Music & Films for
Common People
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100
ROCKY TRAIL
Kings of Convenience
99
ALEUMDAUM SESANG (아름다운 세상)
Parannoul (파란노을)
98
SOLAR POWER
Lorde
97
MOVE
Flight Facilities feat. Drama
96
VBS
Lucy Dacus
95
I SUCK THE DEVIL'S COCK
Spirit of the Beehive
94
THE OTHER BLACK DOG
Genesis Owusu
93
DOWN
St. Vincent
92
MONTERO (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME)
Lil Nas X
91
I DO THIS ALL THE TIME
Self Esteem
90
DON'T JUDGE ME
FKA Twigs feat. Headie One & Fred Again...
89
UNISIL
Sophie
88
DRAMA
Erika de Casier
87
TRŪKSTA RAMYBĖS
Jautì
86
PICK UP YOUR FEELINGS
Jazmine Sullivan
85
CONTROL
Mannequin Pussy
84
HIVER
Iosonouncane
83
PARKING LOT
The Weather Station
82
WEIGHTS
Bartees Strange
81
ALL FUTURES
The Armed
80
SICK BITCH
LSDXOXO
79
COOL COLORADO
La Femme
78
WHITE ELEPHANT
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
77
WOMAN
Little Simz feat. Cleo Sol
76
JOUR 1
Hildegard
75
DON'T GO PUTTIN WISHES IN MY HEAD
Torres
74
MANY TIMES
Dijon
73
TEXT BOOK
Lana del Rey
72
SAY WHAT YOU WILL
James Blake
71
BEN FRANKLIN
Snail Mail
70
CHEERS
Faye Webster
69
VENDETTA
Iceage
68
AMOEBA
Clairo
67
FELLOWSHIP
Serpentwithfeet
66
DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT ME
Bad Boy Chiller Crew
65
LOST YOU
Snoh Aalegra
64
SECRETS (YOUR FIRE)
Magdalena Bay
63
RAINFOREST
Noname
62
MENNESKEKOLLEKTIVET
Lost Girls
61
JACKIE
Yves Tumor
60
LITTLE THINGS
Big Thief
59
WORKING FOR THE KNIFE
Mitski
58
DON'T LEAVE JUST YET
Holly Humberstone
57
GEMINI AND LEO
Helado Negro
56
23
Cleo Sol
55
UNSMART LADY
Dry Cleaning
54
DAYS LIKE THESE
Low
53
XIU
Yu Su
52
BETTER
Joy Orbison feat. Léa Sen
51
OXYTOCIN
Billie Eilish
50
BRUJA
Arca
The opening track of Arca's third album in the Kick series is disruptive from opening to end, a full display of the imagination and fierceness that she is capable to evoke, like a Witch, in an industrial dancehall madness.
49
GOT ME
Laura Mvula
Mvula is one of those artists that in spite of having the voice, the creativity, and the personality, somehow music magic eludes them. So with this full reinvention: a funkier and more daring sound, she might finally get there.
48
BUNNY IS A RIDER
Caroline Polachek
The sexiest sound of Polachek comes in R&B tropical rhythms that are in debt to Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody? (baby coos samples and all). It is also a song about freedom and not being tied by nothing and no one.
47
JUST FOR ME
Pinkpantheress
Just For Me is a song that only an artist that emerged from Tik-Tok could have made. To start, it is uniquely DIY to the point that synths sound the way pixels would, and the cutesy voice could very well be from Siri or Alexa.
46
ALL I NEED
Jayda G
Canadian electronic producer Jayda G keeps releasing a streak of sleek dance-tunes that we just can't wait to hear what a full album will bring. If All I Need is a clue, we could be expecting dancefloor magic.
45
KAITEN・TENSHI (回転・天使)
Betcover!!
Japanese for "Rotation-Angel", it is a track that starts as an elegant and slow-paced melancholic rock ballad, but when the disruptive guitar appears after two minutes, the emotion of loneliness and despair only deepens.
44
PLEASE
Jessie Ware
If 2020 was the year that Jessie Ware claimed the throne of indie disco queen, Please (her epilogue to What's Your Pleasure?) is her promise to keep feeding us pristine danceable bangers for our nights out.
