Music & Films for
Common People
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100
polaroid
cloth
99
looking at engines
font
98
godspeed <
verraco
97
sick of the blues
porridge radio
96
air drumming fix you
wild pink
95
million dollar baby
tommy richman
94
juna
clairo
93
one night / all night
justice feat. tame impala
92
police scanner
chanel beads
91
neon signs
the weather station
90
bodyguard
beyoncé
89
del oro
floating points
88
flaws
les amazones d'afrique
87
crispy skin
squid
86
silence is loud
nia archives
85
spinning
julia holter
84
gaucho
alex anwandter
83
gift horse
idles
82
image
magdalena bay
81
bon bon
fcukers
80
method actor
nilüfer yanya
79
football
youth lagoon
78
diet pepsi
addison rae
77
uma
xiexie
76
drop me out
high vis
75
nothing like
mannequin pussy
74
sympathy is a knife
charli xcx
73
brown paper bag
diiv
72
company culture
lambrini girls
71
leash
sky ferreira
70
defense
panda bear feat. cindy lee
69
patterns
laura marling
68
love me jeje
tems
67
i'm all fucked up
this is lorelei
66
vintage
moses sumney
65
never need me
rachel chinouriri
64
friend of a friend
the smile
63
training season
dua lipa
62
that's how i'm feeling
jack white
61
love deluxe
yuga
60
club classics
charli xcx
59
she's leaving you
mj lenderman
58
rimel
girl ultra
57
birds of a feather
billie eilish
56
hand on me
nourished by time
55
saturn
sza
54
all your children
jamie xx feat. the avalanches
53
truth or dare
tyla
52
waterworks
1010benja
51
screamland
father john misty
50
good luck, babe!
chappell roan
49
like i say (i run away)
nilüfer yanya
48
bye bye
kim gordon
47
lorelei
empress of
46
sexy to someone
clairo
45
bad news
hovvdy
44
booboo
yaeji
43
nowy świat
coals
42
alesis
mk.gee
41
capricorn
vampire weekend
40
sadness as a gift
adrianne lenker
39
hwang-geumbich gang
parannoul
38
espresso
sabrina carpenter
37
the last year
jessica pratt
36
clairbourne practice
julie
35
mokili
kokoko!
34
holy, holy
geordie greep
33
life
jamie xx feat. robyn
32
reckless
kassie krutt
31
all i want is you
cindy lee
30
only one
cassandra jenkins
29
bandahlak
dina el wedidi
28
right back to it
waxahatchee feat. mj lenderman
27
floating on a moment
beth gibbons
26
classical
vampire weekend
Although it is unclear if Fratti is singing to herself or to someone else, it all carries a sense of insecurity and fear of impostor syndrome. It is a beguiling experience that keeps finding creative ways to use the cello to push the song forward. Certainly, this is Guatemala's finest export.
25
enfrente
mabe fratti
In paper sounds like an impossible contradiction: a track about a tropical beach but with a PC music production? León and De Casier make it happen! By changing beats and introducing a bouncy bass, we are suddenly in an island paradise created with virtual reality.
24
bikini
nick león feat. erika de casier
Every St. Vincent's new release comes with the promise of reinvention. In this new iteration, we face the most aggressive industrial side of Annie Clark. Above it all, it is a very welcomed return to guitars as the focal point of her music, which has always been her strongest asset.
23
broken man
st. vincent
The politics of sex have become tricky for progressive women. Yes, they are very ready to explore their sexuality, but on the other hand, the pool of lovers who are not pricks is increasingly scarce. Debice plays that contradiction: I came for sex, but mind what you say because I bite.
22
loud bark
mannequin pussy
The dark synths that immediately transport you to an underground venue in a cold city of the former soviet block accompany lyrics of tragic romanticism. It is a full vibe, and Molchat Doma really capitalized on becoming viral to move towards becoming a band of cult.
21
ty zhe ne znaesh kto ya
molchat doma
It made sense that Favourite was the final track of Romance, an album that could be overbearing with anxiety needed this positive note to remember that in a world that keeps bringing you down, there's always that favourite person that's able to make it feel that it all is worthy.
20
favourite
fontaines d.c.
It would be unfair to say that, on her 5 year career, Jane Remover hasn't had small successes, but it is only now that she feels ready for her real breakthrough. Here, she channels all her previous experimentations on a solid synth-pop-rock track with a powerful hook that stays with you.
19
magic i want you
jane remover
Funny enough, FKA Twigs is more surprising on a muted track like Cellophane because it's out of character. Eusexua is the kind of track you come to expect from an artist of her calibre: innovative, derranged and highly sexually charged. Either way, she always has us in our toes.
18
eusexua
fka twigs
If you haven't noticed, the distance between genders is widening, and MJ Lenderman tackles the "alpha male" idea sold by right wing podcasters on a track that just shows a guy so desperate for attention that ends up being ostracized from the world he wants to impress.
17
wristwatch
mj lenderman
We all know that Regina George is evil and the whole point of Mean Girls is a criticism on that self-centered superficiality, but somehow we can't help to idolize that behaviour. Tracks as good as 360 don't help on that deconstruction of the "queen bee", but fuck, how good they can be.
16
360
charli xcx
What a way to introduce yourself! With a corny opening that almost channels Romeo and Juliet, she is quickly ready to subvert expectations and fully transform the track in an infectious club banger that tackles how the pop industry chews and exploits young women.
15
angel of my dreams
jade
He proved that he could keep adding instrumental experimentations and be on the top of the avant-garde game if he wants, but when you pen a line like "nothing's really happened like I thought it would", it was imperative that he would strip his sound to the core folk of his debut.
