This much buzz surrounding A$AP Rocky this week, with At. Long. Last. A$AP. hitting the eardrums of hip hop fans around the world. A$AP pulls out all the stops with guest appearances by Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Juicy J, and Joe Fox. There’s (always) some more special nuggets tucked away in this week’s list, including Spotify Sessions from Joey Bada$$ & Run The Jewels, as well as 50 Cent making an attempt at auto tune. So let that sink in.
With so many new songs in the queue there’s no time to waste; head over to Spotify to get your weekly dose. Honorable mention goes to El Taxi, although having been around long enough to garner much praise and plays, give it a listen to help kick off Summer with some of Pitbull’s trademark Miami heat.
9. Trust You by Rob Thomas
A brief review of Rob Thomas’s recent music catalog may be necessary to understand the pace behind ‘Trust You.’ With first glimpse of Thomas’s name I immediately thought COMEBACK, as it’s been 13 years since Matchbox Twenty has last created music together. Turns out Rob Thomas has been doing his solo thing since 2005 (oops) and took a sharp left in music style, veering more towards the style of Adam Levine or Nick Jonas, and away from his 90s cohorts like Train or the Goo Goo dolls. Trust You pumps fast, a fun little number to sing along and dance to.
8. I Know There’s Gonna Be Good Times by Jamie XX, featuring Young Thug, Popcaan
I Know There’s Gonna Be Good Times plays like a spring break or school’s out for summer anthem, coming at you from all sides with an old school hook, reggaeton, with a layer of lite raps to top it off. It showcases what can be gained from combining a hot rapper with a fresh beat maker, giving enthusiasts of each genre a good reason to listen in.
7. In The Morning (In The Evening) by Twin Peaks
Fresh off their official 7” release, Twin Peaks has released In the Morning (In the Evening) on its A Side and Hide Your Money on the B, hopefully tiding fans over until the next studio album is released in the process. If there was an award for successfully mimicking The Velvet Underground without overdoing it, Twin Peaks would no doubt nab it with self-possessed aplomb.
6. Emergency by Icona Pop
With their breakout ‘I Love it’ reaching a staggering 147 million plays and counting on Spotify, the power duo from Sweden knew to put their best foot, er stiletto, forward for the first single off their follow up album. Enter Emergency, calling all in earshot to the dance floor with a yell of PARTY! and a layout of straight facts: ‘if you wanna get up, get down like this.’ It contains the same super amped spirit of I Love It, but also moves their stilettos in a positive new direction.
5. She Talks Too Much by Elohim
While the beginning notes of She Talks Too Much sound like that could/may be transmitted straight from a Casio, Elohim creates a colorful vision of having ‘a good buzz going’ when a motormouth literal buzzkill comes a long and ruins it. It’s an easy song to empathize the experience of, as she sings ‘it’s like she’s taking over/she talks too much/it’s like the sound of crazy/and it’s much too loud.’ Ironically Elohim hasn’t talked about herself much in social media following the release of her first single- her website contains only a single Soundcloud of the song, and her twitter page is just over a week old. It’s a safe bet we’ll be hearing a lot of ‘talk’ about Elohim in the near future.
4. Judy (Don’t Go) by The Dirty Fences
Dirty Fences deliver rock n roll in the best way possible: simple and fast. A hyper speed ‘chant’ of a song if you will, the lyrics fess up to ‘always leavin,’ as well as begging Judy to stay behind (as you might have guessed). Bonus points for counting how many times ‘Judy’ is sang during the song.
3. Higher by Kwamie Liv
It’s a shame Higher has been released at the beginning of summer, because from its opening moody notes it pans out as a perfect soundtrack for a montage of summer’s most fun moments, in a wistful fashion. A bright star out of Copenhagen, her voice is richly feminine, giving equal parts of softness and richness within each word.
2. Brandenburg Gate by Anti-Flag
One of the nice accompaniments to Anti Flag’s latest album American Spring, is a commentary on the construction of the album, including a breakdown of each song. The band had a lot to say about Brandenburg Gate, urging fans to Wikipedia the song’s title if they’re not already familiar with it. With a career spanning over 25 years, and a range of songs of songs of varying styles and levels of anger, Brandenburg Gate falls nicely at new wave punk, moderately angry. What’s more; they’ve pulled in Tim Armstrong of Rancid for the track.
1. Forever Mine by Andra Day
With four singles released before her first album Cheers to the Fall is released, Andra Day has mastered the art of drawing attention to herself for all the right reasons. After catching Spike Lee’s eye at the Sundance film festival this past winter, the two partnered to create a fantastic video for Forever Mine. Day brings Doo Wop to a new light, with a nod to the classics, as well as the gaping hole that has yet to be filled with Amy Winehouse’s passing. The winged tips of her eyeliners are set just right, and the spotlight is hers for the taking.
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