compelling song for me - can't put my finger on it but can't stop listening either.
9 - "Pray You Catch Me", Beyoncé
Enjoy some pitched-up Beyonce this week. This is the lead-off track from Lemonade and I believe the third that I've featured this year. The lyrics definitely set the table for the entire album.
8 - "Disappearing Act", The Ready Set
There's really no excuse for me liking this song. I find it super catchy, plain and simple. Apparently this guy had a hit in 2010 called "Love Like Woe" (I tried to listen to it, got 45 seconds through and decide it to not even link to it here). I feel like if Savage Garden had time travelled to this point in time, they might have come up with this song.
7 - "El Dorado", Death Cab for Cutie
"Dorado" is very much in the same vein, stylistically, as "Good Help". Though it isn't a particularly complex number, clocking in a just over 50 distinct words. Word has it that the track is about lead singer Ben Gibbard's lack of enthusiasm over his ex-wife, Zooey Deschanel, landing the lead role on "New Girl". Impressive that a lack of enthusiasm for anything sounds this good.
6 - "Silence of the Amps", Fennec & Wolf
Fennec & Wolf is an electronic producer hailing from Cologne, Germany and runs his own label. He's been around for about 3 years, but finally started getting material out there about a year ago. This is the first of his work that I've heard - a nice little instrumental track. If you're curious about what a fennec is, click here.
5 - "Present Tense", Radiohead
Paul Thomas Anderson. Seriously. Not a lot going on in this intimate video, but it is directed by PTA himself. Radiohead don't seem to do too many quiet pieces like this, but they tend to be very pretty. I also like the little bossanova-like beat going on throughout this song.
4 - "Got it Good (feat. Craig David)", Kaytranada
Craig freaking David. That's a name I had not heard in a while. He's got 20 Top 40 singles to his credit in the UK, but over on this side of the pond, he's still best known for his hits from 2000 "Fill Me In" and "Seven Days". This is a much better song than "Seven", but "Fill Me In" is still a classic.
3 - "U-Turn", Tegan and Sara
So with money, one can typically afford a really sweet video. This one's a bit of a hot mess, but the song is every bit as good as "Boyfriend", their excellent release that's currently doing the rounds on Canadian radio. T&S really found their calling once they went electronic.
2 - "Cool", Daya
I was admittedly experiencing some Daya fatigue when the single "Sit Still Look Pretty" was released. But there's something about this cut from her debut album (also entitled Sit Still Look Pretty) that resonated with me. A little more up-tempo, a little less open throttle on the vocals. "Cool" was apparently released as the promo single for the album last month but will not be the third single from the album (that will be "Words", coming out this week).
1 - "What's it Gonna Be?", Shura
Shura was longlisted for BBC's Sound of 2015 award but just finished releasing her debut album, Nothing's Real. Previously, you may have heard her on Mura Masa's gem from earlier this year, "Love for That" (courtesy of this blog). This track (and video, for that matter) has a super 80s vibe and is a great listen. If you're wondering why "CANADA" is repped at the end of the video, it's because while "Canada" is a country, "CANADA" is a Spanish music video and commercial production company. Don't confuse the two. Oh, and just to close the circle, it turns out that Shura has recently remixed Tegan & Sara's "Boyfriend".
Enjoy!
10 - "Neon Experience", Júníus Meyvant
While much of this month's list is sugary pop, this one is a throwback to the 70s for sure. Júníus is the alter ego of Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson, a singer-songwriter who grew up on an island off the coast of Iceland. OFF THE COAST OF ICELAND. Júníus won this year's Best Icelandic Newcomer music award and was up for best male vocalist as well. This is an oddly compelling song for me - can't put my finger on it but can't stop listening either.
9 - "Pray You Catch Me", Beyoncé
Enjoy some pitched-up Beyonce this week. This is the lead-off track from Lemonade and I believe the third that I've featured this year. The lyrics definitely set the table for the entire album.
8 - "Disappearing Act", The Ready Set
There's really no excuse for me liking this song. I find it super catchy, plain and simple. Apparently this guy had a hit in 2010 called "Love Like Woe" (I tried to listen to it, got 45 seconds through and decide it to not even link to it here). I feel like if Savage Garden had time travelled to this point in time, they might have come up with this song.
