Love is not in the air. I couldn’t find any decent new love songs this week to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Instead, this week’s all a bit gloomy and depressing. Fortunately, I like gloomy and depressing songs. Artists featured this week include Indigo De Souza, Latir, Squid, Kety Fusco, Casey Møøn and DaBaby.
THE BEST:
‘Younger & Dumber’ – Indigo De Souza
This song from North Carolina singer Indigo De Souza perfectly
encapsulates the helpless feeling of not knowing what direction to go in after a
breakup. You cannot return to the life you had before the relationship because
you’re such a different person now, and yet you cannot move forward because all
of your future plans have been taken away. The emotionally raw delivery of
lines like ‘I don’t feel at home in this house anymore’ combined with
footage from childhood home videos had me fighting back tears. It’s beautifully
heart-wrenching stuff – and I say this as someone who usually cannot stand
country ballads.
‘E1’ -Latir
Latir is an alternative r&b artist from London. His latest
single ‘E1’ is a gritty tribute to the East End that he grew up in (I never
thought Bethnal Green would get its own anthem). I’m loving the menacing
bassline and Latir’s reverb-soaked voice. The video is also very high quality
for a British underground artist. This guy is definitely one to watch!
‘Swing (In A Dream)’ – Squid
Wacky UK post-punk band Squid are back and are planning to
release an upcoming album titled O Monolith in June this year. ‘Swing
(In A Dream)’ is our first glimpse from it and it’s a typically dizzying track
with a really exhilarating build up. Ollie Judge even seems to have calmed down
on the yelping (which was my one gripe with their previous album). Extra points
for the amazing video too.
‘halflight’ – Casey Møøn
‘Halflight’ is a song about disassociating from a once familiar
place. It features some fantastic moody synths that feel like they’re out of
some Blade-Runner-esque sci-fi movie. I’m not usually a big autotune fan, but
here it feels tasteful and adds to the spacey atmosphere. The track comes off
of the Canadian singer-songwriter’s new EP titled ashes - the third of a trilogy of EPs.
‘2072’ – Kety Fusco
‘2072’ does indeed sounds like something that people might
be listening to in 2072. The futuristic instrumental is the work of experimental
harp player Kety Fusco, who I’ve previously featured on the blog, and features
some more playful effects, this time resulting in a brooding cinematic vibe. It’s
definitely not the type of music you imagine when you think of harp music.
THE WORST:
‘Yea come on’ – DaBaby
I’ve never liked DaBaby, but I think whoever produced
this track clearly dislikes DaBaby even more than me, because this is one of the most
low-effort poorly-mixed beats I’ve ever heard. It's as if they deliberately tried to make the rapper sound worse.