Listen to this song!

Here's some good songs to listen to

[listentothissong]

Brian Eno - “1/1″

By: Landon Bailey

Life with a smartphone is frantic. Any spare moment or need for distraction is filled by a buzzing vibration in your pocket, and an endless feed of articles telling you how to be happier. How you’re not living your life to the fullest. How to make more money. How to be more productive. Improve. Get better. Smarter. Thinner. Stronger. Promoted. Do what you love. Care more. Care less. Work harder. Sacrifice. Don’t sacrifice. Focus. Unplug more. Everyone and everything telling you how to live your life. Sometimes I feel like I’m spending more time reading about how to live my life than I am living it. 

“1/1″ is a song by Brian Eno from his album “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”. Eno composed the album “with the intent of defusing the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal”. This track in particular is especially effective at producing a calming feeling. You’ll hear a slow piano theme over and over again, accompanied by slow glowing synth pads and vibraphones. 

I first came across this song when I was 15-years-old. I was working at a 50′s style burger joint. There was no computerized ordering system, so I would have to memorize called out orders and cook them, all while singing burger and onion ring themed songs. The boss was a cheapskate who enjoyed frightening teenage employees by screaming and belittling them whenever they accidentally burnt a burger. It was, to this day, probably one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs I’ve had. 

But every shift I got a half hour break. I would always do the same thing: I’d cook myself my favourite thing on the menu (the BBQ chicken burger), go out to a grassy hill by the highway, sit beneath this big maple tree and look up into the blue summer sky while listening to this song. 

Everything would wash away as I watched the tree’s green leaves swaying in the warm summer breeze. I’d slow down to the speed of the big white billowing clouds slowly making their way across the sunny blue afternoon sky.  

All my worries and anxieties were gone. Once I was on that grass, with this song on, and that breeze on my face... I felt alive and at peace. There was no need to check up on, or distract myself, with anything else.

I hope this song is a grassy hill and blue sky for you. That it lets you slow down, forget about the digital life, and remember how to live your life the way you want to. 

[listentothissong]

Lasorda - “Age of Wonder”

By: Landon Bailey

Music has a seasonality. You don’t want to listen to The Beach Boys when its cold, dark and icy out. If you’ve ever heard someone playing Christmas music during the summer you’ve probably experienced the resulting desire to scoop your eyeballs out. I’m really into why music will evoke a certain feeling, emotion, or vision in its listener like that.

This song feels like you’re escaping into a childhood day dream. Suzannah Johannes’ voice evokes a feeling of innocence. The kind you had when you could stare at picture forever as a kid. I think the picture would look something like this:

I feel like it’s hard not to let your imagination whisk you away while listening to it. The lyrics evoke the times of explorers, when sailing to “The New World” and the mysteries beyond were the grandest adventure going. Below is the chorus

Way on way on go I Across seven seas Lost in a thousand skys Way on way on go on earth to the sun Far beyond babylon

The song only has one verse, but it’s a beauty:

Wander with you, from a distance With many things, at her insistence To discover, milk and honey Oh noble savage, how very english Tell me ‘bout the moon, and what you call ‘these lights’ About the ‘sargoes face’ above us every night

The music is especially important in painting the picture. It starts off with the adventurous drums and soft pulsing twinkling synths that evoke the feeling of dreamily looking up at the stars. Then the ship takes off and catches some wind in its sails… the piano comes in, along with a buzzsaw synth line, and a driving drum kit beat. And then you’re off! Sailing across the sea, wind in your hair, smell of sea salt in your nose, on an adventure, gliding across the water until you eventually disappear into the ether.

Not many songs do that.

Know another song that does? Tweet me @LBailey

[listentothissong]

A Pop Rock Masterpiece: “II” by  The Presidents of the United States of America

By: Landon Bailey 

I recently dug through my old CDs to find something to listen to in my car. I pulled this album. I thought this one would be good for a one-time trip down nostalgia lane. What I didn’t expect was... I couldn’t stop listening to it. It dawned on me that this album might just be a pop rock masterpiece. 

I think “Pop Rock” is a dirty word. Blink-182. Green Day. Red Hot Chili Peppers. All sounds that magically transport me to the sights and smells of West 49. But before you smash this tab closed because “All the Small Things” is a sacred piece of teenage nostalgia for you... I will admit thought that there’s always a nugget of something that makes a genre worthwhile to listen to.

