Music & Films for
Common People
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MOTIVATION
Normani
25
Normani seems to want to join the club of rare people, like Justin Timberlake and Harry Styles, that departed plastic teen groups to make interesting music on their own. Motivation has the energy and excitement of early Beyoncé, as she shoots for bubbly hip pop.
ALL MIRRORS
Angel Olsen
24
A ghostly track that is a recreation of Badalamenti's Twin Peaks dream-pop, All Mirrors is the confrontation of diffused synths with sharp string arrangements. Although her performance is intense and cracks, she has never been more in control of her sound.
ABOUT WORK THE DANCEFLOOR
Georgia
23
Like tasting a good wine, when you savour About Work the Dancefloor, all the aromas and flavours start becoming slowly visible. There's New Order nostalgic electropop, there's Robyn vulnerable stamina, and Depeche Mode 80's groove. What an enjoyable cocktail!
INCAPABLE
Róisín Murphy
22
After almost 25 years of a career in synthpop music, Róisín Murphy still knows how to drag us to the dancefloor. Incapable is a sleek deep-house track of eight minutes where she elegantly flattens her performance to be a sassy disco diva unavailable for love.
CAPACITY
Charly Bliss
21
Playful indie rock about being burned for trying to be a crowd pleaser, it is bubbly in the surface but has a kick in the base. Witty lyrics that you seldomly find in pop-rock, Capacity is a contrast between the overwhelmed lyrics, the backdrop guitars and the chirpy melody.
SAD DAY
FKA Twigs
20
A cinematic piece about the fade of love that leads to a separation. Sad Day is a journey from the merry monotony to the despair of being abandoned, the flame is death, but still there's a plead for "make a wish on my love" while a digital glitch rain pours over them.
HARMONY HALL
Vampire Weekend
19
Although the lyrics are cryptic, it's clearly one of the most political songs in their repertoire, and knowing their support for Bernie Sanders, we might all know very well who are the "wicked snakes inside a place you thought was dignified".
DRUNK II
Mannequin Pussy
18
Rock music is full of songs about getting drunk to forget someone, but what sets Drunk II apart is that it posses the rare tragic and pathetic suffering of Amy Winehouse, only that with a dirtier sound. There's urgency in the sound to mirror the anxiety of the broken heart.
TRUE BLUE
Mark Ronson feat. Angel Olsen
17
Ronson favoured collaborations with celebrities like Miley Cyrus or Camila Cabello to be the singles, but True Blue is the statement that beyond the marketing, he is able to craft perfect synthpop songs and is aware of the best artists to collaborate with.
DAWN CHORUS
Thom Yorke
16
Dawn Chorus stands out in Anima by how different it is to the rest. After the emotional drain of heavy techno, Yorke takes a pause to reflect on the things he would have changed if he had a second chance in life. Could this be called an electronic ballad, maybe?
ALMEDA
Solange feat. Playboi Carti & The Dream
15
Almeda is a celebration of black and brown identities, a call to reclaim the pride in her roots and owning the beauty in their culture. Solange recovers "chopped and screwed" a hip-hop style born in her hometown, to emphasize the idea of embracing your origins.
ASHES TO ASHES
Jenny Hval
14
A goddess of obscure experimental music going full synthpop? Yes, and it is beautiful! In Hval's hands there's a sense of uncanny in the familiar shiny synths and catchy hooks, she breaks conventions and uses them to write about the corporeal side of dying.
BOYS IN THE BETTER LAND
Fontaines D.C.
13
"You're not alive until you start kicking" is the opening line, and the urgent guitar riffs don't lie: they are kicking hard. Challenging chauvinism in their homeland, Ireland, with a punk riotous track that is energetic and defying.
LARK
Angel Olsen
12
Angel Olsen goes orchestral to portray the harsh realities of relationships. The person that we love the most will always be the one that we hurt (and hurts us) the most. A portentous heartbreak when the infatuation is over and we start seeing each other for who we are.
GONE
Charli XCX feat. Christine and the Queens
11
When Charli said that she wanted to go back to 1999, she wasn't joking at all. Gone is pure 90s pop energy, and the inclusion of Christine hints as how cool it would have been a duet between Britney Spears and Janet Jackson twenty years ago.