New Music of the Day, January 17:

Cheat Codes f Fetty Wap & CVBZ, "Feels Great"

This came up randomly on my MP3 player as I was walking into campus this morning, and I seemed like the perfect song to suit the day. After all, it's the first day of a new semester and the first time in a while I've had a good night's sleep--all things that make me feel great.

Cheat Codes have been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while; their music is undeniably dumb, but they hit a lot of sweet spots in my ears. They're like the musical equivalent of mainlining a packet of Fun Dip. And this song is a crude-yet-honest distillation of one of EDM's central messages: being young "feels great, motherfucka, yeah."

New Music of the Day, January 16:

Loud Forest, "Wake Up"

Lyrically, this seemed like the perfect choice for today; it's the final day of winter break, and I'm struggling to get back into work mode and to get back into a regular sleep pattern, after experiencing heinous jet lag from my US trip. So it helps to literally hear someone singing, "Wake up, it's over."

Musically, this bit of Californian indie-pop is also a great pick-me-up, with surging choruses and a variety of interesting little production touches to keep listeners alert and grab their attention.

New Music of the Day, January 15:

Ginger Snaps f Vo Williams, "Anorak"

It's a grey, drizzly day in Yerevan, perfect weather for an anorak and the perfect time to play a bright, colorful, exuberant song like this new single from Ginger Snaps. It sounds a lot like classic Beck, with some of the same 70's and old-school hip-hop references (including plenty of record scratches).

New Music of the Day, January 14:

So Kindly, "Broken Jaw"

Sometimes it just takes a good line or two to elevate a song from "pleasant-yet-forgettable" to "must-listen." For Zimbabwean singer-songwriter So Kindly, who lists Stromae and Milky Chance among his influences, that line is "Elder eat us raw/ Let's break our jaws/ Let's break our jaws/ Let's break our jaws," which seems so out of sync with the sunny, strummy instrumentation that the song immediately becomes 100 times more interesting.

New Music of the Day, January 13:

Kodaline, "The Riddle"

I've always had a fairly positive impression of Irish band Kodaline--and I enjoyed seeing them at the Isle of Wight festival a couple of years ago--but sometimes their songs are pretty generic, not really standing out from the pack of Coldplay/Snow Patrol-style plaintive soft rockers. But "The Riddle," off their latest EP, is enough of a departure from their usual sound that it's changed my perceptions of Kodaline. A slowly simmering inspirational ballad with hints of Afrobeat and soul, it sounds a bit like a cross between U2's "I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For" and Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

New Music of the Day, January 12:

INHEAVEN, "Regeneration"

It's interesting how guitar rock has evolved now that it's no longer the popular style of music for young people. Back in 1965, the Who could confidently proclaim that they were speaking for their generation (or "Talkin' bout my generation"): "People try to put us d-down/ Just because we get around." The singer of INHEAVEN, on the other hand, avoids such universalizing statements, instead announcing "I don't want to bring you down/ I just wanna fuck around/ I'm bored with my generation/ Is this my generation?"

I think the difference between those two choruses might just sum up how the attitude of British youth culture has changed over the past 50 years. But in its way, "Regeneration" is just as much an anthem as "My Generation," and it sounds great cranked up as loud as your speakers can go.

New Music of the Day, January 11:

Delv!s, "Home Again"

I'm not quite home again yet from my two week trip to the US--right now I'm in Kiev, waiting for my flight back home to Yerevan--but I thought this was a perfect day to feature this delightfully funky piece of retro soul music from Belgian singer Delv!s.

New Music of the Day, January 10:

Canon Blue, "Onyx"

I posted "Beholden," the first single from Canon Blue's latest record, a few months ago, and that song was good, but "Onyx" is a whole 'nother level. There are elements of at least 4 different types of songs here, and they shouldn't work together, but they do beautifully. There's the electronic minimalism of the beat and "up in the Onyx" chant, the wispy indie white boy vocals, the "Hold up! Hold up!" cadence straight out of hip-hop, and the stirring brass sections you might find in an Arcade Fire song.

