I'm not sure what this says about my musical tastes, but of the 700-or-so songs on my little MP3 player, about 5 of them are named "Go" (sometimes with an exclamation mark, sometimes without). This one is my favorite track from my favorite album of 2017, Wild Cub's "Closer." It sounds like a cross between The Killers and early Arcade Fire, and its thrilling chanted climax makes it perfect for New Year's Eve listening.
Here's a confession: back in the 90s, I liked pretty much anything which put a dance beat to "world music" sounds. Enigma, Deep Forest, Transglobal Underground--you name it, I listened to it. After a while, I soured on some of those groups (especially Enigma, who I started to find cheesy). But now that I'm living in Armenia, whose local folk music has sometimes been sampled in this type of "world beat music," I'm starting to reappreciate groups like Enigma. So this new song by Swedish group The Sound of Arrows, with its 90s world beat vibes, is right up my alley.
I don't think any band this year had a bigger transformation than Eliza and the Bear. As recently as 2016, they were recording Mumford & Sons' style folk rock, But now they're a funky, 80's-inspired pop group. "Hell" is their best single yet, with an irresistible singalong chorus.
This seemed like appropriate music to accompany my 26-hour trip from Yerevan, Armenia back to my former home of Florence, South Carolina. The US has a reputation as a "modern land," whereas Armenia is perceived as an ancient land, sometimes even as a backward one. But as I compare the efficient automated check-in I just went through at Yerevan's airport with the nightmare I'm likely to encounter at JFK later today, I think those reputations might be a little exaggerated.
Now, on to the song: it's a fucking epic. It feels like what would have happened if The Church, Echo & the Bunnymen, and David Bowie had a baby. I've been a fan from Australian band City Calm Down for a while, but this is their best song yet.
As I realized recently when preparing a Communications lecture on changing phone technologies, there were a LOT of songs in the 70s and 80s about telephones. (Just to name a few: ELO's "Telephone Line", Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone", Pete Shelley's "Telephone Operator", Kraftwerk's "The Telephone Call." And that's not even getting into the "867-5309"s of the world). Most of these songs referenced physical features of the telephones, like the cord, the handset, the keypad to talk about human relationships and romantic frustrations.
You'd think, with the move to haptic technologies--responsive touchscreens in every pocket--there would be a lot of songs about that. We have "You Spin me Round (Like a Record)," so where's "You Swipe Through Me (Like an Instagram Feed)"? Well, this funky little number from LA band VOKES is here to redress that imbalance. Sing along now: "Swipe me/ Give me what you want but never need/ Make you question your society/ Fill your brain with so much controversy."
September and October are traditionally the worst months for new bands to release music, because they get lost in the shuffle amidst the superstars releasing singles in advance of their big 4th quarter releases (timed to rake in the Christmas cash). Occasionally, there are exceptions; Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," for instance, was a September release, and by early January, Nevermind had knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous off the top of the album charts. But that's pretty rare.
All I'm saying is that I hope that, in 2018, this ultra-radio-friendly anthemic single from Brooklyn band Storm Kid finds an audience somewhere and gets more than the paltry 2,500 YouTube views it's earned in the past 3 months.
Kaskade, "Winter Wonderland" Tom Chaplin, "2000 Miles" Red Empire, "A Dublin Christmas"
To be honest, 2017 hasn't been a great year for Christmas music. (2017 hasn't been a great year for much of anything). But amongst the lumps of coal--like Sia's horrifically-titled "Santa's Coming for Us"--I've picked out a few musical gifts for you.
Kaskade's album of Christmas classics done in EDM-style sounds like an idea that shouldn't work. And mostly it doesn't, because the traditional carols they're covering barely count as songs in the modern sense; all the production tricks in the world won't make "Silent Night" or "Deck the Halls" interesting. But they DO manage to turn "Winter Wonderland" into a moody banger, which is an accomplishment in itself.
Former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin's Christmas album is more traditional, which means that most of it is pretty boring. But the full choir and Chaplin's choirboy voice all really work on his dramatic cover of a modern Christmas classic, the Pretenders' "2000 Miles."