What separates “II” from other pop rock of its day is that the Presidents made zero attempts at being cool. They sing songs about frogs, volcanos and golf clubs. So... no new artistic insights into the human condition. These guys were more concerned about having fun. And, man, did they know how to craft a pop song. Not only can they write a catchy hook and chorus, but its all the little details you end up looking forward to: 

Like on “Lunatic to Love” how they slow the song right down and drop an acrobatic tongue twister

When I rescue you from those concrete rooms Where they keep you tied up to your bed Giving you shots of electricity every morning at 7 am It's enough to drive a sane person crazy Baby let me tell you how I feel about ya

Or on “Volcano” when the electric keys on the second verse make it subtly more relaxing than the exploding first verse. 

Or on “Mach 5″ when they make you feel badass about crashing matchbox cars in the sandbox, proudly declaring ”Hell I blew the roof right off my car!”

Or the irony of how huge a song “Bug City” is considering it’s subject matter (I’m also now convinced this song was the inspiration for Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life”, released two years later in 1998). 

Or before ripping into a guitar solo on “Toob Amplifier”, there’s the small vocal aside of “300 yards.. Hit a big one!” in reference to a Big Bertha Driver.

And of course the vivid little stories, like on “Bath of Fire” you won’t find anywhere else: 

Razor fanged rattlesnake only tryin' to protect itself I had to haul off and blow it's little head away Sucked out the venom, kept the little skin and Meat found it's way onto my plate. 

The other thing that stands out to me is how savoury all the arrangements are. The Presidents were clearly well educated in the tropes of rock, and they lifted them with a knowing wink to their listener (ex. the overly dramatic end of “Froggie”). They took the best parts of pop rock in the 90s, and left out the parts that didn’t end up aging so well.  I found myself looking forward to every little spoken aside, guitar lick and organ fill. Unlike a lot of pop rock, there’s not a second that the vocals, distortion or drums are grating. Like the title of their following album, it’s all pure frosting. 

Sure “II” doesn’t reach the peachy lumpy heights of their debut album. The President’s haven’t gotten close since. As an overall album, “II” sounds much more cohesive and doesn’t leave you with the feeling that you should get your teeth checked for cavities. And I don’t think missing the heights of their first album bothered the Presidents that much. I found this quote from guitarist Dave Dederer in retrospect about their career:

“We didn't care and decided that we would live by the sword and die by the sword. We weren't going to pose or play the game. Did it all on our own terms.”

Unfortunately I don’t think a lot of people really appreciated that those terms were, actually, pretty great. 

[listentothissong]

Best Albums of 2016

By: Landon Bailey

2016 was an insane year for music. There were huge releases from everyone who’s huge... Beyonce, Kanye West, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, David Bowie, Radiohead etc. 

Everybody heard the aforementioned superstars’ albums, so hopefully my list will give you a couple of albums you didn’t hear or get to spend enough time with. My main criteria was the album was something I could listen to on repeat for a day and not even mind. I’d be on the subway, studying, getting groceries and not notice the same album had been playing for 5 hours. 

I tried to include a “hot track” that encapsulates the album so you could have a taste. Each one links to the song somewhere on the internet.

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

I’d include this with the other heavy hitters who are disqualified for being too popular, but I still have “man what’s your fave album this year” discussions where people don’t know who Chance is, so I’m including it. Easily the most uplifting and accessible album of the year. Chance is so darn likeable and makes being positive and responsible cool. Every single song could be selected the hot track.

Hot track: Angels (feat. Saba)  

Strumbellas - Hope

I had high hopes for The Lumineers new album. I like a good stompin’ folk album with lots of big yelpy emotional pleas. But I was disappointed in The Lumineers. Shortly after that, this Strumbellas album came out and it was the album I wished The Lumineers made. It features the lyric “I put a banjo up to the sky/It keeps us moving”. That’s ridiculous but its what I wanted from you, The Lumineers. Also the Strumbellas are from Toronto and what a great place that is. 

Hot track: Shovels & Dirt  

Avalanches - Wildflower 

This sounds like if the Beach Boys were into samples, took acid and then got Danny Brown and Biz Markie to rap over the creation that emerged from that. Definitely something you have to listen to all in one big sit as a lot of the tracks flow seamlessly into each other. My pick for the most colourful album of the year. 

Hot track: Because I’m Me

Anderson Paak - Malibu 

This was the rap album of 2016. There really weren’t any over the top smash hits on it, but it won for its unrelenting consistency. Front to back Paak nails every second of every song. The guy is so insanely talented. He can sing and rap while playing drums, decide he needs to run and jump around on stage to hype a huge crowd up, then get bored with that and go back to playing drums without missing a beat. My only knock on the album is that the content of his lyrics is pretty unmemorable. But I can let that slide cause he makes it sound so good. Lots of old school soul and neo-soul beats that go down like homemade chicken noodle soup. 