14
speyside
bon iver
If it's true that Kingdom Come is the sweetest and more cheerful moment in Diamond Jubilee, take that statement with a pinch of salt, as there's still an uncanny sense creeping with its commitment to vintage, almost a sense of merry phantoms trapped in limbo without realising it.
13
kingdom come
cindy lee
We don't need to be fluent in Urdu to get the feeling of longing and melancholy that Aftab pours in her heart-felt interpretation. Translated as "Queen of the night", Raat Ki Rani is also the name of a Pakistani flower that is only fragrant at night, evoking images of fantasy legends.
12
raat ki rani
arooj aftab
Josh Tillman has toyed with big band instrumentation before, but here her takes it one level further in grandiloquence, with saxophone, bongos and organ. And his performance matches the energy for this existential diatribe that hits hard with his usual nihilism.
11
i guess time just makes fools of us all
father john misty
Is it just us feeling that there's a dryness on the synthpop scene that was so fertile 10 years ago? On a year that was a a heavy contrast between 'brat' maximalism and a look towards motown and country, a track like Death and Romance sounds a bit out of place. We're still grateful for it existence, a propulsive pop beat charged with sour bubblegum infectiousness that gets us hooked immediately.
10
death and romance
magdalena bay
Are you telling me that this is how a new band is able to sound? Many indie bands only can dream about reaching that level of masterful instrumentation and introspective lyricism on their second decade. The way they built the emotional crescendo of the track is designed to contrast the gloomy self-examination of wasting time in an unhappy place and promise that "where we go from here" will be brighter.
9
where we've been
friko
A band that has already been sounding "epic" for the last 40 years somehow managed to sound even "epic-er" with a portentous three minutes instrumental opening that sounds like the procession to the other-world. They have already promised, at least, two more new albums, but in an alternative world, this would be the dream opening track for a farewell album that makes justice to the legendary status of the band.
8
alone
the cure
We cannot really say that this was our first glance at what it means to be "Brat" since she's been hinting at it since she penned a line like "I crashed my car into a bridge and watch it let it burn" back in 2012. Yet, Von Dutch did introduced us to the cultural event of the year: an ode to being over the top, with a saturated sound and total Y2K nostalgia. This is the peak moment of club bliss, and was only the beginning.
7
von dutch
charli xcx
This is what maturity sounds like. Although there was nothing wrong with the energetic sound of the likes of "You, Me, Dancing!", you can tell that time and experience had a truly positive impact, and the seven year hiatus was well used to craft something as marvelous, and even cinematic, with visions of feasting on tongues to the sound of the national anthem of a destroyed country in a forgotten language.
6
feast of tongues
los campesinos!
If Starbuster wasn't claustrophobic enough with its hip-hop production that has Grian Chatten spitting menacing verses, it is his loud breathes in between lines what punctuates the sense of anxiety. On a year that had us all really grasping for air with every new turn of the farse of watching live a genocide and a serial election of fascists, it's hard to think of a track that better captured the general mood of 2024.
5
starbuster
fontaines d.c.
Is punk a type of music or a spirit? Because if it is the latter, there's no more punk band in the world right now than Mdou Moctar. A new politically charged anthem that criticizes African leaders for subjugating to the interests of France and the United States, it carries the aggressiveness of the lyrics on electrifying guitar riffs that make a case for placing Souleymane as one of the most gifted guitarists in the world.
4
funeral for justice
mdou moctar
Don't you miss those years in the 2000s when a random band would just come out of nowhere with an infectious indie banger that was ready to be played at the trendiest parties in town? Fcukers just returned us to those days by a mad sampling of Beck's 'Devil's Haircut'. Only time will tell if they'll put a full album as worthy as this teaser, but the promise for a great time in the club is already in the table.
3
homie don't shake
fcukers
A drummer and a bassist? A drummer and a bassist! It's impressive how much this additions are able to transform Jessica Prat's sound and transport it to a few decades back, to a ballroom in the 60's, where couples still dance hand to hand to a suave rock ballad. Still, her poetry about the pass of time still is able to remind us who Pratt has always been, and that she was destined for this kind of success.
2
life is
jessica pratt
When an artist releases a new version of their hits with the guest appearance of another hitmaker, it only means one thing: they want to keep miking the cow for as long as they can as long as it proves to be profitable. We're not going to imply that this wasn't the case of Charli XCX's re-versioning all her 'Brat' songs, specially when her marketing campaign success story is already being heavily studied within the music industry. Yet, when almost every of this "surprise" collaborations tend to add nothing to the original track (and this is true for over half of Brat's re-versions), with 'Girl, so confusing' we're facing an exceptional event.
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On an album which one of it's most obvious criticisms is how little it has to say about anything that is not creating the "brat persona", it quickly stood out as the one meaningful track that painted a very relatable picture of how difficult is to create female friendships in a society that systematically puts women to compete against each other. And because in the 20's pop scene a song cannot be about an idea, but actually should have a name and a face attached to it, the speculations about who this other "girl" was started to spread quite quickly. If the story of Charli sending a text to Lorde right before the release of the song to explain how she felt about her is true or just story in her brilliant marketing, it's irrelevant at this point.
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Lorde's inclusion was the perfect touch to elevate this song to legendary. It lands the point of the track with such clarity but also a real poetic subtleness: no matter if we're opposite in every single aspect of our artistry, if our hair looks similar we're going to be compared. When Lorde jumps in to respond to Charli's insecurities about how she's seen, she is able to offer her own perspective about how, in her view, it is Charli the uber-cool party-woman who is out of reach. They both are, at least, conscious enough of the potential this "frenemy ship" could offer them for the marketing purposes. And girl, they were so right.
1
the girl, so confusing version with lorde
charli xcx feat. lorde