Finally, I've got an original Christmas song from Irish band Red Empire. Don't let those jingling bells at the beginning fool you; this is one of those melancholy Christmas songs, with lyrics like "Though you're suffering now, know that I suffer with you" and a video that's all about a homeless man getting beat up. In other words, the perfect Christmas song for 2017.
Since it's Christmas Eve (aka the anniversary of Mary's labor day), I thought I'd go with a song that has "Virgin Mary/ Scarlet Letter" right in the chorus--which is as close as you can get to saying "Madonna-Whore Complex" if you still want your song to be played on Country radio stations.
This song has received a lot of critical derision for being awkwardly sincere and for being "woke" but somehow not quite being "woke" in the correct way. ("Female" is apparently now on the list of verboten words, since MRAs use it too). But I think that if Country music is good at one thing, it's being awkwardly sincere, and this song helps deliver an (admittedly mild) feminist message to the audiences who most need to hear it. Plus, I love the subtle shading of Beyonce's vapid female empowerment anthems: "When you hear a song that they play saying you run the world/ Do you believe it? / Will you live to see it?"
I don't know much about Kazakh pop music, but I know what I like. Seriously, there's some catchy tunes coming out of Kazakhstan right now, and the Kazakh culture ministry would be wise to spend some global marketing money and brand it as KZ-Pop. This song's title Google translates to "To Me Again," which makes sense, given that the song sounds a bit like a Eurasian millennial update of East 17's "Stay Another Day."
About 6 years ago, Viva Brother had a minor alternative radio hit with "Darling Buds of May," which was a dead ringer for Definitely Maybe-era Oasis. Now, after a long hiatus, they're back with "Bastardo," which chooses another Britpop band to imitate: Nu-Clear Sounds-era Ash. "Bastardo" was also the title of a solo single from former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley. Coincidence? Probably.
Sometimes after a long workday, all you want to do is listen to smooth 80's-inspired ballads about heartbreak. It's interesting how the tropes of synthpop, which emphasize the male singer's vulnerability, pain, and passivity, hold up so well over 30 years later.
I don't really get why so many music blogs and critics go crazy for Carly Rae Jepsen. Don't get me wrong: I like Carly Rae Jepsen. Sometimes I even really really really really really really like Carly Rae Jepsen. But there are a lot of other young female singers making equally catchy 80's-inspired pop music. Phoebe Ryan, for example, has been releasing a string of memorable pop singles. "Should I," which combines CRJ-ish melodies with whispery vocals in the vein of Donna Lewis, is a highlight of her new EP.
J. Roddy Walston & the Business, "You Know Me Better"
AllMusic describes J. Roddy Walston & the Business as a "classic Southern rock combo," which might be the reason I've always given them a wide berth; "classic Southern rock" is not my favorite genre. But I love this recent single of theirs, in part because there's a wonderful balance between rock elements (hoarse vocals and ragged guitars) and pop elements (catchy melodies and an exciting build-up to a singalong chorus).
Looking out my office window this morning, all I see is grey fog. So to lift my spirits, I'm dire need of a song like this single from Liverpool band Two Islands. With its shimmering synths and swooping falsetto vocals, "Still Life" is like a burst of vibrant color beamed straight to my eardrums.
I like shoegaze and dreampop music, but sometimes I find the songs to be a little forgettable. All those shimmering guitars and waves of reverb tend to blur together after a while. But this track by Australian band The Jezabels stands out, partly due to its memorable melodies, but mostly because of Hayley Mary's incredible vocals, which sound like a cross between the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde and the Divinyls' Chrissy Amphlett.
When I moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 1999, it was like stepping into used-CD heaven. There were 4 or 5 good used-CD shops in a 4 block radius, since IU's students kept selling their CD collections for beer money. And a lot of the CDs were cheap enough that I took risks on bands I was only barely familiar with, including a lot of indie pop acts making music in the vein of Beck, The Eels, and Primitive Radio Gods. With its woozy vocals, grainy samples, and piano hook, "Plastic Soul" reminds me a lot of those turn-of-the-Millennium records. Which might be fitting for a song whose lyrics are all about nostalgia.
