Friday, 22 October 2021

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 22/10/2021: Mount Westmore, LANNDS, Empath and more...

Hip hop supergroup Mount Westmore drop their fun debut single, plus new fantastic tracks from LANNDS, Empath, Mindchatter and Fatherson. Sadly, I'm not feeling the new Adele song.

THE BEST:

‘Big Subwoofer’ – Mount Westmore

West Coast hip hop legends Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40 and Too Short have recently formed a new supergroup called Mount Westmore. ‘Big Subwoofer’ is their first single together - and it’s a lot of fun! It mixes old-skool boastful bars with modern bass-heavy production (I would love to hear this beat through a big subwoofer). The video meanwhile takes place on the planet of ‘Snoopiter’ and features a three-titted alien chick and a dog in a spacesuit (if that doesn’t make your want to watch the video, I don’t know what will.).

‘In The Garden’ – LANNDS

Run-For-Cover-signed Florida duo LANNDS have dropped this new dreamy electropop track ‘In The Garden’. The production reminds me a lot of Washed Up’s ‘Feel It All Around’ –the radiant synths and steady bass riff are entrancing. Vocalist Rania Woodard’s angelic singing is also hypnotic.

‘Born 100 Times’ - Empath

At first, I thought this was going to be a fairly conventional lo-fi indie song. I was not expecting the drums to be so ferocious. Melodically it has a sugary psychedelic feel to it, but rhythmically it’s like being caught in a violent brawl. I’m looking forward to hearing more chaotic music from this Philly band.

‘Answer Me’ – Mindchatter

This jittery synthpop song is the work of New York producer/singer Mindchatter. The lyrics sound like they were written by a malfunctioning robot that has accidentally become sentient. The backdrop of bouncy electronic sounds and metallic vocal effects also have a semi-organic semi-robotic feel to them.

‘End of the World’ – Fatherson

My social media feed has been full of doom and gloom headlines recently. ‘It’s not the end of the world’ is definitely the anthemic hook I needed to cheer me up. This is the Glasgow trio’s first single in three years. It’s less guitar-focused than their early stuff, bringing in more synths and pianos. Personally, I love the epic feel of it all (especially that dreamy wall-of-sound section towards the end).

THE WORST:

‘Easy on Me’ – Adele

Every time I hear that ‘eeeeeeeeeeeee…’ chorus I keep expecting it to break into ‘In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle’.