Hello friends and music fiends! My heart burst with joy when I saw the long-awaited Grammy performers announcement on my Twitter feed and saw Beyonce reigning on a long list of other great-but-not-Beyonce artists. Then it sank when I saw a D’Amelio sister in its vicinity. With my expert journalistic cap on, I jumped on my favorite search engine (isn’t there really only one? despite years of telling myself I ought to use Ecosia I honestly just… don’t) and started the fact-checking process. It took less than a minute to debunk the scam of it all. The poor photoshopping of the original line-up should’ve rung alarm bells but what can I tell ya? It was late, I was in bed, we’re not all wired the same… Short story shorter, the Grammy performance line-up is in: I’m particularly excited to watch El Conejito Malo, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, BTS, the HAIM gang (all three of them!), Dula Peep, Megan Styles, Harry Thee Stallion and newly-crowned cottagecore fantasist Taylor Swift.
Mitski is making a soundtrack for a sci-fi western graphic novel (read: space cow-boy, ahem, Kacey?). And it makes a whole lotta sense. Mumford & Sons’ banjo player supporting a right-wing conspirationist and getting called out for it is a bit more of a surprise. Then again, not the craziest thing to happen these days. Barely an event. Barely an ‘ev’.
In this week’s new music drop: new albums from Zara Larsson (will be covering), Kings of Leon and remixes from Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats’ 2020 collab mixtape. SZA dropped a music video for Good Days (the song made it onto New Music Monday because it’s brilliant). And Jennifer Hudson managed to suck the soul out of ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ (!). Ain’t no way she couldn’t tell this wasn’t it. Yet here we are. Now, best new music:
— — — Absolute Fave — — —
Leave The Door Open — Silk Sonic, Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars
Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars are kicking off their “setlist of doom” with a track that brings us back to the glory days of funk. It’s a deep dive in the luxury of soul music’s heyday, generous in peaks and valleys and driven by instrumentals that pierce through the horizon. The mix is heavenly, the melody is angelic, the performance is celestial: is it the first ray of light at the end of the tunnel we desperately need?
Spinning — No Rome (with Charli XCX, The 1975)
Space shuttle dance pop ready for take-off. Charli is meeting collaborators halfway for a journey into orbit that doesn’t quite take us away from the pull of earthly matters but yanks us momentarily from gravity’s pull. A spin or two and you’re back in front of your computer screen wondering what the hell it was you was writing about.
— — — More great tracks — — —
Pay Your Way In Pain — St. Vincent
The demented Annie Clark is back with a joint venture with Mr. Antonoff and she sounds as kooky as ever. There’s some Prince, some Bowie, some Kate Bush — all add up to a lot of chaotic energy in there. ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’ is the lead single for her upcoming full-length, Daddy’s Home. Marketed as a reaction to Annie’s dad recently getting released from prison — after landing there because of involvement in a multimillion dollar stock-manipulation scheme… — , the album promises to spill some tea. The expensive kind.
Danse sur l’Hardcore — Black Loops
Dance, fool, dance! You don’t have to scream it to mean it.
2050 Spice — Baltra
Same motto, more spice.
Pretty Places — Aly & AJ
Just a gorgeous (country-adjacent) pop song that summons hot summers to mind. Grass untrimmed, sparse clouds, clobbering heat, dazed by the sunlight, falling asleep under a tree, waking up to ants crawling on your neck… after all, a staycation doesn’t sound all that bad.
Need even more? Also check out (YouTube links):
Life’s A Mess II — Juice WRLD (with Clever, Post Malone)
Better Without You — Evanescence
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Best Releases February 2021 Spotify playlist: here
Best Releases March 2021 Spotify playlist: here
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! Hope you enjoyed it
Twitter: @red_dziri