7 - "El Dorado", Death Cab for Cutie
"Dorado" is very much in the same vein, stylistically, as "Good Help". Though it isn't a particularly complex number, clocking in a just over 50 distinct words. Word has it that the track is about lead singer Ben Gibbard's lack of enthusiasm over his ex-wife, Zooey Deschanel, landing the lead role on "New Girl". Impressive that a lack of enthusiasm for anything sounds this good.
6 - "Silence of the Amps", Fennec & Wolf
Fennec & Wolf is an electronic producer hailing from Cologne, Germany and runs his own label. He's been around for about 3 years, but finally started getting material out there about a year ago. This is the first of his work that I've heard - a nice little instrumental track. If you're curious about what a fennec is, click here.
5 - "Present Tense", Radiohead
Paul Thomas Anderson. Seriously. Not a lot going on in this intimate video, but it is directed by PTA himself. Radiohead don't seem to do too many quiet pieces like this, but they tend to be very pretty. I also like the little bossanova-like beat going on throughout this song.
4 - "Got it Good (feat. Craig David)", Kaytranada
Craig freaking David. That's a name I had not heard in a while. He's got 20 Top 40 singles to his credit in the UK, but over on this side of the pond, he's still best known for his hits from 2000 "Fill Me In" and "Seven Days". This is a much better song than "Seven", but "Fill Me In" is still a classic.
3 - "U-Turn", Tegan and Sara
So with money, one can typically afford a really sweet video. This one's a bit of a hot mess, but the song is every bit as good as "Boyfriend", their excellent release that's currently doing the rounds on Canadian radio. T&S really found their calling once they went electronic.
2 - "Cool", Daya
I was admittedly experiencing some Daya fatigue when the single "Sit Still Look Pretty" was released. But there's something about this cut from her debut album (also entitled Sit Still Look Pretty) that resonated with me. A little more up-tempo, a little less open throttle on the vocals. "Cool" was apparently released as the promo single for the album last month but will not be the third single from the album (that will be "Words", coming out this week).
1 - "What's it Gonna Be?", Shura
Shura was longlisted for BBC's Sound of 2015 award but just finished releasing her debut album, Nothing's Real. Previously, you may have heard her on Mura Masa's gem from earlier this year, "Love for That" (courtesy of this blog). This track (and video, for that matter) has a super 80s vibe and is a great listen. If you're wondering why "CANADA" is repped at the end of the video, it's because while "Canada" is a country, "CANADA" is a Spanish music video and commercial production company. Don't confuse the two. Oh, and just to close the circle, it turns out that Shura has recently remixed Tegan & Sara's "Boyfriend".
Enjoy!
Friday, October 7, 2016
October tunes
New Bon Iver! The Weeknd teams with Daft Punk! New Sylvan Esso! This is like Oscar season at the theatres for me. So much to listen to these days. Squeeee.
10 - "All the Way Down", Kelela
While "Rewind" is still getting an awful lot of play around here, this other Kelela release has snuck into the rotation a little bit. I feel like if Aaliyah had never hooked up with Timbaland, she'd of sounded a bit like this.
9 - "Elodie", Ten Fe
I have very little info about Ten Fe other than they're from London and that this song has much more production value than I'd expect from one of somebody's first kicks at the can. Although the producer, Ewan Pearson, has a lot of experience under his belt (M83, The Rapture, Jagwar Ma). Perfect dinner music.
8 - "33 "GOD" ", Bon Iver
2 million views already? 22 million is just around the corner, I suppose. This album is a bit all over the place and I'm still digesting it. This is one of the most Boniest Iverest tracks "22, A Million" has to offer and so it is the first to get some shine here. Plus, mad points for the Paolo Nutini sample.
7 - "Don't Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White)", Beyoncé
Apologies for the video selection. Queen Bey leaves me no choice:( Unlike the Bon Iver album, I've had time to chew Lemonade over. Yet still different tracks are grabbing my attention all these months after the album's release. What is Jack White up to these days...? Wikipedia reports that he is in the midst of an extended hiatus from performing live.
6 - "Somebody Else", The 1975
I'm not too sure where these guys came from. Their debut album was released in 2013 but I don't really remember being aware of it. They must have done something right as their second album, released earlier this year, topped the UK and US album charts. They've apparently been big in the UK for a while but only played their first show in the States in 2014. "Somebody" is the fourth of five releases from the album. The third release, "The Sound", enjoyed a few spins on mainstream radio late this summer.