43
THE SERVER IS IMMERSED
Spirit of the Beehive
On an album so full of ideas and chaotic experimentation, a shoegaze ballad like The Server is Immersed comes as a moment of respite, a board to hold on to before the next wave hits you to confuse where's up and down.
42
JUSTIFIED
Kacey Musgraves
We all know someone who got divorced during the pandemic, a moment that forced us all to reevaluate our life. Musgrave experienced that, and in Justified she pours all the conflicting emotions that came after separation.
41
TON NOM
Météo Mirage
Imagine Chris Isaak's Wicked Game with added 80's synths and sung in French and you'll get something close to Ton Nom, a very sexy and suave track for an intimate dance that'll probably lead somewhere else.
40
THE HOLDING HAND
Iceage
Opening with tinkling wind chimes, The Holding Hand finds Iceage at their most poetic and existential, so when at two-thirds of the song the climax arrives, they are shouting at a "limp wristed god" for complicated answers.
39
HOLD U
Indigo de Souza
In an album full of grunge songs about complicated emotions, Hold U is a departure, a poppier love letter to her friends, a promise to be there for each other and to be a safe space of kindness and mutual growth.
38
I GO
Peggy Gou
On I Go, Peggy Gou keeps cementing the place of Korean electronic music as one of the biggest successes of the last years. Now with drum machines and a heavy 90s dance influence, her mantra to keep going is propulsive.
37
HEAD CHEERLEADER
Pom Pom Squad
Cheerleaders tend to represent the most cherished version of American feminity, that's why slasher films and rock bands are vicious with them. Mia Berrin queers the thrope, making this a grunge quest to defy identities.
36
TASTE TEST
Cakes da Killa feat. Proper Villains
Cakes and Proper Villains are a great complement to each other, a glorious mix of queer rap and 90s eurodance (yes we're looking at you, 20 Fingers' Lick It), that should have everybody vogueing immediately.
35
MYSTERY
Turnstile
The vocal approach to Mystery is from big arenas rock-bands, so the "And it's been so long" sounds almost anthemic; yet, the music tells a different story, much more distorted and punkish, with fairy synths to open and close.
34
HOPE
Arlo Parks
While most of her album is devoted to comfort lyrics, Hope might be the most direct one. Parks sings "You're not alone like you think you are", and the message is supported by the warm and sunny semi-jazzy instrumentation.
33
YOU COULD BE
Anz feat. George Riley
For those of us who are ready (and allowed) to go back to a nightclubs, this track is everything that we dreamed during lockdown, propulsive electronics full of sparkling accentuated synths and cutesy flirtatious lyrics.
32
BRUTAL
Olivia Rodrigo
A Disney Channel teenage star that sings "Who am I if not exploited?" while sounding like Elastica? Sign us up for that! Rodrigo makes sure that the opening track in her debut album is the most subversive of the lot.
31
ATLANTIC
The Weather Station
Tamara Linderman is watching the most beautiful sunset while she wonders if that idea of "focusing on the beauty of life" is actually attainable when we know the devastation that is going around in the world.
30
SEND ME
Tirzah
For most of its length, the instrumentation is a repetition of drumbeats and looped guitar riffs while Tirzah delivers cryptic lines about healing, but right at the end, a distorted guitar is there to take us out of the otherworld trance.
29
TO BE LOVED
Adele
"Let it be known that I tried" might be the most personal and abrassive piece of lyrics that Adele has written since "We could have had it all". She only needs a minimal piano and her colossal voice to bring tears to our eyes.
28
DOGMA
Circuit des Yeux
It's thrilling to watch an obscure art project trying a more approachable sound without losing an ounce of sophistication and sense of innovation. Almost a rock opera, it's driven by a base of drums and psych guitar.
27
AN ITERATION
The Armed
An Iteration takes a piss on intellectual white male saviors with their cunning remarks. But the hardcore noise rock they are playing is brutal and builds the tension, stoping only to remark that our white darling has "done it again".
26
CHAISE LONGUE
Wet Leg
One of the most promising bands to follow close on 2022, Wet Leg delivers energetic indie rock with witty lyrics full of sexual innuendos. Now, would you like someone to be assigned to butter your muffin?