Hot track: Heart Don’t Stand a Chance

M83 - Junk 

If you like the part of the 80′s that features lasers, Deloreans, weird futuristic glasses and taking a way overindulgent guitar solo while moonwalking... then this is the album for you. I like those things so it was an album for me. 

Hot track: Laser Gun (feat. Mai Lan) 

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

There’s definitely a strain of popular culture that likes to glorify men from an older different era to define what true manliness is. It mostly involves mustache grooming, barrel whiskey and fancy dressing... a way for marketers to sucker in the male demographic. Sturgill Simpson is a real deal man of 2016. He’s concerned about raising his kid and wrote this album as a letter to him, basing it on his time in the Navy. Don’t be fooled by the label on him as a country artist. He created one of the most unique, yet natural sounds of 2016. He combined roots country, Motown and 1960′s AM Gold strings to create something that sounds both huge and intimate, all with the smell of the ocean drifting through it. 

Hot track: Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)

Bon Iver - 22, a Million

This album definitively kills the whole “electronic/auto-tune music can’t convey emotion like, I dunno, acoustic guitars and scraggly beard guys from the 70s can” argument. Bon Iver sounds like a cyborg on this album, but a cyborg who’s robot parts are rusty because he’s been crying a lot. 

Hot track: 8 (circle)

Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing

All of the songs on this album are short. Like under 2 minutes. It’s super easy to get through the whole album (it’s only 28 minutes). If there’s something that rubs you the wrong way... no problem. By the time you realize you don’t like it, it’s over and you’re 20 seconds into a new catchy jangle. It’s like eating a big tray of cheese and crackers for dinner. I really dug how most of the lyrics, sound like your usual throwaway indie love song lyrics. But the more you listen to it, you’ll find intimate gems... like this one about life on the road touring: 

Up in morning Down at dawn Warm up vocals Sing a song Sit in car Read a book Rest stop eggs or chips I look at you every day You change, I change, hooray

Hot track: On the Lips

A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

A Tribe Called Quest was my favourite music in grade 4. I was so cool back then. Man what happened. Anyways, this new album combines their intellectual-clever-funny-jazzy sounds from the 90′s with the topics and observations that concern the Tribe today. Nobody can make smooth jazzed up backing tracks like Q-Tip. Rap is the predominant musical art form today... and we’ve seen the complexity of rhyming grow accordingly. One thing that sometimes gets lost is just the pure joy of rhyming. Even the simple ones. Like, when you were out at recess in grade 4 and rhymed your friend Carter’s name with “Farter” and everyone went wild. 18 years later and the Tribe’s still got that joy.

Hot track: Dis Generation

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

How dead is rock? Pretty dead. Rap, EDM and big pop singers rule these days. Which means rock is uncool, which means its probably undercover cool and will come back again and oh no I sound like Marge Simpson. These guys are like if The Strokes and slacker rock had a baby. The lyrics are catchy and cut to the chase. There’s songs about issues like depression, drunk driving, and wasting your life on the weekends. Will Toledo doesn’t use fancy metaphors, which is refreshing (especially after listening to hours of rap). Musically it swings from small, vulnerable and intimate to huge thundering choruses. Best musical palette cleanser of 2016. 

Hot track:  (Joe Gets Kicked out of School for Using) Drugs with Friends [But Says This Isn’t a Problem]

Francis & the Lights - Farewell, Starlite!

Francis sounds like if Phil Collins got his hands on auto tune, a ton of synths and some hip hop beats. And if that were the case, Phil Collins has never sounded better. And yes I know what you’re thinking... better than that song off the Tarzan soundtrack?!? Yes. Better than that. 

But its close. 

Hot track: Friends (feat. Bon Iver)

Gord Downie - Secret Path

This is music that’s actually consequential and has drawn awareness and action towards Canada’s residential school history. As per the Secret Path website:

Secret Path acknowledges a dark part of Canada’s history – the suppressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system – with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation.

Usually when music is created to raise money or awareness for something, it ends up being a lame snooze fest. Not the case here. The story and lyrics are powerfully written and sung by Gord Downie, while Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene) and Dave Hamelin (The Stills) helped produce the album, giving it a super Canadian indie sound. Every song is memorable and key to painting the wrenching emotional journey of Chanie Wenjack trying to find his way home. 

Hot track: Son 

Were there some albums you think you could listen to over and over again for 5 hours that I didn’t mention here? Let me know! I’d love to hear them. Tweet me @LBailey

[listentothissong]

Anderson Paak - “Am I Wrong (feat. ScHoolboy Q) 

Anderson Paak’s album Malibu is insanely good. Every single track. It was really hard to pick which one to write about. But I’m a sucker for disco so I picked this one. 