5 - "Sun", The Hotelier
Massachusetts band The Hotelier have already recorded three albums. This song is from their most recent, 2015's Goodness. In case you're wondering about the blurred album cover art in the youtube clip, the actual photo can be found on the album's wiki page.
4 - "In Common", Alicia Keys
Huh? This is Alicia Keys? A very different sound from her - a little tropical club action. My wife has sucked me into watching a few episodes of The Voice, something I have actively avoided before. I've decided that, unless Alicia Keys is very good at presenting a fake persona on TV, she's actually a really cool person. Call me anytime.
3 - "Lite Spots", Kaytranada
Yes, yes. You're all sick of Kaytranada. TOO BAD. My kids love this video and I love CRANKING this song. On repeat.
2 - "St. James", DYAN
DYAN is not Dyan. Or even Diane. It is trio Alexis Marsh, Sam Jones, and Dan Dorff Jr. of Los Angeles, CA. St. James is the band's first release and started circulating just before summer. I love the sound - just the right amount of Florence with that sweet instrumental break in the middle.
1 - "Heart Don't Stand a Chance", Anderson.Paak
It turns out A.P has also done an NPR Tiny Desk concert - check it out here and take a few of his tracks in. Even "Suede". As the note in the comments of the NPR video says, good luck pigeonholing this guy in any genre. Up until I'd heard this song, he'd popped up mostly dropping guest verses on other people's tracks. Well, now I know he can drum. Cool.
Happy Thanksgiving!
10 - "All the Way Down", Kelela
While "Rewind" is still getting an awful lot of play around here, this other Kelela release has snuck into the rotation a little bit. I feel like if Aaliyah had never hooked up with Timbaland, she'd of sounded a bit like this.
9 - "Elodie", Ten Fe
I have very little info about Ten Fe other than they're from London and that this song has much more production value than I'd expect from one of somebody's first kicks at the can. Although the producer, Ewan Pearson, has a lot of experience under his belt (M83, The Rapture, Jagwar Ma). Perfect dinner music.
8 - "33 "GOD" ", Bon Iver
2 million views already? 22 million is just around the corner, I suppose. This album is a bit all over the place and I'm still digesting it. This is one of the most Boniest Iverest tracks "22, A Million" has to offer and so it is the first to get some shine here. Plus, mad points for the Paolo Nutini sample.
7 - "Don't Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White)", Beyoncé
Apologies for the video selection. Queen Bey leaves me no choice:( Unlike the Bon Iver album, I've had time to chew Lemonade over. Yet still different tracks are grabbing my attention all these months after the album's release. What is Jack White up to these days...? Wikipedia reports that he is in the midst of an extended hiatus from performing live.
6 - "Somebody Else", The 1975
I'm not too sure where these guys came from. Their debut album was released in 2013 but I don't really remember being aware of it. They must have done something right as their second album, released earlier this year, topped the UK and US album charts. They've apparently been big in the UK for a while but only played their first show in the States in 2014. "Somebody" is the fourth of five releases from the album. The third release, "The Sound", enjoyed a few spins on mainstream radio late this summer.
5 - "Sun", The Hotelier
Massachusetts band The Hotelier have already recorded three albums. This song is from their most recent, 2015's Goodness. In case you're wondering about the blurred album cover art in the youtube clip, the actual photo can be found on the album's wiki page.
4 - "In Common", Alicia Keys
Huh? This is Alicia Keys? A very different sound from her - a little tropical club action. My wife has sucked me into watching a few episodes of The Voice, something I have actively avoided before. I've decided that, unless Alicia Keys is very good at presenting a fake persona on TV, she's actually a really cool person. Call me anytime.
3 - "Lite Spots", Kaytranada
Yes, yes. You're all sick of Kaytranada. TOO BAD. My kids love this video and I love CRANKING this song. On repeat.
2 - "St. James", DYAN
DYAN is not Dyan. Or even Diane. It is trio Alexis Marsh, Sam Jones, and Dan Dorff Jr. of Los Angeles, CA. St. James is the band's first release and started circulating just before summer. I love the sound - just the right amount of Florence with that sweet instrumental break in the middle.
1 - "Heart Don't Stand a Chance", Anderson.Paak
It turns out A.P has also done an NPR Tiny Desk concert - check it out here and take a few of his tracks in. Even "Suede". As the note in the comments of the NPR video says, good luck pigeonholing this guy in any genre. Up until I'd heard this song, he'd popped up mostly dropping guest verses on other people's tracks. Well, now I know he can drum. Cool.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, September 9, 2016
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
July tunes
At least the title of the post matches the month again. I'm another decade older but I still love music. Here are the highlights from my July listenings...