25
BOTTLE EPISODE
Mandy, Indiana
War is never mentioned in the lyrics, but the grim references of men marching and dancing under the bullets are a clear indication of the macabre topic they are targeting. More than that, the pulsating drums and ominous guitar inflame the anxiety and sense of danger.
24
THUMBS
Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus shares a story of being there with a friend on a catch-up with their estranged father. She is brutal at expressing her wishes to harm him to ease the friend's hurt feelings, but also offers comfort and reassures that no one owes shit to such a horrible person.
23
GUIDED BY ANGELS
Amyl & the Sniffers
Not the average punk song, Guided by Angels is about spirituallity and finding your inner energy. But that doesn't mean that the guitars are any softer or the beat slower, it is a propulsive track that offers raw energy to the prospect of understanding your own metaphysical truth.
22
INTROVERT
Little Simz
She might claim to be an Introvert, but musically this is the biggest and boldest that Simz has ever sound. With big arrangements that are almost the trumpets in the Book of Revelation, she fires verses that attack the colonial oppression and double standars of modern day.
21
THE ONLY HEARTBREAKER
Mitski
Is Mitski about to transform herself in an 80's synthpop diva in her upcoming album? The Only Heartbreaker is a departure in style, and an exciting prospect for the new possibilities in her sound. Almost in 8-bit frenzy, Mitski indulges on self-blaming for a failed relationship.
20
NARRATOR
Squid feat. Martha Skye Murphy
Invoking Talking Heads' chopped vocal delivery over Foals' crisp mathrock bassline, Narrator is a funky trip of 8 mins. and a half that breaks structure on several occasions to keep things interesting and eventually takes you to a frenetic release of energy through repetition.
19
CHAERI
Magdalena Bay
Chaeri is a new way of retrofuturism, not fixated with the 70's flying cars but with the Y2K digital world of the late 90's, with the undulating synths making you feel like floating on the world wide web. Meanwhile, lyrics wonder if you could have been a better friend for someone in need.
18
LA PERLA
Sofia Kourtesis
Could it be Sofia Kourtesis the best thing that has happened to Peruvian music since Los Saicos allegedly invented punk back in the 60s? La Perla is a warm embrace of danceable electronic music full of tenderness about two people going through hard times together.
17
TAKE MY BREATH
The Weeknd
Faithful to his "living on the edge of sex and debauchery" persona, Tesfaye writes about erotic suffocation on a track that takes the best of Modorer's disco. Daft Punk might have disbanded, but here's The Weeknd ready to keep the legacy of synth music playing in clubs.
16
HARD DRIVE
Cassandra Jenkins
Jenkins talks (yes, not sings, talks) about several random encounters with people, including a security guard and a driving instructor, that briefly gave some insight in the world and in herself, while a sax and a soft guitar help us to enter her trance of healing and self-discovery.
15
MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA
Illuminati Hotties
A song which main strength is the chaos that the title suggests. After some broken chords, Tudzin defies with "You think I'm interesting, don't you?", and oh dear, she delivers with that ramble that jumps from marketing strategies to telephone customer service and sexual kinks
14
GOOD 4 U
Olivia Rodrigo
We all have been there, at 18 (or maybe embarrasingly older than that) with a heart broken, cursing our ex for our missery. Yet, in this time when rock feels so out of media favour, that Rodrigo chose to embrace her inner Shirley Manson to do so, feels subversive and inspired.
13
SCRATCHCARD LANYARD
Dry Cleaning
Taken from a Tampax ad, the mantra "Do Everything, Feel Nothing" felt very apt for a second year of a global pandemic, specially when Florence Shaw's dead-pan rendition is paired to the gloomy new-wave bassline and references to bouncy balls in different Instagram filters.
12
WHITE DRESS
Lana del Rey
Lana's new-found obsession with the colour white might be a bit cringe, given her racial-deaf comments, but White Dress is undeniably top del Rey poetry. That way in which she queezes the "Men in Music Business Conference" in an impossible short space is proof of her sensibilities.
