“MESSAGE”

Y’alright? I have spent the entire day listening to the freshest tracks so that I can share the good, the great and the greatest new music from the last week. This music is so fresh, it throws Pret A Manger in the bin for being past it’s sell-by-date. There will be Stand-Outs, Fire and Honourable Mentions, and I’ll even throw-in a “Talking-Point” track that I’m still undecided on (Looking at you Alex From Glasto)

What are you going on about?

If you didn’t know already, “New Music Friday” is a weekly playlist formulated by Spotify to show-off the latest tracks from a huge variety of artists that they want you to know about. The whole thing is incredibly algorithmic and it can exclude a number of highly talented artists. As such, I won’t be relying exclusively on this playlist and I’ll try to navigate away as much as I can. 

What do Spotify think?

This week’s playlist has the 1975’s collaboration with Greta Thunberg as the headline track and it’s great. It’s not a song you can bop to or cut-shapes, but it puts her extremely important lecture to music and plays a significant role in spreading the message around Global Warming. It is worth listening to, and make sure you share it with a friend, but it’s not a song for your playlist and that’s what we’re here for – right?

As is always the case with the NMF playlist, pop dominates the first dozen songs. You have the choice between Mabel, Liam Gallaher, Taylor Swift and Khalid – “who you choosing?”. Truthfully, the selection of pop songs available this week are “meh” at best. Mabel stands out as she always does with bop-worthy beats and her unique voice in the track ‘Bad Behaviour’. However, don’t listen to ‘Mad Love’ immediately afterwards because you’ll realise how much of a disappointing sequel this is. Liam Gallagher reignites some old Oasis spirit in ‘Once’ which does, in fairness, make me want to bring out the Parka Jacket – even in this heatwave (maybe a lightweight Parka) but it’s not groundbreaking. Khalid sounds familiar in his feature with Majid Jordan in ‘Caught Up’. The dude puts the same, slow, ambient teenage vocals into every song he has ever done (which – I am told – is a good thing, I guess). 

Is the pop section over yet? 

I don’t tend to listen to the first half of the NMF playlist as I know that they’ll be played on the radio shortly. Once they’re on the radio, they’re in the office and then they’re squatting in my head as an earworm disguised as Ed Sheeran (“Beautiful people…”). 

Scrolling through, I pick out a few names that are in my playlist already. Burna Boy, DJ snake and Hot Since 82 have all released Albums/Ep’s this week. I first came across Burna Boy from his feature on Dave’s album with ‘Location’ and, looking at the song’s 48M+ listens on spotify, I’m not the only one. He is featured on a few songs in this playlist which shows that he is a rising star. I expect him to be a household name soon – and his peers on Twitter think so too! His stand-out track, for me, features Jorja Smith who is a future-star, likewise. Together, they’ve created a song that is perfect for the humid, thunderous summer that we are experiencing this summer. I can sit in the park, underneath the shade of a leafy tree, listening whilst the speakers quietly play in harmony with the soft stillness of the grass. Or, I can play my speakers loud in my top-level flat in contention with the interrupting roar of thunder and pavement-slapping rain through my open window. The two situations create very different atmospheres but work perfectly with this song that seems to have been made intentionally for a hot – but overcast – summer. 

Cool. So who are the Stand-Outs?

Continuing my subtle obsession with Friends (refer to my very first post if unsure), I have been a big fan of the electronic artist Ross From Friends since the first time I read what they were called (you cannot imagine my relief to find out that their music was good). RFF are the epitome of cool in 2019, a year when no one knows what cool is. (But that’s another blog post entirely…). Their new song, ‘The Revolution’, feels like a complete separation from their popular EP ‘You’ll Understand’. It is difficult not to conceive of this EP as ‘their sound, but ‘Family Portrait’, their 2018 album, began the transition into a new style which can be heard in their new club-ready track. The song is funky, with high quality production and it has the ability to retain the listeners attention through catchy loops. If I gave ratings (which I don’t, but comment if you think I should!) then I’d give this track a 7/10.

Only 7/10? Who takes the top spot?

If ‘The Revolution’ gets 7/10, then ‘I want you’ by Nina Kraviz, a Russian DJ gets 10/10. Right at the bottom of the playlist, Spotify evidently values Kraviz as an artist but are hesitant to put her right at the top – just yet. She fills her mesmerising sets with eclectic tracks sourced from obscure record shops in even obscurer towns and cities. I watched her DJ during a Boiler Room set and I was awe-inspired by the passion she injected through her enjoyment – she is the coolest dancer behind the decks and one of the slickest DJ’s. ‘I want you’ is haunting, it evokes a complex multiplicity of emotions that transcends the “clubbing” experience. When you dance to Kraviz, you don’t listen to music – you read Tolstoy. 

Prone to exaggeration, much? 

If I tend to romanticize the songs that I love, I feel a greater sense of detachment from the songs which I am not so sure of. This last song – I don’t think I like, but I love the story behind it. There can’t be a single person in the UK with a twitter account who has not heard of ‘Alex from Glasto’ – even Thiago Silva follows him! He made a name for himself by jumping onstage with Dave at Glastonbury to substitute for AJ Tracey’s verses on the track ‘Thiago Silva’. Alex was good. He was very good considering the pressure he was under – no preparation, no rehearsal, just pure spontaneity. I’m sure that he had performed that song a thousand times before, but never on a stage as big as this. Dave will regularly bring out an audience member for this song at his show, but no one has ever created the phenomenon that is now ‘Alex from Glasto’. On the back of this success, it was quickly announced that Alex had received a record deal. Many in the industry were appalled, AJ Tracey notably backed it. The fruits of Alex’s labour were finally released today with his debut track ‘What Ya Kno’ Bout That Bro?’. It features hard, Grime-inspired instrumentals and the production is slick. If a Bucket Hat was a song, this would be it. The lyrics and the vocals are amateur, but endearing and at 16 years old there is plenty of time to hone his craft if he is serious. Who knows, maybe he will be part of the next generation of Grime? And let’s not forget the first Gen…