Right away it gets me. The four-on-the-floor beat. Clap on the 2 and 4. The acid jazz synth pad. The light touch of cowbell. The smooth grooving bass line that fits like a glove. I immediately start clearing the room of chairs and coffee tables to make room for doing this:

The album is called Malibu, but it immediately evokes a humid South Beach night. And neon lights under a sunset lit sky. And palm trees.

I like the touch of smokey gravel in Paak’s voice. He’s got that extra breath at the end of words (My life-uh). He throws in the odd kung fu “HUH!”. Beautiful. He sing-speaks brief stabs of lyrics. This gives the groove tons of room to breath, keeping it front and center. Sustained notes are only sung on the chorus’ line of “Only one at a time”. Also, you have to love the obligatory 80′s blatant innuendo in the lyrics: 

Am I wrong to assume If she can’t dance, then she can't ooh? Am I wrong to say If she can’t dance, then she can't ooh?

She can’t ooh? What could that possibly mean. 

ScHoolboy Q contributes a verse making the song sound firmly in 2016 while making retro call backs to “Disco 54″ and “Love Boat”. After Q is done, Paak breaks it down, leaving you with nothing but the voice track and synth. Then he decides .. Ok, I’ll let you have some muted hot horns. 

OK... you can have the bass line back too. 

Alright... I guess you can have the beat back as well. 

You know what? Just have it all. 

Go on. Get out on the dance floor. Yeah I know you can’t help it. 

No... no that dance move doesn’t make you look cool. 

Yep there you go. Getting regrettably sweaty. 

You wore a grey shirt? Yes. Yes we can see your pit stains. I could see those from space.

While the song is definitely a throwback, it’s also produced with a subtle velvety touch, one that doesn’t steal the sounds of previous decades and flagrantly flaunt them (i.e. “Get Lucky” and “Uptown Funk”). In fact, I didn’t even notice the retro elements the first few listens. I feel weird saying this, but I also kind of appreciate that there isn’t a huge chorus, like Get Lucky used to climb to mountainous pop-smash heights, which makes me think that it won’t burn out the same way. It’s more “Do I Do” than “Superstition”. I may never get sick of this one*. 

*I’ll see you here in a week complaining about how overplayed this song is.

[listentothissong]

LCD Soundsystem - “Someone Great”

I never got LCD Soundsystem in their heyday in the mid to late 00′s. That’s the beauty of listening to music in this age. There’s so much music that’s been dubbed as “great” or “essential” going back to the 1950′s. A lot of the time, there’s a number of reasons I’m just not ready to hear it. My ears haven’t put the puzzle pieces of musical context together yet, that make their sound palpable to me. Maybe I can’t relate to the lyrics because I haven’t experienced the feelings or emotion they’re conveying yet. Maybe I expected the band to sound or give me a similar thrill to other music I’ve been digging lately; for whatever reason I’m not willing to listen to the artist on their own terms.  Maybe some grubby obnoxious dude at a party recommended a band and now they’ve been dubbed grubby and obnoxious by association. Maybe the song just needs to come up on shuffle at the right time as I’m walking down the street on a sunny day.

When I saw LCD Soundsystem was a headliner at Coachella, without even releasing a new album (although they are later this year), I decided there must be something seriously big about them that I missed.

There was.

Someone Great is the centrepiece of their 2007 album Sounds of Silver. The album is made of songs that are parts rock, punk, electronica, but most of all, dance music. They slowly build grooves whose focus changes from one instrument to the next, often imperceptibly. You can’t just skip ahead thirty seconds to see if you like the chorus, you have to strap yourself in for the ride and let the songs unfold as they will.

Someone Great’s foundation is an electronic wave sound fuzzing up on every beat, some 808s drums, and a Newton’s Cradle on turbo:

Then that bass line that sounds like some huge set of electronic timpani comes in:

Then those squiggly whippy sounds that are straight out of Super Mario 64, layered with a staccato line thats reminiscent of the sound of your phone speed-dialling a number.  

Now the glue that holds the whole song together: the kindergarten xylophone.

Just a simple, innocent, beautiful little melody. It comes in at the same time as James Murphy:

This is where things get really good. Murphy mirrors the melody of that little xylophone, only unlike its bright happy tone, he’s singing about being on the receiving end of being broken up with over the phone:

I wake up and the phone is ringing, Surprised, as it's early. And that should be the perfect warning, That something's, a problem. To tell the truth I saw it coming, The way, you were breathing. But nothing can prepare you for it, The voice, on the other, end.

