20. Sam Padrul & Megan Vice - "Waves Break"
I'm so annoyed that I only discovered Megan Vice earlier this year, despite her apparently having been dropping totally killer dancepop tunes for the last few years. She's the perfect blend of inviting, adorable, and sultry; the kind of person who invites you to a party and you go because you know there's lowkey a chance that skinny dipping is gonna go down. With the right producers, I think she could be this generation's Vanity, just saying.
Also worth noting: Producer Sam Padrul's bio on his record label's website describes him as having "emerged from his mother's womb with a keyboard already in clutch."
19. Rita Ora - "Your Song"
Rita Ora deserves more respect than she gets in the US. A great way for her to make that happen, though, would be to drop an album! We're all waiting, girl!! (In the meantime, though, if you keep dropping bops like this, we're cool.)
18. Katy Perry - "Swish Swish"
Ugh, Katy. Coasts along as a "gay icon" despite her early music being problematic as fuck, is just so generally blah, can't find an identity, not even a very good voice and OH MY GOD IS THAT NICKI MINAJ RAPPING OVER KORG M1 ORGANS??! END MY LIFE, WHY DON'T YOU?!?
17. Afrojack ft. David Guetta & Ester Dean - "Another Life"
I have no idea who Afrojack is, but if there's one person whose career I watch like a hawk, it's Ester Dean. After years of incredible songs sent up the charts by numerous pop artists, Ester graced this Earth with her flawless Miss Ester Dean EP back in 2015. I've been waiting for even just another single since then, but I guess genius is rushed for no one. She was gracious enough to lend her beautiful voice to this weirdo's semi-interesting EDM-pop thingy this year, though, so all is not lost.
16. Morrissey - "Spent The Day In Bed"
I purchased Morrissey's album a few months ago to get early access tickets to his show in Chicago, a birthday gift for my girlfriend. Upon doing so, I was given access to the only song out at the time, the album's lead single. I'm willing to look the other way on the eyeroll-inducing lyrics about the dang ol' big bad media (although it doesn't take much googling to see why he has a less-than-nuanced opinion of "the media") because the track starts with these absolutely flawless Rhodes piano notes that I spent the next few months walking around humming. You also have to love the dude's turn of a phrase; "I'm not my type" and "Life ends in death/So, there's nothing wrong with being good to yourself" are reminders that he's nothing if not relatable.
15. Litany - "Flaws"
If singer Beth Cornell's perfectly saccharine, breathy vocals aren't enough to make you love Litany, then relatable, straightforward lyrics like those in this song's chorus should do the trick. Currently all these folks have is an EP, but it was assembled with care, featuring interludes and a consistent theme and sound.
14. DMX - "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"
What do I even need to say about this? It barks for itself.
13. Dua Lipa - "New Rules"
It's been a great year for 22-year-old British(!) songstress Dua Lipa. She's had several hits in her her native UK over the last two years, but she finally broke into the US Top 40 this year with her fifth(!) single from her debut (and currently, only) album. It's a lovely midtempo number that turns a tropical spin on the typical dance-four-on-the-floor.
12. Lorde - "Green Light"
Lorde's lyrics don't make a lot of sense to me, and I'm betting they don't to most of her listeners either, which leads me to conclude that everyone is either having more grungy house party relationship drama than I think they are, or they've all subconsciously agreed to just pretend like they understand what the hell she's talking about. Either way, I'm here for the production and for her unique voice. She's clearly struck a chord with this generation, so I guess just keep doing whatever the hell you're doing, honey. I'll keep dancing.
11. Shawn Wasabi ft. Hollis - "Otter Pop"
There's a new class of electronic musicians emerging. They are excited about hardware in a way that folks of that genre haven't been since the early 1980s when new toys like the Fairlight CMI and the Roland line of drum machines entered the scene. Their exciting toys come in many exciting forms, but Wasabi's weapon of choice is the Midi Fighter 64 - A controller that he actually had commissioned and is now sold commercially. Watching him play it is fascinating for many reasons, but perhaps most of all the realization that he has to remember how he has lain out 64 different bleeps, bloops, drum hits, and vocal samples, and that one wrong button push would mean restarting the song (hence the excitement at the end of this video).
0 comments:
Post a Comment