11
MOHABBAT
Arooj Aftab
Hindi for "Love", Mohabbat finds Aftab singing melancholic verses about how "This sadness is equal to all the sadness in the world". But although her piercing voice is right at the front, the beautiful folk instrumentation is fitting for the timeless devastation of a broken heart.
10
THE BEACHLAND BALLROOM
Idles
On a track that deals with frontman Joe Talbot's road to recovery from trauma of a near-death experience, the band transform themselves in the prom entertainers that are offering a slow dance. But soon, the tension build and this picture perfect moment is broken by dirty guitar riffs and Talbot's existential angst screaming "Damage! Damage!". It's a track that hits hard by twisting and derailing expectations.
9
I KNOW I'M FUNNY HA HA
Faye Webster
Webster's title track on her newest album goes in a stream of consciousness about her relationship: moving in together but not telling the landlord, awkward encounters with the partner's sister, getting him a guitar like the Linkin Park dude's. But in her ironic way of doing so, she even lacks the existential dread of Courtney Barnett or Father John Misty, she just knows she is funny (haha) and a great storyteller.
8
TUNNEL
Polo & Pan (feat. Channel Tres)
Most of French electronic producers Polo & Pan's first album is a collection of pleasant but inoffensive synth tracks to listen while you're lying next to a swimming pool. That's not the case of Tunnel, an infectious dance track that could very well could have playd at Gaspar Noe's hellish Climax movie. They enlist Channel Tres at the vocals, getting an hypnotic quality when paired with the frantic bassline.
7
SHELTER SONG
Iceage
Shelter Song is placed as the opening track of Iceage's latest album just to show how much a transformation they went through, not only by creating something that could resemble a rock anthem (including a full gospel chorus), but also by offering new lyrical perspectives. Don't get us wrong, the pessimism towards life is still there, but now they offer a warm embrace while you're laying on the floor defeated by it all.
6
I DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
The War on Drugs (feat. Lucius)
The War on Drugs' music has a nostalgic quality intrinsically attached to it, but I Don't Live Here Anymore takes a full plunge on past memories just to find out that the emotional space that we thought we re living in doesn't resamble our reality, a feeling that we all can relate during pandemic times. And we dare you to find a track this year that made you feel more nostalgic about watching rock music live
5
AFRIQUE VICTIME
Mdou Moctar
Mahamadou Souleymane sings in French and Tamasheq (a variant of Tuareg language spoken in Mali, his home country) about the many woes that Africa has gone, from colonialism to dictators, and that have choked generation after generation of African people. But this political song is only propelled to the highest levels of rock music thanks to that insane and frenetic masterful use of the guitar.
4
LIKE I USED TO
Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen
Both Van Etten and Olsen have consistently delivered superb indie rock albums on their own and they have even managed to craft anthemic rock songs like "Seventeen" or "Shut Up Kiss Me", and their collaboration just builds on what they both have achieved, a combination of their superpowers to remind us how powerful a good rock ballad could be, and how sorority can only make two obscure rockers into icons.
3
JOHN L
Black Midi
John L (pronounced John Fifty, as in Roman numerals) is ecstatic and excessive, it's chaotic and grandiloquent, it's disruptive and colossal. A frenetic baseline sets the tone for following the mad cult of a nationalist preacher (not that we could think of one of those nowadays, right?), and although the vocal delivery is dead-pan neutral, they manage to create such frenzy that when they stop in its tracks, we're shaking.
2
VALENTINE
Snail Mail
Anyone who is old enough to understand how crushes work knew that back in 2018 when Lindsey Jordan sang "I'll never love anyone else", that was a lie. Three years later, she is back with a new heartbreak, but now rather than emo sadness, there's a sense of uncontrollable anger when she erupts asking "Why'd you wanna erase me?. More synths are included, but the powerful guitar still reigns in her new ache.
1
BE SWEET
Japanese Breakfast
Michelle Zauner gave her career a sharp turn from indie rock to slick 80's inspired synthpop. Be Sweet is a catchy plead for kindness for a lover that needs to step up their game because, in spite of the lies and wrongdoings, we still have hope for things to get better with an ultimatum. A bubbly bass beat and a catchy chorus make this the perfect anthem for a group sing-along for the return of music festivals.