(via Shutterstock)
Music by itself is wonderfully good, true, but how much better is it with some real emotional vocal power and insight added to it?
Very, very good, indeed, and that is borne out in these five superlatively great songs which not only deliver a musical adrenaline hit but make you feel as if being alive just got way better descriptors and a buoyant sense of description that actually makes sense.
They are the sorts of songs that stay on repeat because you want to not just listen but to feel them and reassure yourself that life is as beautiful and upliftingly insightful as it is tough and when things are wearing you down, that is such a gift …
“Touching and Talking” by Sycco
(courtesy official Sycco Instagram)
Known to the Australian Government as Sasha McLeod, Sycco is a singer-songwriter hailing from Brisbane (Meanjin) in Queensland.
She’s been steadily making a name for herself since the relatively far-off days of August 2018 when her debut single, “Starboard Square”, hit a welcoming world, following by a slew of 2019 and 2020 releases including “Tamed Grief” and Dribble” which made such an impact that she was nominated for Triple J Unearthed Artist of the Year at the J Awards of 2020. (Triple J is the youth radio arm of the Government funded ABC radio network in Australia.)
In a sign she hasn’t lost one iota of her creative power since those early years of making musical waves, “Touching and Talking” is a luminously exuberant, emotionally atmospheric track that captures the heady, sweet glories of a particularly wondrous rite of passage.
‘I wrote it the day after meeting my first love. It felt like <3 at first sight & I didn’t know how to deal with those feelings!!!!!! I feel like you can hear it in the song. Gay vibes for sure xxxxx’ (Sycco Instagram)
It’s a gorgeous slice of elevating pop that Acid Stag described thus:
With those stunning vocals standing tall in the middle of the mix, ‘Touching and Talking’ accompanies these captivating melodies with a robust instrumentation base of soaring synths, deepened beats and emphatic synth bass that create a rock-solid foundation that elevates the overall soundscape in tandem with the vocals to incredible heights.
“Heaven” (feat. Kevin Abstract & Lev) by Toro y Moi
(courtesy Toro y Moi Instagram)
Musical collaborations are all the rage in these digital days of easy interactivity and American songwriter-singer-producer-graphic designer Toro y Moi has made brilliant use of the powers of creatively coming together with us on “Heaven”.
Working with American rapper-singer-songwriter Kevin Abstract and L.A.-based songwriter and professional artist Lev, the Columbia, South Carolina-born artist has created something chilled and lovely on the song, which neatly fits into the chill wave genre he is said to have spearheaded along with musicians like Washed Out and Neon Indian.
It’s a delicious of slow-moving, emotionally all-encompassing slice of pop that feels more like a song than an experience; for a track that feels so musically and emotionally expansive (and yes, hard agree, Acid Stag, like a “warm hug”), the artist says the song seemingly sprang out of nowhere.
As a musician, you’ll occasionally hear stories about these songs the songwriter said, “…Just came out of thin air.” Or they were written in a matter of minutes or hours– they just have a nonchalant magic to them. ‘Heaven’ was just that. It was my first day of the ‘Hole Erth’ sessions at Different Fur in San Francisco. I asked Grace Coleman, the engineer to open a random session from a batch of demos from my studio. Within an hour of opening the session I found myself wrapping a second verse and it occured to me I might have a song worth finishing. It was a moment of literally letting go of these songs and into someone else’s hands (and computer) and taking on the song writer role fully, no thinking about production or the mix and just listening to my thoughts. I ultimately found myself writing about moments of processing and realizing that the journey of the musician is a constant practice, paying attention to one aspect only allows room for something to slip away. How does one make a decision when the options presented are all poetically polarizing? (Acid Stag)
“Perfect Plate” by LUPO.THEBOY
(courtesy official LUPO.THEBOY Instagram)
The opening spoken word on the gorgeously and quietly enrapturing beauty that is “Perfect Plate” makes it clear from the word one that this is a song all about love.
While the song quickly builds up a heady upbeat momentum, it retains the emotional intimacy it started off with, Australian producer LUPO.THEBOY, making this blissful piece of euphoric pop something rather quite special that marked a first for the artist.
The piano line is the standout feature of the track for me. I wrote an ambient loop with some lowkey drums, hit record and layered a stack of piano over the loop. What you hear in the track is still that original recording, mistakes and all. It’s also the first track featuring my own vocals. Which ties into that confidence the song references, it took a lot of convincing to get my takes on there, but I wanted to give it a shot, and make it something that was truly mine. (Acid Stag)
I love the way Acid Stag described the song because it neatly captures the feel of this deftly musical of tracks.
‘Perfect Plate’ shines throughout its duration through the careful balance of electronic and organic instrumentation, through insertions of deepened percussion laying down a uncompromising groove all while blending in with the luscious pianos to ensure a soundscape filled with positivity throughout.
“Wasting Time (til the end of the world) by KUČKA
(courtesy official KUČKA Instagram)
I have long loved the idiosyncratic pop vibrancy of Aussie singer-songwriter KUČKA (if you’re wondering, and you must be, Kučka reportedly means “bitch” in Serbo-Croatian) aka Laura Jane Lowther.
Her songs possess a robust vibrancy and a power that makes them feel like great big chunks of musical something and not mere fleeting moments of pop vitality though they tap into that part of the catch-all genre too.
Her track, “Wasting Time (til the end of the world)”, carries much of the same energy this reviewer has come to know and love, with the song described by Acid Stag, quite rightly given its zestful buoyancy, as incorporating “synth or rhythmic section manipulation that evokes various colours and levels of energy throughout which keeps listeners on the edge of their seat.”
It feels otherworldly and yet quite grounded and expressively real, something the artist captures neatly with her description of the album, Can You Hear Me Dreaming, from which “Wasting Time …” is lifted …
my first album felt like a diary entry, this one feels just as revealing but it’s more fantastical, piecing together fragments of other peoples stories and mixing them with my own experiences. (KUČKA Instagram)
“Only Love” (feat. Y U QT) by Anna Lunoe
(courtesy official Anna Lunoe site)
The sweetest emotion available to mere mortals is on full display in Anna Lunoe & Y U QT’s playfully meaningful dance track “Only Love” which comes with all kinds of dancefloor-filling vibes and a delirious sense of escapist wonder.
A collaboration between Australian DJ-songwriter and producer, now happily ensconced in L.A., and UK DJ/producer powerhouse duo Y U QT (Darryl Reid and Cooper), the song gloriously distills how wondrously good love can feel with Acid Stag pitch-perfectly observing that the track is “a thumping offering that lifts your spirit with its vibrant colour palate and enlightening messaging throughout.”
And if you feel like the song is taking you somewhere rather beautifully close to the purity of life before adulthood complicates things, then you’re bang on, according to Lunoe.
‘Only Love’ is a pure shot of spirit and hope from us to you. Some things feel really hard won but this song feels like it was meant to exist somehow for a reason not yet known. Coops and Darryl from Y U QT are besties from high school and being around them makes me feel like a few parts of 14 year old Anna might just still be in there and I love that. (Acid Stag)
It’s a joy and a pleasure and a release that makes the world all over right again and who doesn’t want to lose themselves in something as good as that?
EUROVISION UPDATE!
Eurovision 2024 may be relatively long over, but the love for the music knows no time, so here are the top 20 Contest-related tracks that made the world go around for fans in July … and yes, no surprise, it’s heavy with the more popular songs from this year’s event …