Music & Films for
Common People
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SUMMER GIRL
Haim
10
Haim have always invoked the idea of a Californian summer in their care-free pop sound, and now they have decided to claim the title of "Summer Girl" with a track that feels like the breeze in the sunset by the beach when your partner is holding you tight. The addition of a sax is something entirely new for them, as if they have acknowledged that there was unexplored rich territory in between the feel-good pop and the love ballads. And those "duh-duh-duhs" are unequivocally a nod towards Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.
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There's also a sweet story behind that track. Danielle Haim wrote it for her boyfriend (who is also the band's producer) when he was battling cancer and she wasn't as present as she wanted because of touring as a way for him to feel her "unconditional love". We melt there!
BAD GUY
Billie Eilish
9
Billie Eilish is marketed to be unlike any other musician, although at times she looks and sounds a lot like many other people. At her best, it's the slacker attitude of Cobain and the tragic sad sound of Lana del Rey; at her worst, she is a Gen-Z Avril Lavigne. Even when millions of teens identify with her, for a more trained ear, her music is entirely ubiquitous.
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But then, Bad Guy is the first glimpse of what her unique sound might actually be. Heavy on bass, with a dead-pan performance only broken by a sarcastic "duh", lurking menacing in the shadows and then the whole personality being carried by the insane undulating synths in the bridge. A banger that hints at the potential for something big... but then she goes doing an unnecessary version in the company of Justin Bieber.
BAGS
Clairo
8
Clairo is one of those teens who have profited from democratization of music on Internet. Jumping to fame thanks to a viral Youtube video, and then catching the attention of Rostam Batmanglij to produce her first album, it almost sounds like a Millennial version of her Cinderella story. And in this version, the prince charming might end up being a princess.
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Clairo has stated that Bags is all about the first time she fell for a girl, and the anxiety that it produced her. A pristine pop moment of pure vulnerability, the lyrics are her mind over-analyzing every second she spends with her crush, and even picture the moment when she leaves the flat they share with her bags. And over all, it is the moment when Clairo stops sounding amateurish and brings Internet pop musicians to the big leagues.
NOT THE NEWS
Thom Yorke
7
There are two facts that no one can argue. One: Thom Yorke is one of the biggest genius in contemporary music. Two: a bipping noise will produce you immediate anxiety. So, what happens, when this mastermind takes a bipping sound as the base of his new track? Well, he basically creates an ode to discomfort and existential anxiety.
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Going full experimental electronic, Yorke crafts Not the News as if it was a mapped light installation, the synths pulsating in waves, the silences and the stridency both playing a part in creating a suffocating atmosphere, and the cryptic lyrics that might very well be excerpts of the diary of a mad person. If you don't know how to dance to this type of electronic music, you might want to review his video with Radiohead for Lotus Flower.
THE GREATEST
Lana del Rey
6
Present looks dystopian and apocalyptic. In between climate change, white supremacism, riots for human rights and fascist regimes, the decade is ending on a very low note. But the falldown of modernity revealed Lana del Rey as a solid poetic voice in music, and The Greatest is her goodbye letter for the last day of the world.
If nostalgia has always been a trademark in her lyrics, here we find her longing for the past reaching a peak point. She claims "I want shit to feel like just it used to", but far from wanting the old conservative times when fascist claim America was "great", it's a sorrow for those times (like four years ago) when we took for granted that things could only get better and more liberal. The Greatest is her embrace to all of us who suddenly got hit by reality and questioning if we could have done more to avoid getting here.
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NOT
Big Thief
5
Big Thief has always had an ease for recounting the small details, to find the hidden meanings among them and to put them in beautiful words in a sort of stream of consciousness. But Not is the strongest departure from their style, first of all, we're dealing with a more poetic and less narrative lyricism, and through negate a list of things (the meat of your thigh, your spine tattoo) is that all those details take corporeality.
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It is also the rawest performance in their catalogue. There's so much rage and emotion that tries to be contained but eventually overflows in the exact moment when Adrianne Lenker breaks saying that "it's not the hunger revealing". That same state of feral emotions is replicated in the unpolished instrumentation, that is elongated when words just won't be enough to keep holding to a memory.
EARFQUAKE
Tyler, the Creator
4
The first time you listen to Earfquake, you might have totally disbelief that it was a song by Tyler, the Creator. One might wanted to check if it was a mistake and it was actually André 3000 or Anderson .Paak instead, since the sensibility and emotional depth of the track didn't correlated at all with Tyler's though rapper persona.
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But yes, indeed, the man who has been banned from playing in several countries in the past because of his sexist and homophobic lyrics, decided to have a 180 degrees change in style and embraced soul music to plead forgiveness to a lover, who, in the context of the album, might be, who would have guessed, another man. So, yet again, when rappers decide to cut ties with toxic masculinity, magic finally starts happening.
JUICE
Lizzo
3
No other person had as much fun doing music this year than Lizzo. Juice should have been the centerpiece of any good party this year, it's so infectious and danceable that no one can resist shaking their body to this banger. An updated 10's version of Destiny's Child's Bootylicious, Juice is sassy and uplifting in a way that infects self-confidence to everyone, but this time it also carries a strong message of body positivity.
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Lizzo's charisma is on full display, and Juice is full of one-liners ready to be stealth for your next Instagram post showing skin, but from them all, "If I'm shining, everybody's gonna shine" reflects better how her fabulous self will be able to inspire so many women that traditionally don't fit in magazine's cover to own the sexiness of their existence.
CELLOPHANE
FKA Twigs
2
It's striking how simple Cellophane sounds, a piano as the base and then a few other instruments and effects making brief (but precise) appearances. But above all, this song is entirely Twigs doing vocal contortions and pouring all her soul and vulnerability in these verses about all the insecurities she had in a relationship that was constantly on the public eye, how dating a top star actor felt like sharing her love and been judged all the time.
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For an artist who is at the foreground in the pop avant-garde explorations, a track like Cellophane means baring your art from all artifice and show that you are very well able to craft something organic that is deep and meaningful; in that aspect, Cellophane is to her what Wish You Were Here was for Pink Floyd.
SEVENTEEN
Sharon Van Etten
1
The climax of the film has passed, the main character has learned that what she wanted all along wasn't really what she needed, but now she's smiling because she has found her place in the world. That's the exact moment when the first chords of Seventeen start, right before cutting to the final credits.
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That's the level of monumental of this track, packed with hope and nostalgia, a song that is able to transform us into a more mature version of ourselves while reminding us of all the fun and all the tears that happened on the path that led to this exact moment. Sharon Van Etten just delivered one of the mast powerful rock songs of the decade, one that feels so liberating while singing it at the top of your lungs, that you can exactly remember the euphoria of being seventeen.
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