Being emotionally honest is not a big thing in our society.
Oh, all the Oprah moments and talk-show confessions might convince you sometimes that’s the case but the truth is that people put a great deal of effort into personal PR and convincing the world, whether in person or on social media, that they have it all together, their lives are emotionally immaculate and they couldn’t be better, thank you very much.
But the truth is, life is rarely as pretty as we’d like it to be, or make it out to be, and it’s relief when artists like the five presented here bare their souls, set it to contagiously good, arrestingly effective music and remind us that really going into the depths of the soul, and talking about it, is a good thing.
It might be uncomfortable at times but oh, how we need it, especially set to music like this …
“Freak Like Me” by Munan
Sporting some delicious retro Fleetwood Mac vibes and a playful voice that embodies some real emotion, South Korean-Australian artist Munan has come up with what Acid Stag calls “a funky indie-electro treat” in second single (following his debut “Your Life”), “Freak Like Me”.
It celebrates the appealing idea that being who you are, as weird and strange as you might be, is good and wonderful thing, the message a necessary antidote to the prevailing mainstream idea that fitting the mould is the only way you’ll be acceptable.
The song, which is the perfect marriage of laid back music and ruminative thoughtfulness on what it means to be yourself came about through an old reel-to-reel machine of all things.
The main catalyst for starting the track was when I came across a reel-to-reel tape machine being sold in my area. I wanted to give my new music its own distinct sound, so I bought the tape machine and started playing with it. My friend Sterling Silver came around to my home studio and we started toying with some ideas, which ended up becoming ‘Freak Like Me.
Using tape to create the track was a special experience and has definitely helped me to craft my own sound as a new artist. The song is about me coming to accept that being weird is okay and that there is someone out there who will love me for who I am.” (Acid Stag)
“Saviour” by Lupa J
Someone who is very their glorious self is Lupa J, an Australian artist who’s been making distinctively cool and meaningful music since they were 15.
After years of touring with luminaries of the music scene such as Sarah Blasko, Grimes and Alice Glass, Lupa J went big with a debut album Swallow Me Whole in 2019 which they have now followed, after mini-album To Breathe Underwater in 2020, with A New Kind of Magic.
This collection of thoughtfully arresting songs includes the luminously ethereal but emotionally muscular track “Saviour” which, along with the rest of the album “evokes a dark and menacing blend of electronic/alt-pop soundscapes that provide plenty of vigour and grit”. (Acid Stag)
The song, which is all swirling melody and emotive vocals, muses with real poignancy that you can never save anyone, not even the one you love.
It’s a gloriously affecting piece of music that nails it musically, lyrically and with its evocation of meaningfully intense humanity.
“Good Life” (feat. Emie) by Hayden James
Aussie producer Hayden James is one of those extraordinarily talented people who are also gloriously down-to-earth, clearly in love with the musical art they make.
Relatively fresh from a debut set at Coachella this year, and with album Lifted enjoying all kinds of deserved positive attention, James has released “Good Life”, featuring London-based artist Emie, the product of some videoconference collabs.
It’s all about being present in the moment and allowing that positive force in your life to lift you up when you’re feeling down. Nathan, Emie and I wrote this record in the summer this year over a couple of zoom sessions from Nashville to London then finished the track off in Ibiza for the summer vibes. I hope you love it. This one feels special. (Acid Stag)
And it is special and catchy and alive with Acid Stag describing this infectiously good song this way.
‘Good Life’ centres itself around the striking piano chords piercing their way through the production, working in perfect unison with the haunting vocals and rising claps to set the tone in tact before the groove further asserts itself in the mix. Subtly building the power and passion, James manipulates the mix brilliantly to intensify the chorus to astonishing heights that sees the booming bass line and contagious groove hit their final form and allow for us all to bask within the greatness on offer.
“I Can’t Grow Up” by Tegan and Sara
I have loved Canadian act Tegan and Sara, composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin, for years and their new track “I Can’t Grow Up” is a bountifully joyful reminder why listening to them is always a guaranteed shot of pop goodness.
A rousing thumping full speed song that “Gimme, gimme all of your love”, is, says the duo via Stereogum, a “snotty nosed pop song about not being able to grow out of bad habits in relationships.”
With a clip every but as giddily fun and enjoyable as the song which is a perfect contrast of music and lyrics, Sara says the song was musically inspired by Chicago band Dehd and their album Flower Of Devotion,” adding: “The song started on bass, an instrument I’d never written with until Crybaby, and I was channeling a little bit of Emily Kempf from Dehd, and Peter Hook from New Order. My partner had traveled back to the U.S., after a year of being stuck in Canada during the pandemic, and I was enjoying late nights alone writing music and singing full tilt in the basement.” (Stereogum)
That contentment and creative enjoyment is evident in a song that might muse about some meaningfully serious material but which so with an eye on the hilarity inherent in even the most intense moments of the human experience.
“Blip” by Wongo
We all want true love, the kind that lasts and makes the world a lastingly wonderful place, but sometimes, you meet someone and that’s it – a blip that comes and goes in a memorable instant.
That transience of romantic attachment is embodied with a danceable energetic zest in “Blip” by Gold Coast, Australia-based producer Wongo that gets, and here’s Acid Stag on point as ever, “stuck in your head [providing] that extra dose of energy into your system”.
Here’s what the artist has to say about this immensely upbeat but emotionally honest slice of pop fun with humanity and heart.
This track has had a bit of a journey and I love that when a track isn’t just written and released. I originally wrote this record a couple of years ago and over the period of six months it slowly morphed into what became my last single ‘Apple’. If you are good at picking sounds apart, you can hear a lot of ‘Apple’ in this record. The amazing writer Alex Burnett wrote the lyrics and I feel they have a really good ‘light/dark’ thing going on. There’s big distorted acid sounds but turned down in volume just enough to let the sweetness of the vocal champion the song. I recently sent it to Confidence Man and they vibed so hard I had to make sure it was my next release! (Acid Stag)
NEW ABBA LYRIC VIDEO!
One of my favourite ABBA tracks, which lies a close second behind “That’s Me”, is “The Name of the Game” (the two songs were singles in the order I like them which is, well, I’m not sure what but it’s semi-interesting?), an emotionally rich and moving song released in 1977, that served as the debut single for the group’s fifth LP, ABBA: The Album. It’s got Agnetha’s gloriously emotive and achingly vulnerable lyrics, lyrics pleading for a lover to spill on the true of their relationship and music that matches the lyrical mood perfectly. It is also the latest ABBA song to get a fetching lyric video …