From Jockstrap to Jack Harlow, there’s something for all types of music listener this week. Other artists featured include The Koreatown Oddity, Greytooth, EVNTYD and St Vincent.
THE BEST:
‘Concrete Over Water’ – Jockstrap
I appreciate I’m a little bit late to the party here, but this
track is so good that I couldn’t NOT write about it. Jockstrap are a duo from
London with a sound that’s pretty tricky to categorise (experimental electronic
indie?). ‘Concrete Over Water’ is their latest song, released about a month ago
now, which is aeons in blogging terms. Vocalist Georgia Ellery sings with a
hypnotic Regina-Spektor-esque breathy tone (she’s also the violinist from Black Country New Road, so clearly a multi-talented musician). The production
meanwhile consists of dreamy synth chords that feel almost Beatles-inspired in
melody at first – that is until it reaches its ‘beat drop’ (for lack of a
better word), at which point the song breaks out into squiggly synths, military
drums and rich strings. The theatrical composition makes it very fun and I love
the way it teeters on dissonance in order to keep the listener on edge. All in
all, it’s a very inventive track.
‘Churchill Downs’ – Jack Harlow ft. Drake
This is the first time I’ve understood the Harlow hype. The pitched-up
sample in the beat is beautiful and there are some truly witty bars here such as
‘ain’t too many cons when you’re playing with the pros’. I’ve seen Jack
Harlow referred to as the ‘next Drake’, and you can definitely see the influence
here. Speaking of Drake, look who else is on the track! Apparently, he took less than 15 minutes to write this verse and somehow it’s one of his best feature verses
in years: ‘man, you n****s drop trash, you littering/ I’m overdelivering to
the point that it’s belittling.’
‘Aggro Crag’ – The Koreatown Oddity
LA rapper, The Koreatown Oddity, is definitely an artist I
need to delve more into. The raw production gives it a really intimate feel and
I love the message, which he candidly addresses: ‘Stop cheapening the
quality of art, that’d be nice!’.
‘Beneath Central’ – Greytooth
Who is Greytooth? I DON’T KNOW. I wasn’t able to find any
information online and, to be honest, I kinda like the mystery. ‘Beneath
Central’ is the only song uploaded on their YouTube channel to date, and it’s a
pretty unique song, revolving around some enchanting piano arpeggios. Along with
the sped-up train video footage (which is very low budget, but equally mesmerizing)
it had me hooked. The vocals remind me of a more distraught version of Kele
from Bloc Party, featuring playful rhymes such as ‘woo her by the water
cooler’.
‘Sleepy Head’ – EVNTYD
‘Sleepy Head’ is a song about the frustrations of being a
morning person and not being able to seize the day with your partner because they’re
still fast asleep. I definitely used to be this type of person until I had kids
that got me up at 6am at the weekend (now I look forward to any lie in I can
get). Both the vocal and guitar melody have an upbeat and equally melancholy
tone to them that perfectly capture the bittersweet tone of the lyrics.
THE WORST:
‘Funkytown’ – St Vincent
St Vincent wouldn’t have been my first choice to
do a cover of ‘Funkytown’ for a Minions movie (although she’s not the most surprising musician to feature on the soundtrack. Brockhampton covering Kool & The
Gang??). Nonetheless, I had high hopes for this track, because Annie usually delivers.
I was not expecting this abomination. Those vocal effects are grotesque. Annie, you've created a monster!