Juxtaposed against the xlyophone, it creates an uplifting feeling of melancholy. The next verse only heightens it:

The worst is all the lovely weather, I'm stunned, it's not raining. The coffee isn't even bitter, Because, what's the difference?

As Murphy sings “And it keeps going” the song continues to build in shimmering layers and intensity, while also giving you hope, as “it keeps going... until the day it stops”. The climax finally arrives as Murphy grasps at the high notes on the song’s title. And he lets you slowly down.

We’re safe, for the moment. Saved, for the moment.

[listentothissong]

Galantis - “Peanut Butter Jelly”

Remember when your parents left you alone in the house all by yourself for the first time? You’d stand there looking like an angel, obediently nodding “yes” to all of their reminders about the air conditioning, locking doors, where food was located, and when they’d call. Then they’d leave, lock the door, and you’d watch out the window until the moment their car left the driveway.

Then you’d ring up the gang as fast as you could. Everyone ripped over on their bikes. You all look at each other with the devil himself in your eyes. 

“Let’s do it.” 

You raid the house for every can of soda in the house. That you weren’t allowed to drink. When you’re 10 years old, downing this much soda in such a short period was like an all night drug binge. And it was amazing. You’d all be so jacked about the most independence, rebellion, and sugar water you could muster that you inevitably got turnt to all new heights.  

That’s what “Peanut Butter Jelly” sounds like. Like an innocent 10-year-old soda pop fuelled turn up. It’s filled with comically pitched voices, that cheesy overused air horn sample, and a sweet, sweet hook via some cut-up strings. But its all put together so perfectly that it’s insanely fun and the energy is infectious, like only a kid having the time of their life can be. Hell even the chorus/title is the main food staple of a 10-year-old’s diet. 

And just like a 10-year-old, the innuendo in the lyrics went right over my head.  

Sleepless nights at the château Visualize it I'll give you something to do

I wonder what the something to do is? Maybe play video games all night, or a pillow fight, or to-the-death game of steamroller? That’d by wicked. 

[listentothissong]

LunchMoney Lewis - “Love Me Back” 

Between this song and Lewis’ hit Bills, you gotta feel bad for the guy. His bills are piling up while dogs are crapping on the lawn, and now on top of that his woman don’t love him back. And he ain’t getting none. 

That aside, he knows how to write a feel good, soulful pop song. There’s nothing revolutionary here. Two verses, a bridge, a big hook in the chorus, break down the chorus, bring it back full blast, then change the key up a tone to take her home. The song features the tale-as-old-as-time of a boyfriend being taken for granted:

Show up at her job, bring her some’n to eat And when she get off, I'ma rub her feet I love the people she want when we watch TV She treat me like shit, I treat her like a queen Ooh, she don't feel like I do

Simple. Modern. Catchy. Good song. 

[listentothissong]

Shamir - “On the Regular” 

Holy moly. 

This is a banger. 

Everything I’ve come across about Shamir is fresh. His EDM instrumentation. His take on being cocky. His androgynous look. The playful visuals in his videos. He’s also fresh out the womb... relatively speaking (He’s 20). 

This guy is in tune. “On the Regular” really shows how in tune. He’s got that stripped down EDM synth sound that reminds me a lot of Disclosure*. He’s got the confident yet alluring female voice. But he’s a dude. The androgynous voice threw me for a loop. It’s disorienting at first but once you embrace it, it makes the track that much more unique and exciting. And then he uses it to play the bravado rap game, while he’s also making fun of it. 

Five-foot-ten, about a buck twenty Skinny as a rod but still won't fuck with me Wise ass nigga, you'd think I was 50 But I take your 50 after you take this spliff, see?

I mean, does anyone really care who’s the toughest or baddest in the rap game anymore? Does it matter? Just give me something to get amped up to on the bus.

Then another surprise: he’s got singing chops as shown on the bridge:

Don't try me, I'm not a free sample Step to me and you will be handled See, that's my crown on the mantle And if you try to touch it, yes, there will be scandal

The visuals in the video are late 80′s to early 90′s inspired, but also internet weird (see the space cowbell extreme closeup), You’ve also got the 90′s flat top haircut while he’s dressed in something that’s not too far a cry from early A Tribe Called Quest. I get the same vibe from one of those animated shorts on Sesame Street from the early 90s about counting the 7 or the letter T. Which were really cool. 

Most of all, this track has energy. The kind of energy you only have when you’re 20. It’s exuberant, it can party hard all night and wake up without a hangover, its the energy everyone wishes they had. Only when most people have it, they’re all over the place and don’t know what to do with it. They waste it. Shamir on the other hand, makes no mistake. 

