(via Shutterstock)
INTRO
“Rain Can’t Reach Us” by Yannis & the Yaw
(courtesy Yannis & the Yaw official Facebook page)
One of the things that songs capture almost better than anything are emotions so intense they feel as if no vessel, human or otherwise, can contain them.
In the songs that really sear themselves into your soul, lyrics and music come together in an emotional tumult that cannot leave you unchanged, a truth that is very much in evidence on “Rain Can’t Reach Me” by Yannis & The Yaw, the solo project of Foals’ vocalist Yannis Philippakis.
The song is a driving welter of emotions that Transgressive Records has described thus:
‘Rain Can’t Reach Us’ is a hypnotic howl of intensity, with Tony Allen’s dexterous rhythms at the eye of the storm. It builds layer-upon-layer from an insistent Afrobeat-tinged loop into Yannis’s full-blooded hook and then the cathartic release of its outro. Its thunderous style fits its lyrics, which imagine the panic and futility of trying to escape from the results of apocalyptic environmental degradation.
That’s a lot of lyrical and emotional intensity in one song, something Yannis also comments on rather powerfully.
We actually referred to ‘Rain Can’t Reach Us’ as ‘The Tornado’ for a long time because it feels like a gale blowing through your house and it’s just cool to hear Tony at the heart of that. There’s a chance it could have become a Foals track, but sharing that idea with Tony made it become this other thing. I think that’s really exciting, it’s like putting in random coordinates, getting in your car and driving and not knowing where you’re going to show up. You could be led anywhere. (Transgressive Records)
“Deep Scene” by Skeleten
(courtesy official Skeleten Facebook page)
You know those moments when a song comes out of nowhere, grabbing you by the short ‘n’ curlies before you even know what hit you?
It happened to this reviewer on a road trip back from Melbourne to home in Sydney where the radio announcer on Australia’s publicly-funded youth radio network JJJ casually introduced a track, “Deep Scene” by Australian electronic musician Skeleten aka Russell Fitzgibbon, simply saying he’d always loved the artist and that his new track had really seized his imagination.
It was meaningful but not gushing or intense, and yet when the song kicked in, there was something about this, in many ways, gloriously understated, track that made me sit up (well, more than I was in the car haha) – the lyrics combined with the atmospheric vocal delivery and a sense of melodically-laced melancholic intent proved to be an irresistible package that even all these weeks later still has my attention.
There’s a rich emotiveness to the track that percolates throughout this beautifully thoughtful and musically rich song which more than validates the low-key enthusiasm of the radio announcer that day and which reinforces that some of the best tracks don’t announce themselves with fury and force but calm and quietness and still make a massive impact all the same.
“God Help Me Now” by Ellur
(courtesy official Ellur Facebook page)
It’s a strange dynamic that after spending so much as human beings trying to be happy and untroubled, with all the big nasty emotions pushed off, rather futilely as it turns out, off to one side, we gravitate to songs (and movies and books and …) that take our soul, melon scoop it out, and duly eviscerated and hollowed out, dump us back where we began.
It may seem like a strange thing to do to yourself but when you listen to songs as movingly wondrous and artfully executed as Canadian indie pop artist, who hails from Halifax, NS, you realise why we subject ourselves to such emotional tsunamis which often tend to be clean singly cathartic.
Singing, so says her YouTube bio, “about the challenges and thrills of modern day romance and break-ups with compelling originality”, Ellur has crafted an intensely intimate experience in “God Help Me Now”.
”God Help Me Now’ is the most honest song I’ve ever written. I approached co-writers Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Jack Leonard back in September with my heart on my sleeve, opening up about how I had so many things I wanted to write about that scared me … I joked with them about my dreams of writing that one song where people get on their friends shoulders and scream the lyrics. I wanted to write someone’s favourite song.’ (The Line of Best Fit)
Mission accomplished.
“Somon Dobert” by Lodet
(courtesy official Lodet Facebook page)
Calling Stockholm, Sweden home, Lodet, known to tax authorities in his home country as Joakim Björnberg, is known, according to Unxigned, for “his reflective and melodious soundscapes”.
“Somon Dobert”, this reviewer’s first encounter with the artist’s music, certainly fits that description of his output, save for the fact that there’s also a vocal intensity that you may not expect.
The song pulsates with a richness and while the music burbles happily along, it’s counterpointed by lyrics that, according to Lodet, features “the character Somon Dobert serves as a metaphorical friend who offers understanding and spontaneity when needed most.” (Unxigned)
There’s a warmth and vitality to the song that is a reflection of lyrics and music coming together one very welcoming package.
“On the Edge of Saturday Night” by The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue
(courtesy official Kylie Minogue Instagram account)
Good lord but this song feels ALL the escapist, joyously fun in the world!
Full of infectiously danceable beats by American DJ & producer The Blessed Madonna and Kylie Minogue’s ethereally emotive vocals, and armed with a dance party video that absolutely makes you want to get out and let your hair down (metaphorical or otherwise), “On the Edge of Saturday Night” has it all (as well as being another in a long line of very welcome and brilliantly compelling Minogue collabs this year).
It makes you feel happy and alive, as if you’ve wandered into the best night out ever, and everyone is just kicking all their stress and exhaustion with the hellishness of life to the curb and giving into the need we have to just escape from it all.
Taken off The Blessed Madonna’s upcoming album, Godspeed (out October), “On the Edge of Saturday Night” is indeed a slice of escapist pop that had its genesis in a period where escape was very much needed, according to The Blesses Madonna on Q News.
‘This song is about edges. I started this song when we were on the edge of lockdown, writing lyrics on the edge of being a new person, on the edge of levelling up as a producer,’ the DJ explained.
‘The song went on a journey but finally found its edge when Kylie came into my life and breathed an energy into Edge, and into me. So here we are together, Marge and Kiki.’