Saturday 9 December 2017

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 09/12/2017: SOPHIE, Tune-Yards, The Tambourine Girls and more...


More music from the undisputed best blog in the universe.


THE BEST:

‘Ponyboy’ – SOPHIE


After disappointingly soppy single ‘It’s Okay To Cry’, I’m glad to see SOPHIE coming back to form with this abrasive banger. The track’s mix of chopped vocals and over-compressed bass is sure to make most people throw their headphones across the room, whilst the BDSM-themed music video is likely to put just as many people off. For me, this unruly experimentalism is everything that made me fall in love with SOPHIE’s music in the first place.

‘You Don’t See Me’ – The Tambourine Girls


I almost didn’t give this track a chance. It starts off fairly simplistically with a pounding drum, pulsing bassline and hazy vocals, but it turns out to be a rewarding slowbuilder as more instrumentation gradually joins in leading up to a grand climax. The frontman of this Sydney four-piece also delivers some terrific lovelorn lyrics that seem to get more pained as the song progresses before finally finding bittersweet resolution: ‘I think you loved me completely in darkness, so that’s where I’ll be’.

 ‘ABC 123’ – Tune-Yards


ABC123LMNO’. That’s not how the alphabet goes! Still, even if I haven’t got a clue what Merrill is getting at, her frenetic art-pop sound is still as catchy and bubbly as ever. She has a new album scheduled for release in January titled I can feel you creep into my private life.

‘Surrender’ – Kode Maya


Finnish duo Kode Maya continue to piece together complex genre-bending music. It contains everything from twinkling synths to world percussion to even a section at 2:35 that sounds like the showdown in a Hollywood Western. It’s very different to their other single ‘Mosquito’, but just as exciting.

THE WORST:

‘Perfect Duet’ – Ed Sheeran ft. BeyoncĂ©


Beyoncé has jumped on a pre-existing Ed Sheeran track and made it all the more schmaltzy. They harmonise well, but what difference does that make when the melodies are dull as dishwater?