Kendrick Lamar responds to Drake, plus St Vincent keeps dropping bangers. Plus, more tracks from Caroline Polachek, Corridor, Peter Bibby, Peached, Rollo Doherty and Motley Crue.
THE BEST:
‘Euphoria’
– Kendrick Lamar
The ‘big three’
beef continues (although it’s really just Drake vs Kendrick at this point now
that Cole has pretty much bowed out). Drake’s diss track ‘Push Ups’ took some
surprisingly savage shots at Kendrick’s height, fame and even his fiancée. It
was so savage that I didn’t think that Kendrick could one-up it given that we’ve
never really seen him engaged in a beef before. But I was wrong. Earlier this
week, Kendrick responded with ‘Euphoria’, which sees him questioning Drake’s status
as a rapper, his racial identity, his taste in women and even his role as a
father. I keep unpacking new details every time I listen to it. Did you catch
that bar about paying ‘five thousand… to an open case’ (most likely a
reference to that $530k sexual assault claim Drake paid off)? And did you know ‘Crodie’
is also the name of Drake’s cat (so he’s pretty much calling Drake a ‘pussy’
throughout that whole mock-Toronto-accent verse)? If Kendrick dissed me like
this, I’d be crying. And it’s clear that K-dot is holding back here. If this
beef gets any wilder it will start mooing again. I’m scared to see where they
take it next.
‘Big Time
Nothing’ – St Vincent
I’m still yet
to listen to All Born Screaming, but I feel like it’s going to be a fun
record given that I’ve enjoyed all of the singles. ‘Big Time Nothing’ revolves
around a fat bassy synth riff that kinda reminds me of Bjork’s ‘Army of Me’.
Except the vocals from Annie are nothing like ‘Army of Me’- instead we get some
goofy but fun funk-flavoured singing which is deliberately at odds with the
depressing theme of the song. The results is a slightly bonkers banger.
‘Starburned
and Unkissed’ - Caroline Polachek
Co-produced
with A.G. Cook, this woozy art pop single from Caroline Polachek had me excited
that there might already be a new album around the corner. But it turns out
this song is actually from a soundtrack to an upcoming movie titled I Saw The TV Glow (which features songs from a few other alternative artists like
Alex G and Phoebe Bridgers – so potentially still worth checking out). It’s a nice little addition to Caroline Polachek’s catalogue. The detuned effects
make it enjoyably weird, but it’s also got a fun explosive chorus to give it
direction.
‘Jump Cut’
– Corridor
‘Jump Cut’
sounds like some long-lost underground rock gem from the 80s. It’s got fidgety
post-punk guitars, deep downbeat crooned vocals and even a spacey shreddy synth
solo. The production quality even feels deliberately aged. And yet there’s
enough modern electronic touches in there that it feels excitingly fresh. It’s
got one of the coolest videos I’ve seen this year – consisting of footage of
the band spliced with archival footage and lots of sharp ‘jump cuts’. The song
comes off the Canadians band’s new album Mimi.
‘Fun Guy’ –
Peter Bibby
‘Fun Guy’ is a
song about a guy who has given up on fun and is now lamenting how much of a boring
bastard he has become. It’s delivered in an entertaining half-spoken, half-snarled
delivery over a punky oscillating guitar riff and a racing drum machine. It’s
the most fun song about not having fun that I’ve heard (I think). The track is
set to appear on the Perth-based singer’s upcoming album, Drama King,
which is out May 31st.
‘Movie
Star’ – Peached
Is disco rock
a genre? That’s the vibe I’m getting from this intense song, ‘Movie Star’ by Scottish
rock trio Peached (not to be confused with PEACH who I interviewed a couple
months ago). There are plenty of funk rock songs out there. But this one’s got some
really frantic waka-waka guitars going on that makes it sound like Chic on
steroids. It even goes a bit Daft Punk flavoured in the middle with those
vocoders. However, the bustling drums ensure that it’s still a rock track
underneath it all.
‘Papaya’ –
Rollo Doherty
This is the
second song I’ve featured from Rollo Doherty off his upcoming EP, Out My
Window. It’s another vibrant song,
this time with a catchy trumpet melody and some livelier percussion. I did
think the last single ‘It’s All Beautiful Rain’ sounded too professional to be
a debut single – it turns out Rollo is the frontman of a band called ISLAND who
already have quite a following.
THE WORST:
‘Dogs of
War’ – Motley Crue
At first I
thought he was singing ‘downtoooown!’ during the chorus, and I have to say that
would have been the weirdest Petula Clark interpolation I’ve heard yet. Anyhow,
this is by-the-numbers butt rock. And the CGI music video is quite something.