It may be freezing here, but in Australia, it's the start of summer festival season. Perfect timing then for veteran Aussie band The Presets to release this comeback single, which sounds like an electro-punk take on Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank." This one's worth checking out just for the video, which I believe is what you see after you lick a cane toad.
Years of listening to Belgian male singers like Ozark Henry, Daan, and Balthazar/Warhaus frontman Maarten Devoldere made me very excited to visit Belgium where, I imagined, every man would have a deep, throaty voice and speak English with a soft, sexy slur. Needless to say, I was very disappointed, and I'd like to ask the Belgian Tourist Board for my money back.
But "Control," from Warhaus' new self-titled album--the follow-up to their wonderfully titled debut "We Fucked a Flame into Being"--resurrects my fantasy of Belgian masculinity. With its dramatic strings and exotic castanets, it would also make a great James Bond theme. It would certainly be a better fit than the last few actual James Bond themes, like that rubbish Sam Smith song, "I'm Wailing on the Wall" or whatever it was called.
JR JR--who formerly went by the much funnier name "Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr."--had one of the catchiest singles of 2015 with the whistle-laden "Gone." Their new single "Control (Secretly Sorry)" takes them to some weirder places, but it reminds me of a modern spin on 80's indie rock like Camper van Beethoven or Stan Ridgeway. There's are strange spoken word interludes at 0:35 and 1:50, plus lyrics referencing anti-vaxxers and the Flint water crisis, but musically the whole thing is incredibly upbeat and catchy, with tropical instrumentation that builds to a veritable bongo frenzy.
It's been an intense semester, so it's only appropriate that for today, the last day of classes, I call for a "Ceasefire." This is a classic Britrock song, with a soaring chorus and some stirring instrumentation that gives both the drummer and the guitarists their moment to shine. I hope I get a chance to see Judas live this summer, because this is the kind of song that would sound awesome in a festival tent on a warm June afternoon.
Let's stay in Canada for another day with this track from Toronto's ROMES. It's pretty simple lyrically, but the brilliance is in the melodies and the production. I love the drawn-out "I'm ready," "want me," "love me," and "I'm waiting" that start around 1:40, and the syncopated "Woh-oh...oh-oh...oh-oh" chorus is killer.
This one's currently sitting at #21 on the Canadian pop charts, and I hope that this means Scott Helman will eventually gain the international exposure that his young countryman Shawn Mendes has, especially since his music is far catchier as less drippy than Mendes'. "PDA" is a burst of mango-flavored, candy-coated pop, with a sing-along chorus punctuated by high-pitched yelps. But it's got a ramshackle charm of its own, including an odd little spoken word interlude at 2:20 that reminds me of Shawn Mullins' "Lullaby."
I don't normally post 9 minute songs, but it's the weekend, so I figured you'd have extra time to hear this epic from Swedish band Simian Ghost. Or you could just do what I did and use Audiotrimmer to create your own "radio edit" (mine goes from around 2:00 to 5:11). This gorgeous, glistening song reminds me of a cross between classic Mercury Rev and Sigur Ros.
I was incensed...incensed, I say!...to see Penguin Prison show up on the AV Club's list of 2017's wackiest new band names. I'll admit that Penguin Prison (producer Chris Glover) has a weird name, but they've been around for about 8 years, producing fantastic retro-electro jams like "A Funny Thing" and "Don't Fuck with My Money." Their latest single "Turn it Up" might just be their catchiest release yet, with an irrepressible beat and an inspirational "Don't give up" message.
Here's one thing I love about Florida indie band Black Kids (of "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You" fame): they've been infected by the same virulent strain of musical Anglophilia that I have. In other words, they sound like they've listened to a lot of late-'80s modern rock radio, because their latest single answers the question, "What would it sound like if Robert Smith fronted the Mighty Lemon Drops?"
Sometimes I think that I dislike rap music. Most of the current rap hits, from "Bodak Yellow" to "Bad and Boujee," sound like they're being made by mushmouthed illiterates on codeine, and even critically acclaimed young rappers like Kendrick Lamar don't do much for me.
