Songs of the Week #17- Editors Pick
“Can you kids even dance to this?!”
CARRIE:
"Slow" -- Twin Shadow
This song is like a mix of a dance song and a moody 80s jam ballad, plus bob-worthy beats and a damn catchy refrain that makes it seem oddly familiar. His voice is melt-inducing, and it's not just that amazing hair.
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STEPHEN:
"Royals" -- Lorde
Songs like this conjure the best apocalypse imagery: a doomed world stalked by armies of skeletons all snapping their fingers like movie musical gangs on the warpath. Their feet clattering out the rhythm of death, all steady and hollow, every echo impending doom, more and more of them punching bony fists through the dirt. And of course, what is the end of the world without some kid with a bat fighting back these terrors? Here I'm picturing myself and Lorde, back to back, fighting our way through the wasteland of skeletons, and every buried shot from her golf-club or my kendo stick doesn't just split open their bones, but practically scrimshaws the lyrics of this sort of fantasy across them in blood. That's right, fucking blood.
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SHENYAH:
"Got 2 Let U" -- The Knife
This song is oddly sexy. The beats are basic, the ping-pong panning is catchy, the little sax riffs add some swank but most of all the vocal duo, passing the groove back and forth. Her vocals somewhat innocent and young, while the deep pitch shift in his sound dirty and perverted, it's perfectly strange.
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ROY:
"Rock With You" -- Michael Jackson
This is one of those great mid-tempo dance songs that folks used to be so good at making in the 70s and 80s. Does anybody even do that anymore? Can you kids even dance to this?! Michael Jackson at the top of his game, with that golden voice and the moves to match. All those delicious synthesizer flourishes and sexual innuendo (spoiler: he's not really talking about dancing). That fat bass from back when people still knew how to play a bass with their loins. And the modulation in key coming out of the bridge? Fuck you, nobody can touch Mr. Jackson. Seriously, fuck you. [INNUENDO]
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JOHN:
"Obsession '77" -- Atomic Forest
From one of India's greatest psych-funk bands, at least in the western hemisphere, "Obsession '77" brings me to a place of warmth with a look into the future. Is this where the Beastie Boys found their sound? They certainly mined gold from this collection of some of Atomic Forest's best. A little swagger, a little hip hop, a little bounce and a little 60's swing, this record brings so many flavors to life. The lead single is a testament to what music can be outside of the parameters of India's own norm, let alone how it influenced a generation.
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