June-ish tunes

Like a competitor in the Top Chef kitchen, I am officially behind. I'm just going to crank this one out so that I can hopefully post a July entry too this month.


10 - "Burn the Witch", Radiohead

The first release from A Moon Shaped Pool has apparently been teased for years and it definitely unlike anything else on the album. I'm looking forward to seeing Radiohead again this summer, though I hope that the show is more lively than most of the offerings on Pool.

9 - "Depreston", Courtney Barnett

She was up for the Best New Artist Grammy last year and yet this is the first time I am posting anything of Courtney Barnett's. Then again, Meghan Trainor somehow won that Grammy after having performed at the previous year's ceremony, so I still had some time before Barnett is considered passé, I suppose. There's a great bit in the Song Exploder episode covering this song where Courtney said that after having written the song, she told her friend about the event it was based on, an open house visit in Preston, and her friend told her that the event never even happened in Preston, but in another town. Awesome.

8 - "Bad Blood", Nao

Um, this video is NSFW and fairly messed up. London singer Nao released a pair of acclaimed EPs in 2014 and 2015 and then contributed vocals on the most recent Disclosure album. Nao was named third on the BBC Sound of... 2016 list and now "Bad Blood" is the lead-off track from her forthcoming full-length release For All We Know.

7 - "Completely", Alpines

All bands should be based in cities called Somewhere upon Somewhere Else. Alpines hail from Kingston upon Thames and "Completely" marks their first release since their debut full-length album in 2014. They've been together since 2010 and this is the first time I've ever come across their music.

6 - "Learning for Your Love", Marcus Marr & Chet Faker

While "The Trouble With Us" has been a mainstay on the iPod over the past half-year, I couldn't get behind "Birthday Card" quite as much, possibly due to the lengthy outro. "Learning for Your Love" is pretty solid though. The Work album is proving to be a great uptempo collection of summer jams.

5 - "Track Uno", Kaytranada

Whether you interpret "Uno" as referring to being the best track on the album or just the first, you might be right either way. For some reason this year, I seem to be getting back into instrumental music and so this song is catching me at the right time. I think the first time Kaytranada crossed my radar was when I fell in love with his reworking of Jill Scott's "Golden" in 2013. Looks like the jury is in on his new album 99.9% and the jury likes. I was hoping to catch Kaytranada at Osheaga this summer, but he's playing opposite HAIM and that's just not fair for him.

4 - "Real Friends", Kanye West

Once again, no real stream to share with you. Thanks Mr. West. This is pretty funny though (apparently reaction videos are a thing). "Real Friends" seems to be the second most-favourably received track from TLOP behind "Ultralight Beam" (which I've listened to a few times but it's just not clicking). Erykah Badu actually copped the track from "Real Friends" to record "Trill Friends". Interesting.

3 - "Bolo Tie (feat. YG)", Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

My playlist is getting a bit explicit - a bummer as I keep having to flip through stuff while the kids are around. They're not listening to this one:). The songs on the recent Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album fall cleanly into two camps: will listen to a bunch/will skip almost every time. "Bolo Tie" is definitely one of my favourites on the album with a couple of others likely to make cameos on these lists in the coming months. Stay tuned.

2 - "Roll Up Your Sleeves", Meg Mac

Megan McInerney of Australia goes by Meg Mac and is fairly well known back home. This was her first big hit, to be followed by "Never Be", which earned her a couple of ARIA award nominations in 2015. Personally, "Roll" is more my speed. Meg Mac had a cup of tea touring in the States, supporting both tours for Clean Bandit and D'Angelo.

1 - "iT", Christine and the Queens

Next up on the pseudonym train: Heloïse Letissier, who goes by Christine and the Queens. As per her Wiki page, Heloïse is from Nantes, France and dedicates much of her work to the trans community. It seems that "iT" wasn't released as a single at any point in time, but was the lead-off track from her full-length debut Chaleur Humaine (an English version was released in the UK in February while the original French version was released in France and various other countries almost two years prior). The album reached the top 10 in Belgium, France, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later.