But then I come across an Australian hip hop track like this one and I'm reminded what I love about the genre, its clever wordplay. A posse cut featuring three of Australia's best-known rappers, this one has so many great lines, it's hard to pick a favorite. Is it PEZ's "I can pad this verse out with lyrics that are 6 years old/ Cause I wrote better shit than you when I was 6 years old"? Or Seth Sentry's attempt to rhyme "Jupiter", "stupider", "cubicle," "uvula", "do better", "newsletter", and "nuclear"? Or perhaps it's 360's filthy pun, "Go and pull yourself together like a circle jerk"?
Baths (actually one guy named Will Wiesenfeld) is out and proudly fey, filling this song with baroque instrumentation, twee vocal mannerisms, and lyrics like "Will I let the salt flow my eyes or from my armpits?" I've been listening to the song for a few weeks, but today was my first time actually watching the lyric video, and I was disappointed to see that the song's chorus is supposed to be "and celebrate your stupid fate." I so prefer the lyric I kept hearing: "and celebrate your stupid face."
Trampolene is an excellent live band--with a weirdly mesmerizing mix of grungy indie rock and spoken word interludes--but until now, their actual records have been a bit patchy. "The Boy that Life Forgot," however, is an indie classic in the making, a piano ballad that turns into a raw rock anthem about one minute in. I'm not sure which part I love most: the crunching, whipsaw guitar, the lyric "Please insert your meaningless life into the chip and PIN device," or the pleading refrain, "Why am I this way?"
During my first few years of graduate school, from 1999 to about 2005, I bought a LOT of used CDs and UK music magazines that came packaged with CDs, which is how I ended up with more chillout compliations than I know what to do with. This song would have fit perfectly on one of those CDs, maybe sandwiched between Groove Armada's "At the River" and something from Moby. A mellow groove and drowsy, bluesy vocals make this the perfect tune for a lazy Sunday.
I was a little disappointed by Walk the Moon's latest album. Most of the songs seem to have been produced with the thought, "How can we get played on the radio? Sound as much like Maroon 5 as possible." (And sadly, they seem to be correct).
But I think "Surrender" is terrific. With its When in Rome-meets-U2 vibes, I've been thinking that it would have been the perfect song to soundtrack a late '80s teen romance. And sure enough, just a couple of days ago, I heard it on the trailer for an upcoming teen romance, "Love, Simon." It turns out it's the perfect soundtrack to scenes of a gay teenager flirting with the cute Waffle House waiter.
It's now December, and the days keep getting shorter, so let's brighten things up with a little trop-pop, full of steel drums and mellow handclaps. Like many female singers today, featured vocalist Ashe sings like she has a speech impediment, so the refrain, "Sippin' so much Goose that you could call it geese" comes out as "Sippin' so much Goose that you could call it quiche." Which I actually prefer.
For this Throwback Thursday, how about a song that sounds like a lost New Order track from 1982? (Okay, a lost New Order track from an alternate universe in which Ian Curtis was still around and fronting the band in 1982).
I kind of feel bad for pop C-listers like Rachel Platten (even though I loathed her big hit, the supposedly inspirational female empowerment anthem "Fight Song"). If the sultry-yet-sassy "Perfect for You" had been recorded by a bigger star with a sexier star persona--say, a Selena Gomez or a Demi Lovato--it probably would have become a huge hit. As recorded by co-writer Platten, it will be lucky if it hits #46 on the Hot AC chart. It's still a great pop song, though.
A few days ago, I had to fish out my warm winter gloves, and I've noticed that my thoughts keep drifting to the same question: "How many weeks until spring comes again?" But when I'm yearning for spring, I can just put on this song by LA band courtship. The strummed surf guitar, the tapping woodblocks, the ringing chimes, the wispy vocals, the airy harmonies: they're the musical equivalent of a bright light to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder.
I always find Sleigh Bells a little hit-or-miss, and most of their latest EP Kid Kruschev is a big miss for me, but I love the single "Rainmaker." It has an early 90s feel that triggers my nostalgia centers, but the unusual thing is that it's blending two very different styles of music from that era. The lyrics and impassioned vocals recall the edgy alternative rock band Curve, but a lot of the production touches come from the era's Top 40 hits, like the background moans that could be from Madonna's "Justify my Love" or the drum fills that sound almost identical to those on PM Dawn's "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss." It's an odd combination, but it adds up to the best song Sleigh Bells have released since "Comeback Kid."
