Music is good right now
1. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
If all Coldplay songs sounded like “Wait” instead of like, well, all Coldplay songs, people would still like U2. On their new album, M83 lets their always-epic sound stretch out, drift, and flutter more than ever before. With an intro, an outro, and six sketches under 2 minutes in length, this is truly an album, not just a collection of songs. It’s also an utterly enveloping experience, at once comfortingly familiar and entirely of its own world. In other words, it’s an M83 album.
2. Roscoe Dash - “Good Night”
Fader unfairly savaged this song last week, and I don’t really understand why. Sure, I guess you could call the beat from Kane Beatz “post-Watch the Throne,” as overstuffed as it is with snare rolls, looped chants, utterly monstrous bass, and constant (and drastic) changes. But why is that a bad thing? Are we saying that only Kanye and Jay-z can do pomposity? In my opinion, Roscoe kind of does it better. He packs so much Atlanta swag into his recently ubiquitous half-sung, half-rapped delivery that he doesn’t even need to be clever as he says nothing - he can make this track sound massive and triumphant just talking about popping bottles, and he knows it. Plus, you know a song bangs when you can feel the bass in your crappy earbud headphones. I don’t actually know what club would play this song, but I want to go there.
3. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Because sometimes grown-ass indie folks aren’t in a Phil Collins mood, so the new Bon Iver won’t do. Sometimes they want, say, any bluesy rock band from the sixties, seventies or eighties, but with a frontman who sounds so delicate and damaged that you just want to reach through the speakers and hug him.
Streaming at Hype Machine.
4. Hyuna - “Bubble Pop”
Billboard added Korean charts about two weeks ago, and this single from one of the girls from 4Minute appeared briefly, then fell way down to the bottom of the Top 40. It’s weird, because if there’s one thing this song has, it’s staying power. You start to listen, and it’s maybe a little girly and, well, bubblegummy. Then the “hey boy”s get stuck in your head. Then there’s a dubstep breakdown. Then you get to the outro and realize the beat is basic Toni Basil cheerleader pop, but about fifty times better than that Avril Lavigne song, so you kind of want to listen to it again. By the end of the sixth time through, you’re not even thinking - you just start it over instinctually. This stuff will melt your brain. Plus the theme of the music video seems to be “wearing Daisy Dukes in different places,” so there’s that too.