*Not sure how that song got to be two years old. 

[listentothissong]

B.B. King - “How Blue Can You Get” (Live at the Regal)

A lot of people aren’t crazy about live records. I get it. The sound isn’t clean. There isn’t the painstaking attention to details you get in a studio recording. It’s messy, imperfect, and that song you love just sounds like a crappy version of that song you love played live. 

But some live records capture something you could never get in a studio recording. Something that could never be reproduced. BB King’s “Live at the Regal”, recorded at the Regal Theater in Chicago on November 21, 1964, is one of those recordings. If you like blues guitar licks, soulful singing, and tracks that come to a steaming boil, this record is essential. 

“How Blue Can You Get” is the climax of the record. It starts with BB talking to the crowd, telling them to listen to the lyrics and to give props to the band. You can hear the crowd, they can’t get enough, you can literally hear them calling out for more “Go ahead, BeeBay!”.  

BB lets ‘em have one walk around the block of his beautifully phrased, warm, electrifying but so-smooth-you-might-die guitar licks. The tension builds. The pot starts to bubble. But he lets it dissipate. He starts into the first verse: 

I've been down hearted baby ever since the day we met I said I've been down hearted baby ever since the day we met our love is nothing but the blues, woman baby, how blue can you get? 

That first line is so good that it got sampled and became a one hit wonder of sorts in the 90′s. Blues lyrics aren’t poetry. They aren’t read. They’re sung. And when they’re sung by someone like BB; jam packed with heart break, frustration, sorrow, longing, anger, and emotional release, it’ll blow your skirt up to say the least. 

BB and the band start turning the heat up on the pot. Things bubble and steam right until this verse, horn stabs between each smoldering phrase: 

I gave you a brand new Ford But you said: I want a Cadillac I bought you a ten dollar dinner and you said: thanks for the snack I let you live in my pent house you said it was just a shack

The crowd is hootin’ and hollerin’, clamouring for more. It sounds like they’re not sure whether they can handle anymore. BB has the crowd in the palm of his hand, then he turns the stove to full blast and lets the pot boil right over: 

I gave you seven children and now you wanna give them back 

The crowd is just screaming. You can hear women swooning. This is why live records are great. The moment captured there is like nothing else. 

Thanks BB. RIP. 

[listentothissong]

Stornoway - “Zorbing” 

First things first, I totally got motion sickness from this music video and woofed my cookies. Watch it at your own risk. 

That aside, I was skeptical at first when first listening to this track by Stornoway. It starts out with the singer’s very proper, choir-like voice and a bassline. He also refers to university as “Uni”. First thing I thought? Oh boy, the preppy college kids found the guitars again. 

But then the low chanting voices came in. Those are rare. The gregorian chant* is a highly underrated and underused in popular music. Well except for that huge smash hit song from a summer or two ago. 

The track then brings in a breezily strummed guitar, then some upbeat drums that sit nicely in the background. Oh hey, those chants are back! Yeah! Then at 1:45 they bring in indie music mid-00′s secret weapon:

Horns.

Suddenly this track is cooking. Its got motion and groove. Somebody also brought out that old piano thats been sitting in your parent’s living room since for as long as you can remember and started ripping folksy-bluesy licks on it too. 

The lyrics evoke feelings of youthfulness. Being alone in a special place with one of your first boyfriends or girlfriends, exploring new places, new exciting feelings etc:

Lying in your attic I can feel the static The storm is breaking, windows shaking So electrifying, Oh im nearly flying Lost my heart between the sheets of lightening

It’s good stuff. The whole song feels like a cool sunny spring day, leaves freshly sprung and other corny stuff. The track hits its climax with a cacophony of horns blasting and the piano glissando-ing up the keyboard to hit Jerry Lee Lewis-esque octaves while a tambourine tambs away. It really reminds you why folk music, (or at least music that depends on acoustic instruments) is so great. 

*Definitely not Gregorian chanting

[listentothissong]

Mr. Little Jeans - “Oh Sailor (feat. The Silverlake Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale)

Mr. Little Jeans (aka Monica Birkenes) put out her debut album “Pocket Knife” about a year ago, and after doing some google research, it appears it was sparsely reviewed. In fact, aside from a website, a Soundcloud page, and a Facebook page, there isn’t a ton on the internet about Mr. Little Jeans. Which is pretty surprising considering the albums got some stellar tracks on it. 