This song cleverly combines two of Iceland's major musical exports: Kaleo-style folk-pop and Bjork-style glitchy electronica. Even though some of the digital sounds in the mix are quite sharp and dissonant, Ásgeir's gentle voice, combined with the pastoral scenes in the video, makes the song feel soothing and organic, like the burbling of an electronic stream.
For such a small country, Belgium sure does produce a lot of great English-language indie rock. Some of the credit for that probably has to go to radio station Studio Brussel and its long running alternative music program De Afrekening. I've definitely discovered a lot of great Belgian bands on the compilation CDs De Afrekening puts out every year, including School is Cool. Their new single "Fight of the Century" is a short, punchy burst of indie pop, perfectly balancing sweet harmonies and xylophone sounds with hoarse vocals, ragged call-and-response chants, and buzzing guitars.
Since it's Black Friday, that annual festival of overconsumption, I've got a double dose of songs from the fantastic new album by Australia's Touch Sensitive. As someone who only started listening to pop radio religiously in the early 90s, the production on these tracks is like a series of Proustian madeleines in audio form.
"Known Better" combines the shuffling beat from countless early 90s pop tracks with the sproingy sound I immediately recognize from Genesis' "I Can't Dance," then adds a pillowy, George Michael-style white soul vocal:
"Veronica" is funkier and filthier, a cross between Natural Selection's "Do Anything," Michael Jackson's "In the Closet", and the Janet Jackson/Luther Vandross duet "The Best Things in Life are Free." Except none of those songs just came out and asked "Am I the one you want to fuck all the time?" like this song does:
It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: time to listen to some Afrikaans pop music. Wikipedia tells me that "Tiekiedraai" is a village in the Limpopo province, while Google Translate tells me that the Afrikaans word "tiekiedraai" means "twirl around" in English. Well, whatever this song means--and I seriously have no idea--it definitely makes me want to twirl around. The exultant whoops, the horns, the percussion--they all add up to one of the most joyous songs I've heard all year.
I love it when singers who have a wide vocal range, like Sarah Negahdari here, don't try to do a regimented, showy vocal gymnastics routine, but instead just indulge themselves in the sheer pleasure of the voice as it slides from coos to growls, from ecstatic shrieks to whispers.
llVV, the debut album by Irish band All Tvvins, was one of my absolute favorites of 2016, packed with songs that were anthemic, but had quirky vocals, rhythms, and production touches. Their new single "Anything" is more straightforward pop, and it's a bit sparse lyrically. But its smooth production and crackling energy makes it a nice way to start the week.
Even though Paul Simon's Graceland received plenty of acclaim upon its release, it didn't have much influence on the sound of late-'80s pop music. So it's surprising to me how much Graceland influence there is in 2010s pop music, including this new track from Bilbao-born Gizmo Varillas. Light, airy, strummy, and sunny, it seems like the perfect song for a lazy Sunday.
Charlotte Gainsbourg seems like one of those celebrities who'd be genuinely cool to know in real life. In her film roles, she's often projected this thoughtfulness, this sense of having a rich inner life. And over the years, she's made such great music, from "Lemon Incest," the controversial duet she made with her father Serge when she was only a teenager, to "If," her seductive 2004 duet with Etienne Daho, to her solo records.
Her latest album, Rest, came out yesterday, and it's a more somber work, with several songs alluding to her sister's suicide. But the Dev Hynes-produced "Deadly Valentine" is more energetic, wedding Charlotte's delicate murmur to a throbbing electro pulse.
Sofi Tukker f Nervo, The Knocks, and Alisa Ueno, "Best Friend"
Sofi Tukker were a surprise Grammy nominee for Best Dance Recording last year--well, at least I was surprised--and now they're back with a posse cut featuring a bunch of other not-so-well-known dance-pop artists. I'd be curious to know if the video shoot was the first time they all hung out in person. The song feels like something that could have been stitched together digitally, with each act e-mailing in their vocals and instrumental contributions. Synthetic though it may be, the song's still an absolute banger. Play it on some headphones with good bass and enjoy.