New Music of the Day, January 9:

Dan Flynn, "Everything He Does"

One thing I love about Soundcloud is that when I follow the "Related Tracks" links, I'll sometimes stumble across little gems like this one, from an artist I'm otherwise unfamilar with (in this case, Australia's Dan Flynn). I especially like the contrast between this song's soothing sound--with whispered vocals and glistening harps--and its stinging lyrical content.

New Music of the Day, January 8:

Mikky Ekko, "Light the Way"

Mikky Ekko is best known for his duet with Rihanna on "Stay," and he's recently come back with two singles, "Blood on the Surface" and "Light the Way." The latter's the one that's really caught my attention. I'm not exactly sure what the lyric "We set ourselves on fire to light the way" means, but I love it, and it matches perfectly with Ekko's strained, choked vocals and the song's jagged, dynamic instrumentation.

New Music of the Day, January 7:

Tomas Barfod f Jonas Smith, "Family"

It's another chilly day in New York, so I thought I'd share this track where the vocalist seems to be shivering as he sings, his delicate high-pitched voice quavering out the unanswered question, "Is it okay? Is it okay?" as icy synths swirl around him and electronic drums throb like a racing heartbeat.

New Music of the Day, January 6:

Serena Ryder, "Ice Age"

I'm in New York right now, where it was bitterly cold yesterday and promises to be even colder today (8 F/-13 C as I write). So this seems like a good day for Canadian popstar Serena Ryder's "Ice Age," which is a blatant Florence & the Machine ripoff, but happens to be such an effective Florence & the Machine ripoff that her unoriginality is easily forgiven.

New Music of the Day, January 5:

Wombats, "Lemon to a Knife Fight"

This song seemed like an appropriate soundtrack for my day, since I'm presenting a paper at an academic conference in a couple of hours, and there's nothing like big conferences to bring out one's sense of impostor syndrome. When you're rubbing shoulders with academic superstars, you might feel like you've only brought a lemon to a knife fight.

Of course, the song is great in its own right, as is its harrowing music video. It's nice to see that the Wombats are still going strong after eleven years, and that the band who brought us songs like "Backfire at the Disco" and "Let's Dance to Joy Division" is still continuing its tradition of eye-catching song titles.

New Music of the Day, January 4:

The Night Game, "Once in a Lifetime"

The Night Game are so expert at late-80s revivalism that I had suspicions their last single, "The Outfield," was actually being performed by the band The Outfield under an assumed name. (The Alarm actually did this in 2004 and got to 28 in the charts, after realizing that UK radio stations wouldn't play new music by The Alarm, but they would play a new band named "The Poppyfields"). Their latest, "Once in a Lifetime," reminds me a bit of David & David or the best songs by Don Henley, the kind of music Rolling Stone magazine raved about in the late 80s.

New Music of the Day, January 3:

Ten Fé, "Single, No Return"

This is my last morning in Florence, South Carolina, and though it was great getting to see my old home and visit many old friends, I don't know when I'll be getting back here (probably not any time soon). So it seems appropriate to cue up this new single from Ten Fé, one of my favorite new bands (who absolutely rocked when I saw them play a little Hackney club last year).

The song reminds me a lot of that weird period in the late 80s where many British bands played with American western iconography and wore a lot of leather jackets. It's an anthem for rugged individualists and romantic loners.

New Music of the Day, January 2:

Rosborough, "Burn Blue"

This single from Northern Ireland's Rosborough is the kind of moving piano-driven ballad I used to listen to a lot in the early years of the millennium (think Elbow's "Asleep in the Back" or Starsailor's "Silence is Easy") but don't hear a lot anymore. It starts off slow, but it builds to a dramatic climax that makes it surprisingly good workout music.

New Music of the Day, January 1:

Nik Brinkman, "Years Go By"

Let's start the New Year off right with a short-but-sweet burst of Kiwi power-pop from New Zealand singer-songwriter Nik Brinkman, who also records as Junica. "We're always looking for something," he sings in the chorus. May you find what you're looking for in 2018.