As befits a Friday, when the grueling intensity of the work week has taken its toll and Monday’s vigour has given way to a more languid wine-assisted pace, the five following songs and artists have taken things down a notch.
The result is music that is thoughtful, considered and minimal, and soothing to the soul and nourishing to the mind.
Yes, it depends a response but not a hurried, thoughtless one, driven by deadlines and adrenaline; rather one birthed in reverie and peace when the mind actually has a chance to think rather than just react.
So find somewhere comfy, slip off your shoes and listen to the world wound down a little …
“Silent Rain” by Keep Shelly in Athens
Winners of the best band name in a while, Keep Shelly in Athens – why? Does she like it there? Do you want her far from you? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.; actually they’re Greek which makes sense and go by the enigmatic names of RΠЯ and new recruit Myrtha- have delivered a song that has all the bells and whistles of ’80s synth pop with a delicious 21st century sensibility woven through.
With an insistent beat keeping time throughout, “Silent Rain” is shimmering loops of sound, sounding very much what it would be like to be caught out in the rain with a thousand questions running through your mind.
Pop Matter described the song as “nocturnal Euro-goth”, a description which evocatively captures the melancholic darkness of the track which is nicely balanced with a playfully, ever-building dance beat.
The song, and Keep Shelly in Athens in general, are all edgy atmosphere meets ’80s dream pop, and it’s a recipe that works beautifully creating music you don’t just listen to but feel.
“The Killers Baby” by Sebu
This song’s sounds, without a vocal being uttered, as if a thousand mournful choral voices have cried out in unison before giving away to some pretty intense lyrics.
“My father was killed when I was just four years old / My mother saved my life but she couldn’t save my soul / And everyone fears my pain and the bitter cold.”
Pretty much what you’d expect from a song called “The Killer’s Baby”.
Its pained, heartfelt lyrics, and portentous though beautiful beats-heavy melody delivered with suitable anguish by Sebu from Capital Cities, is immensely moving, its mournful tone of vengeance and loss inspired by some anguished familial past, according Your Music Radar:
“The track is inspired by a personal story of Sebu’s grandfather, who was a toddler in 1915 when he was orphaned during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.”
With additional vocals by the talented Soseh, a brilliantly-executed rap verse by A. Chilla and some evocative winds work by Armenian Jivan Gasparayan Jr., “The Killer’s Baby” is both dark and yet exquisitely perfectly listenable, a pop song with substance, melody and deep humanity.
“The Dreamer” by Anna of the North
“The Dreamer” starts off, appropriately enough, in an understated dreamlike fashion, the melody sneaking in under Norwegian singer Anna of the North’s almost whispered plaintive vocal, before kicking off at a loping light-synth driven clip that gathers pace in time with the lyrical urgency.
For all its ethereal underpinnings, and they are there in might force, feyness be damned, “The Dreamer” isn’t some ode to a lazy summer’s day with friends, or a harmless feckless youth more inclined to imagining than actually doing.
No what this magnificent slice of Scandinavian indie pop does, in common with many of its brethren who marvellously balance between light and dark, is talk about how even when a relationship is over, one that has understandably dominated your heart, life and art, there’s still an almost realisation that “it’s not about you anymore”.
Gone, done and dusted, this confessional that life has moved on and one person in particular has slipped from the emotional spotlight, is given some extra atmospheric heft by New Zealand-born producer Brady Daniell-Smith whom the singer met in Melbourne.
The true path of love never does run smooth but at least, in the aftermath, it gives birth to song this complex, beautiful and heartfelt.
“Foreign Fields” (Yung Gud mix) by Kacy Hill
Stripped back piano stylings and a winsome, emotionally-evocative vocal usher in “Foreign Fields”, a song from recent signee to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label.
The song barely rises above a melodiously langorous pace with airy, remote falsetto vocals wafting in and out of the foreground, but as Pitchfork beautifully articulates, that leads to a very rich, rewarding song indeed from the Phoenix, Arizona, born-and-bred singer/songwriter.
“Everything hinges on her strong-as-silk falsetto. On “Foreign Fields”, it builds over a Blake-ian path of strong piano chords, a Morse patchwork of drum pads, and handclaps, before melting into the whirr and clatter of the song’s inner machinery. And from the din emerges grand design: Like Blake or Zola Jesus or Austra’s Katie Stelmanis–amongst other contemporary, classically-sculpted synth-pop acts–Hill’s spiritual predecessor is Kate Bush.”
Anyone who has Kate Bush as their “spiritual predecessor” is onto a very good thing indeed, and if this track and its precursor “Experience”, is any guide, we can expect equally as impressive music to emerge consistently from this talented young artist as from her legendary British counterpart.
“Your Vice” by vōx and Dylan Brady
The sense that we’re only real when other people acknowledge who we are and pour their obsessive attention upon us is a seductive one, the affirmation of “being the marble on your pedestal” taking care of those doubts that we are the sort of person we want to be.
But as talented L.A.-based vocalist vōx (pron. “wokes”) and and St. Louis-based artist Dylan Brady make clear in this moody, richly minimalist track, this can be as destructive as it is is temporarily fulfilling.
Be careful what you wish for might be the best way to look at it, and with an elegantly sparse melody and blissfully-distorted vocals, “Your Vice” comes across as a life lesson set to music that we should all heed.
And listen to as many times as time allows.
You can only hope they’ll make some more music together soon.
NOW THIS IS MUSIC EXTRA EXTRA!
Coldplay has a new album (rumoured to their last) coming out!
Titled A Head Full of Dreams, it releases 4 December this year, its arrival heralded by lead single, disco-tinged upbeat pop beauty “Adventure of a Lifetime”.
It is said to be a far more celebratory take on life – lead singer Chris Martin described it on BBC1 recently as “the sound of us being free and happy and very grateful to be in our group” – than last year’s far more sombre, reflective album Ghost Stories, which was recorded in the shadow on the Martin’s marriage break-up.
You can get the full story from Rolling Stone.
Following the announcement of the album’s release, Coldplay had some fun on BCC1 according to Rolling Stone:
“Following the announcement of their new album, Coldplay joined BBC Radio 1 to discuss the LP as well as play a game with listeners. Fans texted their “most boring” lyrics imaginable to the station, which the band then transformed into very mundane songs. ‘How are your socks / How are your shoes / Are you listening to jazz / What did you choose?,’ Martin croons on one of the tracks.”
“The feedback we got from viewers, fans, press and the broadcasters after Australia’s participation in Vienna was overwhelmingly positive. We strongly believe the Eurovision Song Contest has the potential to evolve organically into a truly global event. Australia’s continued participation is an exciting step in that direction, “It remains to be seen what such an event may look like in the long run.”