(via Shutterstock)
You need an end of the week musical pick-me-up?
Of course you do, and these five artists, all of whom have married great lyrics with compulsively listenable music, are serving up songs that not only make you want to get up and dance but also feel #allthethings and think about life a little.
Or a little; it depends how emotionally introspective you want all your footloosing to be!
Whatever your feelings on that front, kick that chair away, get on your best ruby red slippers and hit the dancefloor and let your soul wander and heart feel and your mind feel a weight lift off it …
“Little Chaos” by Orla Gartland
(courtesy official Orla Gartland Instagram account)
Finding an artist for the first time who feels like they are pouring their vesy essence into their music is such a thrill.
Plenty of very talented people make very good songs but songs that really get almost instantly and completely under your skin? Rare indeed.
One artist sitting happily in that very select camp is Irish singer-songwriter Orla Gartland whose latest single “Little Chaos” is a gloriously listenable mix of punchy music and lyrics with heart very much worn on sleeve.
And that lyrical honesty has to do with being authentic in relationships and not playing any roles that anyone else imposes on you.
I think a lot about how to move through the world alongside a partner and for a long time I wanted to show up in relationships as easy-going & palatable, never taking up too much space – now I can’t think of anything worse. I can be loud, funny, clumsy, loyal, intelligent, annoying, caring, angry; this song is about showing up as all of it, all at once. I think dropping the act and showing your true self feels like the most vulnerable thing you can do. (courtesy CLASH)
It’s a liberatingly powerful sentiment and it turbo charges “Little Chaos” into the type of song that takes no prisoners and demands to be at the heart of every damn playlist you have.
“Shallow Water” by Elderbrook
(courtesy official Elderbrook Facebook page)
British producer-singer Elderbrook knows his way around an irresitibly catchy tune or two.
His latest song, “Shallow Water”, comes equipped with a beautifully insistent melody and vocals that sound like the contain all the emotions in the world, coming together in just under 3.5 minutes of song to deliver a captivatingly danceable piece of deliciously lofi pop.
It’s an enthralling piece of music that also has something important to say about navigating our way through a very complicated world.
In “Shallow Water” the cards are down, bottom reached and there is nowhere left to go. The individual has to be better, do better. The song hinges on these bargaining chips, on the get out clauses we give ourselves when we want to change but know it will be hard. It grapples with questions of integrity and our desire to better ourselves against the knowledge that true and meaningful change is difficult and often messy. It’s the never ending self doubt given a voice. (courtesy thissongissick)
Emotions going deep in a song with an infectiously repeatable melody? Thank you, yes, and can you put this on a continuous loop for eternity?
“Lost in Space” by Foster the People
(courtesy official Foster the People Facebook page)
Ever since I heard American pop band Foster the People’s debut track, 2010’s “Pumped Up Kicks” (from their debut LP Torches), I’ve been drawn to their delectable of dance, melody and harmony.
It’s an invitingly seductive brew and it’s present in full force on new single “Lost in Space”, drawn from upcoming album Paradise State of Mind which releases 16 August, which the Mark Foster (one of two current members along with Isom Innis) described thus:
‘The record started as a case study of the late ’70s crossover between disco, funk, gospel, jazz, and all those sounds,’ Foster explained in a statement. ‘It was such a beautiful moment in time, when these different styles of music were cross-referencing each other – artists like Nile Rogers and Chic, the Tom Tom Club and Giorgio Moroder. I wanted to dive into that and figure out what they were doing.’
He continued, ‘I was also thinking about how that era has musical and social parallels to the time that we’re in now, with the giant recession in the Seventies, the political turmoil post-Vietnam, and other major tensions. But then you see these expressions of joy happening through music, and I started thinking about joy as an act of defiance.’ (courtesy Rolling Stone)
It’s a deliriously good song that you quickly finding yourself dancing to and never really stopping; you no longer sit, you just dance. Time to (happily) make your peace with that.
“Midnight Ride” (feat. Kylie Minogue) by Orville Peck
(courtesy official Orville Peck Facebook page)
Now you can’t go past a new Kylie Minogue song now can you?
Especially when she teams up, along with American DJ-producer Diplo, with South African-born, US and Canada-based masked country music star-on-the-rise Orville Peck aka Daniel Pitout for a track called “Midnight Ride” which is all about the tantalising possibilities that come about when you surrender yourself to what might lie in wait for you on an adventurous, open-your-heart-wide night out.
The song is strictly speaking Peck’s and is lifted form forthcoming album Stampede, but let’s be honest, you’re also here because Minogue lends a certain breathlessly fun something to everything she touches and Diplo has a golden touch when it comes to tracks such as this which is badged as country but is more of a rural-tinged dancefloor filler.
Peck, it will not surprise you to learn, was more than happy to work with these two greats of the music industry.
“Doing this song with Kylie and Diplo was a dream come true,” Peck said in a statement. “Kylie was the first person I asked to be on Stampede because I knew exactly the kind of magic we could all make together.” (courtesy Exclaim!)
Bonus footage – a live performance preview of the song …
“Looking For Love” by Florrie
(courtesy official Florrie Facebook page)
One of the most fun things you can do online musically is to dive into YouTube (and no, not a plug for the platform; it just where I like, along with blogs, to listen to new music) and disappear down an algorhythmic rabbit hole, listening to song after songs after … wait, is it that time, already?
It was on one such voyage into song-drenched known that I discovered Florrie, decsribed by Wikipedia as an “English pop singer-songwriter, drummer and model” – she’s been in-house drummer for production house Xenomania since 2008, playing for the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue – whose just dropped her debut album The Lost Ones.
A song lifted from this rambunctiously slice of dance pop heaven is “Looking For Love” which is a lament about seeking romance in all the wrong places and the second-guessing that comes when you survive another messy relationship foray and come up for air.
It’s one of those perfectly wrought light-and-dark songs that marries deep dive lyricism with heartfelt vocals and a melody that drives things relentlessly forward.
You will dance for sure but you will also feel all the regretfully romantic things and be glad you did.
SONGS, SONGS AND MORE SONGS EXTRA!
Released as a non-album track in 1978 (it was subsequently included with 1979’s Greatest Hits Vol.2 and 1997 and 2001’s CD reissues of Voulez-Vous), “Summer Night City” has been given the 4K treatment, with its film-based promotional evocation of escapist nightlife to a disco beat looking better than ever!