There's been a common theme to my song selections the past couple of days, so the "Yellow Sun" logically leads to "Black Rainbows." This is one of the highlights of Haiku From Zero, the latest Cut Copy album, and like most of their songs it has a dreamy 80's dance-pop vibe, complete with funky slap bass and falsetto harmonies. I was trying to pinpoint which 80's artists this reminds me of, and it finally hit me: Chaz Jankel. Take a listen below, and tell me if I'm crazy.
Crystal Fighters have been releasing music with tropical influences for years, before major pop acts started jumping on the "tropical house" bandwagon. So I can't blame them for going more pop on their most recent album, even if parts of this song veer alarmingly into Andy Grammer/American Authors territory. (I have low tolerance for ukuleles. Which might be why I've never visited Hawaii). But the distorted vocals insert some much-needed weirdness, and in the middle of November, with the hours of daylight starting to wane, it's nice to hear a song this...well....sunny.
Here's a fact that sends shivers of dread through my aging body: Beck is now 47. And that's probably coloring some of the tepid critical responses to his new album Colors, which incorporates the current pop trends coming from artists a good two decades younger than Beck. But personally I'm glad that he's not just sticking to stately, slow, "mature" albums like Sea Change or Modern Guilt. Because the hypnotic psychedelic pop of "Colors" is a lot more fun. And are those pan pipes in the mix?
Putting new songs on a Best Of album is a tricky business. Do you go for something that sounds very "now" and thus stands out from the older tracks on the compilation? Or do you consciously try to imitate your classic sound?
Feeder opts for the latter approach on this song from their new "Best Of," which sounds a lot like the other singles they've released over the past 20 years. But more importantly, it takes just the best parts of those singles--the dramatic rising intensity of the verses, the explosive chanted choruses, the catchy harmonies, the pounding drums-- and recombines them into something exciting and new.
I've been enjoying this German dance-rap song for months, but I've hesitated to post it because I could have sworn that the lyrics say "Mein Kampf" several times and that...um...has some negative connotations. And yet it sounded pretty plausible, since that literally means "my fight" or "my struggle," and it's a cliche in rap to describe yourself as a fighter who's had to struggle--isn't that the topic of every other Eminem lyric? (I guess what I'm saying here is that Eminem is as bad as Hitler, and if you want more evidence of that, just check out the new Eminem track). But luckily, Kayef is actually rapping about "Mein Kopf" ("my head") aching after a terrible hangover. I also thought he was rapping about Ed Sheeran...and it turns out he actually is rapping about Ed Sheeran. See, his hangover is so bad that "Selbst Ed Sheeran ist grad zu laut" ("Even Ed Sheeran is just too loud").
Staying in the antipodes for a bit longer, let's take a listen to New Zealand artist Lake South, who's released a whole album, "If You're Born on an Island the Ocean Heals You," about being from New Zealand and continuing to live there even as international investors have caused the country's property prices to skyrocket. The album's first single, "Renters," was actually explicitly about the nation's housing crisis. "Cost of Living" is a little vaguer; the chorus, "It's just the cost of living here/ Get used to it," could even be taken as an existential statement. And the singer's high, quavering voice, nearly submerged in a sea of reverberating synths, is the sound of a man barely keeping his head above water.
The new Pnau album, Changa, dropped early this morning, and I have to admit I'm a little disappointed. It uses a lot of female soul vocalists, and I was hoping that Pnau member Nick Littlemore would sing on every track, because I love his voice, even though it's not for everyone. His throat-shredding shouts on Groove Armada's "Warsaw" (2009) and his euphoric squeals on Pnau's "Unite Us" (2011) are some of my favorite male vocals of the past decade. Although Pnau's also done some great stuff with other male vocalists, like on their amazing Elton John remix/mash-up album, Good Morning to the Night (2012).
"Into the Sky" isn't quite up to those levels, but it is damn catchy, with a great beat and some interesting instrumental textures.
Speaking of things that all sound the same, I'd estimate that about 1 out of every 4 new bands on my MP3 player sound like The 1975. I think I have enough at this point to make a compilation CD, "I Can't Believe it's Not the 1975," that would be even better than the band's recent "I Like it When You Sleep..." album. Australia's Chase Atlantic are one of the best of this batch of 1975-alikes. (The sax bits on their songs help elevate them). And their most recent video doubles as a sociological study of the band's target listeners: bored teenagers with bad haircuts in desolate towns.