One of them is the above “Oh Sailor”, which is about the the theme that “there is always someone out there with you, even if you can’t see them”.  It doesn’t really sound like anything else on the album, so when its big chorus first hits you, it can leave you feeling dazed. Like full-on stars-in-the-eyes “Where am I? What’s going on?” dazed. More on that in a moment. 

The song starts with a melody plunked out on a toy piano. This is immediately juxtaposed with mid-tone synths, light beating drums, and wooden spoons (There needs to be way more spoons in music by the way) along with MLJ’s haunting and slightly morose voice singing some poetic first lines: 

Cold night, strange dreams Memory stuck like glue Her face, her voice Sail across the seas with you Can you hear all the angels? 

The last line leads you up into the first blast of the epic chorus sung by The Silverlake Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale, who are easily the highlight of this track. Now normally I find having Children’s Choirs to be a cheesy gimmick that wears thin pretty quick. But this track avoids that pitfall. The choir, made up of non-auditioned boys and girls aged 8-16, is singing some lyrics that are uplifting, but also contain some darker bits like the following lyrics, which are sung over a descending line of “ah ah ahhh’s”: 

Oh sailor, we will blow the wind right But if you die out there, tearing you into two I hope you know that you could sail right on I hope you know you got the ocean blue

Mix that with the toy piano, a sonically beautiful arrangement of wispy-bubbling synths, subtle guitar accents, big beating drums, clacking percussion, and it really evokes the feeling of sailing on a giant old man o’war. (Warning: I also got seasick, but only because I’ve got a sensitive stomach and dug the track too hard, not it’s fault). That’s something that pop music generally doesn’t do. And it leaves me thinking that it really is one of the more stunning sounding tracks I heard in 2014.

[listentothissong]

Klingande feat. Broken Back - "RIVA"

Somewhere in between the 80's and early 90's it seems like the sax solo died in popular music. It might've had something to do with Kenny G. Maybe grunge and rap came along and put the nail in a lot of big froofy haired wayfarer wearing sax careers. Whatever it was, It felt like the sax had been laid to rest to be forgotten by music that the kids listen to... forever. 

That changed with Klingande's summer smash of 2013 "Punga". Suddenly the sax was hot again. Yes that's right: hot sax. Klingande has since put out a string of excellent tropical house tracks featuring the hot sax, along with a number of remixes. However, the question started to be begged, was Klingande a one-trick-hot-sax pony? RIVA answers that question:

No. 

No they're not. Because the handsome French dude behind Klingande has a new trick up his sleeve: Hot Harmonica.

Doesn't quite have the same ring, but it's equally as dope. Yeah the track has some guy on it with some forgettable lyrics about losing someone either to death or in a breakup. I assume that's Broken Back. There's the disconnected hook about "Restarting the Game". Yeah... cool... whatever. 

You're in this track for wailing harmonica. The harmonica rips it. The harmonica takes you places you never knew you could go. You'll be like "Woah... wow... how come nobody told me about this place? Does Frank know about this? If Frank knew about this and has been holding back on me... son of a... no way... no way Frank knows about this. I gotta tell Frank about this." 

To be frank. This is a good song.

[listentothissong]

Angus & Julia Stone - "Heart Beats Slow" 

Angus and Julia Stone are an Austrailian brother and sister duo. I stumbled across these two after reading up on superstar producer Rick Rubin. 

Quick rundown on Rick Rubin: He founded defjamblr records in his dorm room. He's been behind the early rap albums from the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J, fast forward to today where he's produced the likes of Johnny Cash, Jay-Z, Adele, and Kanye West to name a few. Also, he's got a huge beard. 

(I recommend checking out this great interview by the BBC's Zane Lowe about Rick Rubin and the famous Shangri-La Studio in Malibu if you want to know more.)

So when Rick Rubin described Angus and Julia Stone like this:

 "It’s few and far between that I hear something that really excites me. I heard their music and it really moved me. They make the kind of songs that I can listen to over and over again for a long period of time" 

Then you know you've gotta check them out. 

Their 2014 self-titled album is produced by Rubin and the whole record sounds excellent front to back. Listen to it through quality earphones or on vinyl. This track, however, stood out. 

It starts off with some bland sounding chords strummed on an electric guitar. I know you're thinking "This sounds like every average indie rock song". Hold on and keep listening. The pay-off, as for much of the album, is in the subtlety.

Notice their two voices. Notice how Angus and Julia start and finish each other's lines. Notice how their voices are distinct on the verses, but complimentary when they sing together on the chorus. Notice how Angus sounds sincere when he sings "Well I wish you, wish you well" but there's a brief tone of sarcasm when it's Julia's turn. 