10 - "Only", RY X
The man responsible for my favourite song of 2014 is back in the rotation with the first cut from his new album, Dawn. Actually, "Berlin" and "Sweat" have been available for public consumption for a while - the LP rounds up some tracks from the Berlin EP and adds some new material link "Only". Click here for a review of the album from the NY Times (spoiler alert: it's positive).
9 - "Singularity", New Order
Almost a year now after I first heard Music Complete, I'm still finding gems on the album. I haven't pimped "Superheated" here yet so I'll slip that in here too without being too overt about it. I found it interesting to note that New Order has been recording (with three founding members along for the ride the whole time) longer than lead singer Bernard Sumner had been alive when Joy Division became New Order. It's actually not even close.
8 - "What Do You Want (feat. Josh Taylor & Benny Bridges)", Justin Jay
All of a sudden a couple of months ago, Justin Jay's work began flooding The Hype Machine's website. Everyone seemed to like this guy. He's 22, he's released five EPs of house music and he's starting to hit the electronic festival circuit this summer and HardSummer in California. Flash in the pan or FO REAL?
7 - "Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)", Death Cab for Cutie
Man this is a strange video. Like The Sneetches on crack. I'm still warming up to Kintsugi - the big alternative hit from last year, "Black Sun", completely didn't do it for me. But there are still some tracks I've found worth listening to. This one is pretty awesome. Now I'm off to punch a star-shaped hole in my head.
6 - "Lake Arrowhead", Nora en Pure
Oh man, does this ever bring back Tiesto-infused memories of summers past. I know nothing about Nora en Pure aside from the fact that she is a DJ (no, really), was born in South Africa and now resides in Switzerland. And she apparently spun at Coachella. But that's it.
5 - "Blue & the Green", Loyal
I saw a live version of this song on youTube and I was confused - who was this woman singing? Where's the male lead vocalist? It turns out that the vocals on "Blue & the Green" are a pitched-down version of the natural vocal track so that pretty much explained everything. I dug up a press release about the meaning of the song, so if you're interested: "Blue & The Green" questions whether it’s better to fight for something once cherished, or the decision to give up and leave this thing behind. Blue and the green represents land and sea (the earth) as well the emotions of sadness and jealousy. So there you have it.
4 - "This Girl", Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners
For the second year in a row, I had a song on my radar from following some European charts and then that song ends up playing on the radio in Montreal during a visit. Radio there is so avant-garde compared to the stations here:( The song in question last year was "Fade Out Lines" by The Avener and "This Girl" is this year's hit. This song has it all...Disco! Soul! French deep houseness! And a collabo with an artist called Cookin' With 3 Burners, the best artist moniker I've heard since The Kite String Tangle. If this song had touched down in Canada maybe a month earlier: summer megahit.
3 - "Hold Up", Beyonce
Looks like Beyonce went all KanyePrince with her latest album, Lemonade. Snippets of "Hold Up" exist online but you have to go to Tidal just to get unadulterated audio (hence that pitched-out junk video clip I attached). In any case, this is one of the few tracks from the album that I've been able to get into. As with Bey's last album, I'm finding this one to be a bit of a tough listen. And not because I'm Becky with the good hair. Styles are all over the place (a pro) as is accessibility (a con). Stay tuned to see if some other tracks limp onto my monthly suggest lists. One thing for sure: it's going to be hard to actually share the songs with you.
2 - "St. Ides", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
In case you're not up on what St. Ides is, definitely check out this ad. This song is going toe-to-toe with "Bolo Tie" for my favourite from This Unruly Mess I've Made. The vibe is reminiscent of "Neon Cathedral" from The Heist, one of my favourites from the previous album. Good luck trying to see M&RL in concert over the next while: they're currently Down Under, followed by a victory lap through Washington State and then a leg over in Asia. Man seeing them in Washington would be great.
1 - "Tilted", Christine and the Queens
Doubling down on her first appearance on the list last month, Heloïse Letissier, a.k.a. Christine and the Queens, is back with a great pop track this month. I've seen this one mentioned a couple of times online and in print over the past few weeks, most notably lauded by Elton John in the pages of EW. I was due for a song with some French in it anyway - thanks for filling up the quota nicely!! Plus this has got to be the first song I've ever heard to name check Methuselah.
