Friday 2 June 2017

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 02/06/2017: Foo Fighters, Oliver Tree, Washed Out and more…




Despite all the great songs this week covfefe

THE BEST:


‘Welcome to LA’ – Oliver Tree


Don’t be deceived by the mullet and windbreaker. Oliver Tree is a cool dude. COOLER THAN YOU’LL EVER BE. Over a groovy beat that culminates with a suave trumpet solo, the musician delivers some blistering bars against the people of LA. Everyone from ‘plastic barbies’ to ‘drug addicts in a sleeping bag’ are depicted in this lyrical painting of California’s most lovable hellhole.

‘Get Lost’ – Washed Out


Washed Out aren’t washed up. Why should they be with all the Portlandia royalties? The chillwave pioneers (I’m pluralising the band, but really it’s a one-man-project) are still making music and this time round it’s spiky jazz-house. The zonked-out vocals give me warm shivers.

‘Glitz’ – Testset



More glitchy than glitzy, this electronic instrumental is the work of mystery producer Testset and it’s pretty innovative stuff. It begins as a dense wall of digital percussion and stuttering sounds. Then midway a mighty tide of synth creeps in and washes it all away. But then it all cuts abruptly away and the track plummets back into a maelstrom of clicks and clacks and bleeps. Not to mention bloops and blaps too.

‘Run’ – Foo Fighters


The Foos are getting on a bit, but wow, didn’t realise they’d aged this much. Flashing grannies and hipster assault take place in the band’s latest video centred in a riotous retirement home. As for the tune itself, it’s sounding a lot less dad rock than their previous album’s material. There are mosh-friendly riffs, Grohl screeches and flashing grannies. No, wait that last one’s just the video. Sorry, I’m still traumatised.

‘The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog’ - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard


This 13 minute lo-fi rock odyssey is bloody mental, which is what I expected from a song titled ‘The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog’. 

THE WORST:


‘Strip That Down’ – Liam Payne (feat. Quavo)


Generic strip club music is still a more positive direction than One Direction, I’ll give Liam that.