Great songs are often, though not always, a beguiling mix of insightful, meaningful lyrics and a great supremely-catchy melody.
All five of the songs in this week’s post fit the bill and then some, reflecting the fact that while you can capture ears easily enough with an irresistible melody, capturing the soul requires the kind of lyrics which gaze deep into the soul.
Mission accomplished for this group of music makers who understand how important the marriage of truth and tune are and how it can really affect when they come together just right.
“Big Wall” by Dizzy Fae
Hailing from gorgeous Minnesota, Dizzy Fae is a queer 20-year-old classically-trained singer and dancer with lots of meaningful things to say and catchy-as-hell songs with which to say them.
Her song ” Big Wall’ , which comes complete with a video in which the artist plays all the characters who represent a cross section of relationships, has a lot to say about relating to others and yes, yourself.
“Reflecting back on the lyrics, I realized that it was not only a past relationship with a partner, but also an ongoing relationship with myself. Perspective is everything to me so when I was working with Isaac Gale on the storyboard, we made sure to leave parts of the narrative open for interpretation. Essentially, you’ll see a few different relationships at play, with varying emotions being revealed along the way that in the end show you that you think you know someone till you don’t.” (Highsnobiety)
With two highly-regarded and brilliantly listenable mixtapes to her credit, Dizzy Fae is one artist worth keeping a very close eye on, with music and message singing and dancing hand-in-hand to massively appealing effect.
“Crush” by DUCKWRTH
Ah, the heady potential of finding yourself attracted to someone.
Where will it go? What night happen? The possibilities feel deliciously endless as you “Crush” on them with the kind of glorious intensity that is the fuel to a “what if?” life.
Los Angeles rapper and singer DUCKWRTH is a man who knows a thing or two about falling for someone … or at least the idea of them …
“I’m a habitual crusher,” Duckwrth tells Billboard. “I probably crush like 20 times a day, scrolling through socials. This song and video serves as my confessional. Pray for me.”
Throw in some smooth music, replete with what Consequence of Sound happily calls “sunny synths and funky drums” and you have a very catchy song that perfectly captures the joyousness of crushing on someone, and which acts as the lead act for an as-yet-untitled album, to follow 2016’s I’m Uugly, and 2017’s An EXTRA UUGLY Mixtape.
“Dope Boys” by Soaky Siren
Soaky Siren is a singer-songwriter-rapper from the Bahamas who has burst forth with an insanely listenable fourth single “Dope Boys”.
It’s a song that peels back the glossy, beach vibes of her home country to talk candidly aboyut the fact that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.
“This was the first song I wrote for my EP and the producer, DallasK, asked me what my sound was. I told him ‘urban resort’ and he got it right away…legend. What I meant was the suns out and yea– we’re in paradise but there’s some very real shit going on and for us life is set up differently. I leaned on melody and production to serve bright, pop-y energy but the lyrics are an account of a time when the drug trade was lit on my island. There was excess amounts of ballin’; dope boys were building crazy homes, buying mad cars – just blowing bags on everything and of course the girls wanted them. Eventually we started seeing drug lords going from riches to ruin. The lifestyle seemed iconic until you saw people gettin’ picked off or extradited. It’s always been a story I wanted to tell, I just never had a canvas for it until that day.” (ones to watch)
Over what ones to watch refers to as “a grooving bass line and record scratches”, augmented by “dreamy, sweet production and pop-driven melodic phrases:, Soaky Siren tells a real and honest story, the song ending up as a pitch-perfect representation of the “gorgeous exterior / flawed interior” of the Bahamas.
“GO OFF (Nuthin’ 2 It)” by Dillon Francis
Dillon Francis is one very busy man, observes Billboard.
“Comedic jack-of-all-trades Dillon Francis has a TV show in the works, a recent fashion line with Barney Cools and a possible addiction to social media, but he’s first and foremost a DJ and producer.”
That is patently obvious on “GO OFF (Nuthin’ 2 It)” which is a bubblingly vivacious “bass-heavy house jam” (Billboard) with a bouncing melody which is the very epitome of the song’s lyrical sense of fun and abandonment to going with the moment.
The catchy as hell song is the lead track for the artist’s upcoming two-part mixtape, Magic is Real”, the first half of which arrives 2 October to get your earworm groovin’ like a fiend.
“Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” by Bombay Bicycle Club
I have long loved Bombay Bicycle Club, a British indie rock band from Crouch End, London who first captured my attention with the mesmeringly wonderful 2011 track “Shuffle”, a song that dug its way into my soul so completely and absolutely that it made my “50 Favourite Songs of My Life” list for my 50th birthday party. (Yeah, I’m that old; tell no one … oops.)
They have repeatedly proven since then that they are a million miles from being any kind of one-hit wonder with new single “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You” only adding to the band’s artistic lustre.
The song marks their return to recording as a band after a creative hiatus for two years or so to catch their existential and artistic breath, and it shows in a track that is fresh, warm and very much a mix of their rock roots and recent prevailing pop influences.
It’s a gorgeous track that is a self-admitted highwater mark for the band.
“Appearing on BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds show tonight (August 27), the band premiered a new track. Speaking to DJ Annie Mac, the London outfit said that ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake…’ contains “one of the best riffs” they’ve written and signalled a “back-to-basics” approach to penning new material.” (NME)
It is also the opening salvo for album number 5 which should drop sometime in 2020.
SONGS, SONGS AND MORE SONGS EXTRA EXTRA!
English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bat For Lashes aka Natasha Khan is immensely talented, proof being, along with a fantastic body of work, her new album Lost Girls.
Proof that she’s also a thoroughly nice and approachable person comes in this relaxed and fun interview with NME …
EUROVISION 2020 UPDATE!
The UK has not only confirmed it will be in Rotterdam in May 2020 for the 65th Eurovision Song Contest but that it’s changing the way it selects its entrant and song, which Mel Balac, Creative Director for BBC Studios “the start of an exciting new chapter.”
And finally, if you want to submit a song for Australia’s Eurovision 2020 selection process known as, understandably enough, Eurovision – Australia Decides, to be held on the Gold Coast next February, you’d best hurry up and get inspired!
The deadline to submit your sweetly melodic, lyrically earnest and suitably quirky track is 30 September.