Hope everyone's summer is going swimmingly:)
10 - "Only", RY X
The man responsible for my favourite song of 2014 is back in the rotation with the first cut from his new album, Dawn. Actually, "Berlin" and "Sweat" have been available for public consumption for a while - the LP rounds up some tracks from the Berlin EP and adds some new material link "Only". Click here for a review of the album from the NY Times (spoiler alert: it's positive).
9 - "Singularity", New Order
Almost a year now after I first heard Music Complete, I'm still finding gems on the album. I haven't pimped "Superheated" here yet so I'll slip that in here too without being too overt about it. I found it interesting to note that New Order has been recording (with three founding members along for the ride the whole time) longer than lead singer Bernard Sumner had been alive when Joy Division became New Order. It's actually not even close.
8 - "What Do You Want (feat. Josh Taylor & Benny Bridges)", Justin Jay
All of a sudden a couple of months ago, Justin Jay's work began flooding The Hype Machine's website. Everyone seemed to like this guy. He's 22, he's released five EPs of house music and he's starting to hit the electronic festival circuit this summer and HardSummer in California. Flash in the pan or FO REAL?
7 - "Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)", Death Cab for Cutie
Man this is a strange video. Like The Sneetches on crack. I'm still warming up to Kintsugi - the big alternative hit from last year, "Black Sun", completely didn't do it for me. But there are still some tracks I've found worth listening to. This one is pretty awesome. Now I'm off to punch a star-shaped hole in my head.
6 - "Lake Arrowhead", Nora en Pure
Oh man, does this ever bring back Tiesto-infused memories of summers past. I know nothing about Nora en Pure aside from the fact that she is a DJ (no, really), was born in South Africa and now resides in Switzerland. And she apparently spun at Coachella. But that's it.
5 - "Blue & the Green", Loyal
I saw a live version of this song on youTube and I was confused - who was this woman singing? Where's the male lead vocalist? It turns out that the vocals on "Blue & the Green" are a pitched-down version of the natural vocal track so that pretty much explained everything. I dug up a press release about the meaning of the song, so if you're interested: "Blue & The Green" questions whether it’s better to fight for something once cherished, or the decision to give up and leave this thing behind. Blue and the green represents land and sea (the earth) as well the emotions of sadness and jealousy. So there you have it.
4 - "This Girl", Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners
For the second year in a row, I had a song on my radar from following some European charts and then that song ends up playing on the radio in Montreal during a visit. Radio there is so avant-garde compared to the stations here:( The song in question last year was "Fade Out Lines" by The Avener and "This Girl" is this year's hit. This song has it all...Disco! Soul! French deep houseness! And a collabo with an artist called Cookin' With 3 Burners, the best artist moniker I've heard since The Kite String Tangle. If this song had touched down in Canada maybe a month earlier: summer megahit.
3 - "Hold Up", Beyonce
Looks like Beyonce went all KanyePrince with her latest album, Lemonade. Snippets of "Hold Up" exist online but you have to go to Tidal just to get unadulterated audio (hence that pitched-out junk video clip I attached). In any case, this is one of the few tracks from the album that I've been able to get into. As with Bey's last album, I'm finding this one to be a bit of a tough listen. And not because I'm Becky with the good hair. Styles are all over the place (a pro) as is accessibility (a con). Stay tuned to see if some other tracks limp onto my monthly suggest lists. One thing for sure: it's going to be hard to actually share the songs with you.
2 - "St. Ides", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
In case you're not up on what St. Ides is, definitely check out this ad. This song is going toe-to-toe with "Bolo Tie" for my favourite from This Unruly Mess I've Made. The vibe is reminiscent of "Neon Cathedral" from The Heist, one of my favourites from the previous album. Good luck trying to see M&RL in concert over the next while: they're currently Down Under, followed by a victory lap through Washington State and then a leg over in Asia. Man seeing them in Washington would be great.
1 - "Tilted", Christine and the Queens
Doubling down on her first appearance on the list last month, Heloïse Letissier, a.k.a. Christine and the Queens, is back with a great pop track this month. I've seen this one mentioned a couple of times online and in print over the past few weeks, most notably lauded by Elton John in the pages of EW. I was due for a song with some French in it anyway - thanks for filling up the quota nicely!! Plus this has got to be the first song I've ever heard to name check Methuselah.
Hope everyone's summer is going swimmingly:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)