Music & Films for
Common People
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IT MAKES YOU FORGET (ITGEHANE)
Peggy Gou
50
South Korea is starting to produce very interesting electronic music, and Peggy Gou gives us (in her native Korean language) a fascinating house track that blends disco and a slight hint of samba with indietronic for a festive and invigorating track ready for the turntables.
IN MY VIEW
Young Fathers
49
Young Fathers have abandoned their fiery political chants in favor of a much more introspective vision. In My View is a downbeat R&B with trip-hop infusions, but a pop hook and heavy percussions, almost tribal; a heartfelt song about nothing ever being enough.
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BLOOM
Troye Sivan
48
Once you learn what this song is about, you hear it with different ears, but when you first approach it, is such a fresh and intoxicating breeze of pure pop, with energy, personality and even tenderness that you get hooked on it. Spoiler: it's about anal sex.
SUSPIRIUM
Thom Yorke
47
Thom York jumped into scoring films, and his single for the remake of horror movie Suspiria is a devastating waltz charged with eerie atmospheres and a sense of despair that is rather suffocating. But that elegance and sophistication are entirely a work of Yorke.
THE EYE
Empath
46
The base for The Eye is a happy pop melody, almost taken from a TV ad for kids, but distorted, scratched and buried in furious percussions and frenetic guitars, that what is left in the end is a statement of queer liberation, a complex mix of their fun and their anger.
MIKI DORA
Amen Dunes
45
Miki Dora was a talented and famous surfer, but he also was a bigot and criminal. In a chilled track that feels like a day in the beach, his affected falsetto is able to capture the complexities of celebrating toxic masculinity and making heroes out of assholes.
NAMELESS FACELESS
Courtney Barnett
44
With her unmatched skill with words, Barnett goes after the Internet trolls that hide behind the anonymity of online comments to unlash their sexism towards her, and female musicians in general. And she gets company from Kim Deal, a bad ass combo!
NICE FOR WHAT
Drake
43
Nice For What is the middle point where Drake the rapper meets Drake the pop star. In a year where our opinions of him as a person just got more polarized, at least he had the decency to put this mad track to kept his respect as a musician, if not intact, still complete.
MARINERS APARTMENT COMPLEX
Lana del Rey
42
Transitioning from indie pop diva to alternative singer-songwriter, Lana keeps showing how complex and layered her project could be, now with a languid rock ballad that approaches the most poetic side of pop culture, with the strength to command: "I'm your man!".
WIDE AWAKE!
Parquet Courts
41
The punks of Parquet Courts decided to give a strong change to the sound, and Wide Awake! is the most playful we'll probably we'll ever get to see them. Still charged with electrifying rock energy, but giving themselves a license to be silly for a moment.
BOYS
Lizzo
40
An interesting mix of styles and influences along the black tradition in modern music: Gaye, Brown, Prince, Missy; it is not the first track called Boys that targets female desire, but Lizzo's song is also about body positivity and feeling comfortable in your own skin.
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NERVOUS YOUNG INHUMANS
Car Seat Headrest
39
Will Toledo takes an old track to a much more accomplished level, with hooks and riffs that make the melody shine in his most Bowie-esque moment to date, a complex metanarrative that is also a thrilling indie rock experience to dance and sing-along in music festivals.
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WHEN YOU DIE
MGMT
38
By laughing at their failed efforts, they offer intriguing indie pop free of pretensions and full of power. They might still loathe their previous success, but even in a chorus-free track, their dark humor in catchy tunes is proving to be the best MGMT has to offer.
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ABOUT YOU
G Flip
37
G Flip has been paying attention to all the right things that have come in the last years in indie-pop music, and by channeling Lorde, Haim and Sky Ferreira, she is very able to offer a track that sounds so effortless cool, especially with her mad drum skills.
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IT'S NOT JUST ME
Let's Eat Grandma
36
One of the quirkiest music acts in recent memory has decided to go full pop, but the loud and edgy synths create an atmosphere that is enjoyable but yet uncanny. It's Not Just Me is like the unlikely collaboration of Carly Rae Jepsen and The Knife.
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BLAXPLOITATION
Noname
35
Using Blaxploitation films as the starting point of a diatribe that tackles black identities from so many different angles, Noname give us in a couple of minutes enough material to think and discuss for weeks. She is ready to throw the uncomfortable, yet necessary, questions.
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GEYSER
Mitski
34
Mitski embraces her right to be as intense as she pleases, and, like the title of the track suggests, she erupts in a geothermal emotional blast, not before she has opened with a disconcerting buzz and broken the rhythm of the track a couple of times.
UNDER THE SUN
Iceage
33
Danish punks Iceage takes us in a trip from desolation to redemption that includes country guitar riffs, horns and strings. The intensity of the band, both in the instruments and in the voice of Elias Rønnenfelt, is on point to make you want to rock with them.
LIFETIME
Yves Tumor
32
Lifetime is a vortex of mixed emotions, it is a chaotic mix of elements thrown there with a purpose, with an immense sense of the weight of the world. There in the middle, trying to breathe, a single phrase "And I miss my brothers". The effect is harsh and immediate.
APESHIT
The Carters
31
To complete the circle started by Lemonade, Beyoncé and Jay-Z come together to let us know that their problems only made them grow as a couple and as musicians. They rock together, but letting Bey shine at the front makes it clear, he learned a feminist lesson.
THE OPENER
Camp Cope
30
Going straight to the neck against the sexism that reigns in the music industry, Camp Cope points out some of the sexist moments that they (and probably every single female musician) have lived in their career in a strong and empowering rock track.
WHEN IT'S OVER
Anderson .Paak
29
Til' It's Over expands every sound that Paak puts to play, creating an enveloping sensation of warmth and intimacy. Electronica, R&B, jazz, pop and dubstep get mixed, stretched and contorted in order to bend their limits and create such an original flow of musical ideas.
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NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY
Ariana Grande
28
Is not the political statement (Beyoncé style) we would have hoped after the terrorist attack in her concert, but it certainly is a great way to bring joy from that terrible incident. An empowering and uplifting electropop moment that brings the best of the newest pop diva.
PICK UP
DJ Koze
27
Pick Up is extremely simple: just a looped beat with a few elements added here and there to add variation. But when it is contrasted to the heartbreaking verse, you achieve a beautiful contrast between the euphoria and the melancholy.
FACESHOPPING
Sophie
26
A puzzle to solve, Faceshopping can have many interpretations. Is it about how Sophie was able to be finally her true self when she was able to transition into a female? Is it about the fake Internet personas we all create? One thing is sure, this is industrial pop at its best!