Notice the simple arrangement. Clean, crisp drums, bass, guitar and organ. Notice how the quiet jagged guitar stabs after the first line of each verse, emphasizing the split between the two individuals. Listen as the organ goes from an accent, the heavier flourishes, until its prominently up in the mix with long sustaining notes during the climax. Notice how at the climax it feels like the tempo has quickened, the voices are more desperate, often out of sync, and how there's a dichotomy with the continued chorus of "But my heart beats slow" . 

[listentothissong]

Sam Roberts Band - "Metal Skin"

Sam Roberts blew up in Canada in the early 2000's with the single "Brother Down". Sam and his band were a shaggy haired, denim wearing, hard rocking and drinking throw back to 60's and 70's era rock and roll. He famously declared that he would die for rock and roll on the track "On the Run" off his first full length album We Were Born In a Flame. You got the idea that Sam was the kind of guy who would never sell out. 

Just as disco and dance music came along and left a lot of denim wearing rock and rollers to decide whether to sell out or be out of a job back in the 70's and 80's, so has EDM in the 2010's for the rock and roll throw back acts of the 2000s. Thankfully the Sam Roberts Band decided to embrace synths and electronic dance music and adapt it to their own brand of rock and roll. The resulting synthesis feels surprisingly natural.

"Metal Skin" is the best example of it on their latest album Lo-Fantasy, produced by Youth (aka Martin Glover). You immediately get hit with a synth-horn, a relaxed four-on-the-floor beat, and a thumping repetitive bass line. Where the Sam Roberts Band separates itself from your usual dance or rock band is the lush guitar layering work that permeates all of their albums. From the main riff echoing the bass part, to the echoing reverb-y doodling accents, to the banging-out-the-beat chords on the chorus, to the hot piercing single note guitar solos. They all weave together to create a beautiful tapestry of sound, especially when Sam lets all the parts out to play near the end of the track. And just as you're listening in wonder at all these layers he'll take them all away from you in a wooshing "Wooah" that feels akin to stepping out of a hot sweaty neon dance club into the cool calm of night. Roberts keeps the musical intrigue up right to the last second, finishing with the rarely used "super slow down" ending, which gently lets you down from the tracks high. 

The lyrics fit and enhance the textures of the music, from Roberts rueing about the predictable robotic grind of everyday life, juxtaposed against the want to leave it all behind and “run free with the animals”. 

If you dig this track check out the rest of Sam Roberts Band's album Lo-Fantasy. 

[listentothissong]

R. Kelly & Miguel - Ignition/Do You [Phoebe Ryan Cover]

Everybody knows R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)". Now that Millenials are old enough to have nostalgia about the 90's and early 00's, this has become one of those jams that's everybody's jam. This generation's "Thriller". It gets people singing along, woo girls wooing, and everybody running their hands through their non-existent fros. 

In other words, it’s now a classic. 

This is the first time I've come across Win and Woo, but from this track it's clear they have a firm grasp on the Tropical House sub-genre thats been picking up steam the past year or two:

Get a sexy subdued female voice to sing a pop hit, throw in some steel drums, sounds of waves on a beach, a bit of plucked or hand strummed acoustic guitar, add in the four-on-the-floor beat, a hint of congos, and finally a big splash of EDM's dance floor manipulating effects (crescendo-ing pads before drops, simple catchy 4 chord long progression, take the beat away then give it back etc.).

I'm sure that’s a gross oversimplification.

The results are incredibly dope. Normally I'm more partial to Trop House that incorporates saxophone (ie. klingande, bakermat etc), but this one hits some wonderful notes. The smokily sexy voice of Phoebe Ryan in this remix gives it a twinge of hopeful melancoly. It hits particularly hard when the track switches up the remix of the remix of Ignition sliding into Miguel's "Do You". I don't know how anybody can hear that and not have their eyes suddenly widen, look at their nearest drinking pal, and mouth a "WHAT?!" in amazement. 

This'll be in heavy rotation until I burn it out... waaaay out.  

[listentothissong]

Watermät - “Bullit”

This song is a banger. YouTube tells me this was the summer anthem of 2014. Apparently it didn’t reach North America, or is just starting to as I saw this puppy being promoted at the top of the hot dance singles list on iTunes.  

All you need to look for in this song is that sound. Once you hear it, you’ll know it. It sounds like Earth-invading-skyscraper-tall alien robots. And I like it.  

Throw a standard four-on-the-floor beat on that sucker along with a simple catchy progression, trilly flute, a few drops, sync it up with a video prominently featuring hula girls on trampolines and…

…you’ve got a hot ticket of a hit on your hands.