(via Shutterstock)
Life can feeling horribly drab and boring a lot of the time.
Sure, that’s the nature of being alive; not every single moment can be a technicolour wonderland of explosive fun and fabulousness but wouldn’t it be nice if there was something to bring vivacity to the drab everyday?
Thankfully there is!
These five songs come with an exuberant sense of musical zestfulness but they also dig deep into the thoughtful stuff of life, giving us the dancefloor escape we need but also speaking to our hearts and souls.
It’s the perfect mix …
“Single in the Club” by ETHAN
(courtesy official Instagram)
Hailing from New Zealand, singer-songwriter-producer ETHAN is now cosily resident in Sydney and making some very cool, R&B-laced music that comes with a danceable sensual edge that has garnered him prime gigs as last year’s World Pride in Sydney.
Take “In the Club” for example, a song which reflects the artist’s ability to create atmosphere with vocals that suit the pulsing beat of dancefloor ready beats to a tee.
The song itself is about the supposed thrill and possibility of being newly alone at a club, where anything can happen – but does it and will it? Perhaps not in the way you might expect, notes KALTBLUT.
Delving into the pulsating core of ‘Single In The Club’, ETHAN reflects on a whirlwind of city-hopping and hazy nights, a tumult stirred in the wake of a dissolved romance. This track grapples with the illusion of freedom discovered in self-reinvention amidst new locales and faces, while also confronting the painful truth that hearts don’t heal overnight.
“Mwaki” (ft. Sofiya Nzau) by Zerb (Major Lazer Remix)
(courtesy Spotify)
Collaborations can be rich places to play creatively, leading to, in this case, songs that are richly and pleasingly far more than the sum of their very impressive parts.
The catchily mid-fi delights of “Mwakki” are the result of Brazilian Music producer Zerb and brilliantly talented Kenyan Kikuyu singer Sofiya Nzau, with the former’s thrillingly good EDM beats meld with exquisitely engaging perfection with the emotionally resonant and beautiful vocals of the latter.
It’s a musical match made in heaven, and so, it’s little wonder that the song, described by Dancing Astronaut as an “impossibly infectious dance track”, has found incredible success worldwide, becoming, for instance, “the first Kenyan song to surpass eight million streams on Spotify”.
If you want to lose yourself in some truly atmospheric music then this is the track to do it – it’s all beats and emotion and a rewarding sense of what happen when two great talents come together.
“Crush Me Up” by girli
(courtesy official Instagram)
I have long loved girli’s delicious ability to craft utterly catchy and earthy pop goodness, and “Crush Me Up”, the second single from UK singer girli’s album Matriachy, shows just potently brilliant she can be.
A dancefloor emotional slice of get-on-your-feet pop and full of longing to a heartstoppingly honest degree, “Crush Me Up” is representative of music that Women in Pop describes as “Delicious synth-electro-pop soundscapes with lyrics that are cutting, relatable and raw, you can both dance your night away, or cry your heart out to her songs.”
If you have ever encountered someone in a way that’s so briefly but lastingly powerful that it consumes you, you’ll love this track.
[‘Crush Me Up’ is a] song about crushing so hard on someone it’s like the image of them is playing on an infinite loop on a TV inside your head,” girli says. “But it’s a nice kind of crush; a required one, you equally thirst for each other. It’s a jump up and down in your room at a sleepover with your friends and blush red when you talk about them kinda crush. I wrote this about my girlfriend when we first met. Crush me up (like I’m a drug) and take all of me because I want all of you. (Women in Pop)
“I Go Dance” by Kiesza
(courtesy official Instagram)
Described by Vanyaland as a “Calgary-raised, Berklee-educated electronic fusion music artist”, Piesza is someone who knows her imaginative way around the dancefloor.
While her songs, such as preceding singles like “Dancing and Crying” and new track “I Go Dance”, have all the requisite beats, they also have lyrics that hot home and make an impact long after the music has stopped.
It’s rare to have music this good and lyrics this insightful come together like this bit Kiesza manages it with effervescent aplomb, giving us songs that get the heart pounding and feeling something pretty profound.
And for a song that stays with you after the last note, “I Go Dance” came together super fast, notes the singer-songwriter.
‘I Go Dance’ was a song where the lyrics just rolled off my tongue in a matter of seconds … With about 50 percent of the lyrics already in place, [producer] Sugar Jesus had already begun the beat for it in advance, and the second I heard it, I jumped up and started dancing! It’s one of those songs that felt very channeled. It came pre-written from the ether, and it was up to me to fill in the blanks.
One day, while working on another song together, I played it for [songwriter] K Sotomayor, and we began talking in depth about how everything in life, be it light or dark, is in some way connected to self-healing. With that intention in mind, we wrote the verse together and we’re able to fill in all the blanks effortlessly. It’s one of those tunes that is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As simple as it is, there’s more depth than one might think upon their first listen. (Vanyaland)
“Chama De Amor” (feat. Banda AL9) by Steve Aoki
(courtesy RYM)
“Chama De Amor” (“She Calls Me Love”) is yet more abundantly fruitful proof that collaborating can produce some really compelling listenable music.
The musical child of American DJ and music producer Steve Aoki, and Brazilian band BandaAL9 who combine traditional rhythms with contemporary sounds, “Chama De Amor” is a rousingly danceable delight, the sort of song that all but demands you leave yourself and stay enthusiastically up and out of it for the duration.
It’s infectiously and fervently upbeat reflecting the exuberant thrill of seeing the “perfect girl” who seemingly appears from nowhere and changes life as they know it.
The track gorgeously captures the sheer soul-enlivening bliss of finding someone that makes you come furiously and happily alive in all the best romantic ways, and it will have you celebrating hard with the ecstatic of the extraordinary making a romance-fuelled appearance in the everyday.
EUROVISION 2024 UPDATE!
That’s it everyone! All 37 entries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 are out and about in the world and here. for your listening and list compiling pleasure are all the tracks in one big fabulous video …
ABBA are celebrating 50 years since their historic win at Eurovision in 1974 and as part of the many docos and tributes, Swedish broadcaster, SVT, gathered together crème de la crème of the current Swedish music scene including Darin, Molly Sandén, Lena Ph, Malena Ernman, Victor Leksell and Miriam Bryant for this beautiful tribute one of the greatest bands of pop ever. “Thank You For the Music” indeed ABBA …