A lot has happened in the last two weeks (wait, no, three weeks!) since I last did one of these roundups. A new Tyler the Creator album. Halloween. The US election. It feels like a year has passed. Here are some of the songs that have stood out over the last three weeks. Artists featured include Tyler, the Creator, Lady Gaga, Beck Pete & Timothy Brown, Scions, Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek, Brock Geiger, Shealagh Rose and KSI.
THE BEST:
‘Like Him’ – Tyler,
the Creator
I could have
featured any one of the bangers off of Tyler’s latest album Chromakopia
(which you can read my review of here). However, I decided ‘Like Him’ was most
worthy. It may be the first Tyler track I’ve listened to that’s almost had me
in tears, and that’s something I never expected from an artist who used to reel
off rape jokes. Admittedly, 2013’s
‘Answer’ was pretty hard-hitting too – a song that was also centred around his
estranged dad. ‘Like Him’ is another daddy issues anthem, but rather than being
filled with bitterness, it’s a desperate plea to know who is father was/is. The
production is heavenly, and it’s delivered in such a heartfelt manner that I
don’t even mind Tyler’s amateurish singing.
‘Disease’
– Lady Gaga
I’ve been
wanting to see Lady Gaga embrace her darker side ever since she played a
horny vampire in American Horror Story: Hotel. Released on Halloween,
this new infectious single ‘Disease’ sees her delivering a mix of creepy
visuals, Phrygian vocal melodies and harsh synths. It sounds a lot more fresher
than vintage Bruno Mars duet ‘Die With A Smile’ and feels a lot more personal
too given her fibromyalgia diagnosis, but probably won’t get the same
airplay, because the most exciting singles never do.
‘This
Ain’t Halloween’ – Beck Pete & Timothy Brown
Despite being
released just before Halloween, ‘This Ain’t Halloween’ is not about Halloween.
It says so in the title. No, it’s a duet sung from the perspective of two
lovers in a toxic love/hate relationship. Of course, that isn’t to say it’s
doesn’t contain a few fun Halloween-y elements. The opening synths are very
‘Ghostbusters’-esque and there are lots of playful occult-themed lyrics: ‘you’re
my favourite haunted house/you love to hear me scream’. Beck Pete also lets
out a scary shriek at the end. Overall, the most Halloween-y song about
it not being Halloween that I’ve ever heard.
‘Fight
Song’ – Scions
Canadian
experimental nine-piece Scions deliver this epic baroque pop single about
fighting a losing battle. It revolves around a fluttering ostinato that’s
joined by some gorgeous strings as it key changes up into its chorus. It briefly
deviates into a skronky guitar solo and then ends with a euphoric climax with
the words ‘when we go down, we go down swinging’ repeated until the end.
It’s a fitting anthem for this era – in which it feels like humanity is in a
losing battle with itself to save the world from climate change (among other
things). The band have also dropped another single called ‘The Mountain’, which
seems to be a song about nature striking back, growing ever more noisy and
cacophonous until it reaches a climax as colossal as Gary Barlowe’s son. It’s
also worth a listen.
‘Cool
Hand’ – Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek
‘Cool Hand’
is a mix of funk-soul and Anatolian folk music. That’s two styles of music I
never expected to see combined, and I’m even more shocked by how good it
sounds. The lyrics are in Turkish and are delivered in a semi-folksy semi-soulful
cadence, while the instrumentation is a groovy blend of bass, keys, guitar and saz.
Where do Big Crowd Records find these gems?
‘Lemonade’
– Brock Geiger
The last track I featured from singer/multi-instrumentalist Brock Geiger was a synth-heavy
7/4 alt pop track accompanied by some botanical body horror visuals. This new single
‘Lemonade’ ditches the synths in favour of a more organic backdrop of fretless
bass and saxophone. It’s just as excitingly dense and weird, sporting some
equally intricate percussion, while still staying very rhythmic. Meanwhile, the
music video features a whole lotta lemons.
‘Radio
Silence’ – Shealagh Rose
‘Radio Silence’
is a mix of dreamy vocals and moody guitars. The first two thirds are very
hypnotic, but the song truly takes off in the final third once it reaches that ‘you-ooh
turned down the dial’, especially when the fuzzy guitars kick in. It comes
off the Ontario singer/multi-instrumentalist’s upcoming second EP.
THE WORST:
‘Thick of
It’ - KSI ft. Trippie Redd
‘I don’t
know no nothin about no ice, I’m just cold’. I just tried unpacking this
quadruple negative and I can only assume KSI doesn’t own a freezer, because why
the fuck does he not know what ice is?