This is my 100th "New Music of the Day" post, and I've consciously been trying to post an eclectic mix of music I like, not just a bunch of songs that all sound the same. (Whether I've succeeded is up for debate, of course). And so I thought that "Sounds the Same" would be perfect for Song 100, especially because it's tagged as "House," a genre that was once plagued with soundalike singles, belted vocals from Martha Wash or Loleatta Holloway or one of their many imitators over a thumping beat. This new Ben Pearce song has more in common with early House tracks like Jamie Principle's "Your Love," which had a certain tinge of sadness and urban anomie to their lyrics and vocals.
I only recently stumbled upon this song, which has been out for a few months now. I'll admit I haven't been keeping up much with Canadian rocker Matthew Good; even though I thought his eponymous band was turning out above-average singles in the late 1990s/early 2000s, they didn't rank among my very favorite Canadian bands of the era (like Sloan or Big Wreck). But in a year that's been pretty sparse for memorable guitar riffs, this song stands out. (The drums on this are pretty terrific too). And the lyrical content is pointed and relevant, especially today, when US elections are being held. So I thought it was the perfect day to post this and encourage my US friends to vote: it's one of the few things we can do to not let the bad guys win.
The latest single from LA duo POWERS is the kind of song that, if picked up by a major label and given some radio promotion, could blossom into a big hit. Not only is it a good song, with a talented vocalist and a slew of interesting little production touches, but it’s on trend with 2017 pop fashion (without sounding completely generic). It’s got tropical elements in the instrumentation, sultry female vocals, and lyrics about erotic desire. But like a lot of Trump-era pop (“I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” “Closer,” anything by Alessia Cara), there’s also a sense of melancholy pervading the song, from the ghostly choral effects at the beginning to the singer’s pleading “You and me” refrain toward the end. Is it a sadness that they won’t be “just kids” for long, or a desperate urge to shut out the rest of the world, leaving just “You and me/ You and me babe”?
I've seen some long-time fans complaining that Hurts have sold out, as their 4th album Desire, has a more radio-friendly sound, in keeping with 2017 pop trends. And I can see where they're coming from; Hurts started out making moody synthpop, not miles away from late-80's Depeche Mode acolytes like Camouflage, and now they're starting to sound more like Maroon 5. But I'm really loving some of the tracks on this album, especially the George Michael-meets-Prince-ish "Boyfriend" and this one, where the funky bassline and throbbing beat work well in contrast with typically gloomy Hurts lyrics like "When the devil's dancing toe to toe/ When the reaper comes I'll be ready to go."
I’ve seen Alex Cameron play live twice now, and I think he’s a magnetic performer. Imagine a cross between his countryman Nick Cave and Brandon Flowers (this song’s co-writer): louche, seedy, swaggering, strutting, but just on the verge of camp. (He also looks at least ten years older onstage than he does in this video).
Some of Cameron’s songs deconstruct machismo, like live favorite “Marlon Brando,” which he needs to release as a single, even if it does include the word “faggot” in the lyrics. Others revel in it ironically—and “Runnin' Outta Luck,” with its “I’m a man on a mission/ You’re a stripper out of luck” chorus, makes a nice companion piece to The Killers’ excellent recent single “The Man.”
And as a bonus, here's a live version of "Marlon Brando":
I think I like this song and video even more the last single from Australian band Confidence Man, "Boyfriend (Repeat)," with its graphic scenes of Ken doll mutilation. I love how their sound combines the brash, bratty DIY style of early 80s No Wave music with more modern dance pop sounds. They end up sounding a bit like the Ting Tings, but more concerned with having fun than seeming cool.
This is a 2017 song, but if you told me it was a 2002 song, I'd probably believe you. It reminds me a lot of jazzy trip-hop-influenced groups from that era like Koop or Bent. And this has all the ingredients that made those songs so successful: a steady backbeat, a memorable looping horn sample, and a sultry female vocal that sounds like it's emanating from the other end of a time warp.