5 Songs I Love (at the moment)
Every bitch with a pair of Audio-Technicas and a SubStack thinks they're the most valid and intellectual music critic of all time...
I’ve been in a real “listening to music” phase recently.
I’m always listening to music, but I’m not always listening to music. Does that make sense? I go through swings where I don’t really think too much about what I’m listening to. I'll have my headphones on during subway rides and my speaker on while I’m studying at home but the music will fizzle out of my consciousness pretty quickly after it hits my ears. Other times, like right now, I go through swings where I listen to music with so much intensity you’d think that I was discovering sound for the first time. Every song I stream suddenly becomes the most life changing piece of media I’ve ever had blessed upon me, and I just want to talk everyone’s ears off over how fucking good my music taste is. My Instagram followers are probably starting to get sick of how many songs I post on my story a day, and my friends are starting to get annoyed at how often I ask for aux. So now I’m here, rambling about my recent favourite songs to whoever is willing to hear me out.
These are 5 songs I’ve had on repeat recently! Let me know your thoughts on them. I hope you love them as much as I do.
1. Television Show (live) - Ethan P Flynn + Black Country, New Road
The moment I first heard this song, it felt as though it had somehow borrowed from my ears, through my body, making a pit in my stomach. Television Show (Live) is a stand-alone 2021 collaboration between London-based musician Ethan P Flynn and Cambridge rock band Black Country, New Road. In this live version of Flynns original 2020 release, Black Country New Road’s incredible instrumentation turns this song from a mellow electro pop vignette into an epic experimental rock stage-play. With Flynn’s raw and emotional vocal performance at centre stage, heavy and flushed guitar and drums wash up in waves throughout the song's first half, drunkenly swaying between both brash desperation and jazz-infused heartbreak from verse to chorus. Flynn ruminates on the loss of his lover, expressing his disbelief at the end of their relationship while upsetting himself in the search to see her again.
“Thought I saw her in the film / Or on the television show / As I lie, I lie so still /I never thought you'd really go”
While every element of this song is so special and important in painting the track’s harrowing colour, the impeccable brass performance is my personal stand out of the track. The simple, catchy and sombre 4 note trumpet line is the backbone of the piece, centring the orbit of the soundscape. The song flies off of its rails in its second act, with an instrumental breakdown comparable to an emotional one of the same spiralling nature. Flynn’s vocals roughen and darken as brass and guitar unravel and crash into each other, climaxing as Flynn hysterically declares to the audience “For my last trick / For my last trick / For my last trick / Folks / Folks / Folks…”
The song breathes deeply towards its ending, with percussion crashing loudly to a slower pace as if recovering from having just run a marathon. The 4 note brass line returns, rounding out this incredible three-act melodrama. As much of a story as it is a song, Television Show (Live) is undoubtedly one of my favourite songs I’ve discovered in the past year.
An absolute gem of a performance that deserves endless flowers.
2. Honey - Shygirl (prod. Shygirl & Vegyn)
Since her debut, Shygirl has breathed a fresh and exciting air into the electronic music scene. In a league entirely of her own, Shygirl has mastered the marriage of rap and club, old and new electronic influences, and subtle sensuality with brash and oozing sex appeal. Her 2022 project Nymph is Shygirl’s ode to the club, with each track serving as its own unique exploration of a sound found within the electronic landscape. From Poison’s eurodance elements reminiscent of the 2010’s hit Stereo Love, to Wildfire’s skittish vocals and quick timid beat which feels like Shy’s personal twist on many hyperpop trends, the album has a sound for everyone.
Every song on the album is incredible and the project was one of my personal favourites of last year. However, the one track I always find myself returning to is Honey. A more understated cut from the mix, the song may not immediately stand out among some of the more high energy moments on the album. Sandwiched between high tempo dance tracks, Honey is the smoke break outside the nightclub with the lover you’ve been eyeing all night. Intimate, suggestive, subtle but no less charged, Honey stands out by standing back.
“I need somebody who's gonna remind me what I came for / What I came for / Easy, that's what I call it / Please be more than I wanted”
The track is an atmospheric enigma; both warm and chilling, sultry with a tinge of woe. Shygirl’s reverb-soaked vocals swirl like a siren song atop haunting synths, as a punching garage beat pulses through the haze to round out the track. Honey’s vocals, synths and percussion blend into each other so seamlessly, providing a velvet texture in a tracklist of cool metal. The song is pure ambience, comforting and cosy while maintaining a dark mystique. Like a whispered confession, Honey is a secret that sticks with you, constantly replaying itself in your mind.
3. Princess Diana - Ice Spice (Prod. RiotUSA)
What is there to say about Ice Spice that hasn’t been said already? It feels like everyone and their mother has given their two-cents on the internet’s newest darling, with sentiments ranging from her being the worst artist to hit the industry in recent years to others viewing her as the real second coming of Christ (or Princess Diana, obviously). As someone that falls in love with every pretty woman in the media, and also someone that just loves to have fun, I’ve been riding for Ice Spice since Munch. Her music feels like a giggle among scowls; fun, tongue-in-cheek, filled with energy and so bubbly you can’t help but shake when you hear it. Since the summer, every song that Ice Spice has dropped has clogged the arteries of the internet, contaminating each platform with her ear-worm drill-pop tracks. Ice Spice’s relationship with the internet is symbiotic; with every release, fans spawn jokes and memes around her, which she then adopts and serves back to the listeners in her next song. This mutual relationship functions at its best on Princess Diana.
“Callin' my phone, but they know I don't answer (why?) / In the hood, I'm like Princess Diana / I'm thick 'cause I be eatin' oats / Bitches not takin' shit from me but notes / Wanna be me, so she do my emotes / And my name in her mouth, so I bet she gon' choke”
Ice Spice’s fans (Munchkins? Spice Cabinets? The name is still in the works) began calling her this generation's Princess Diana, so she took the title in stride. People began referring to her signature dance moves as her ‘emotes’, so she mentioned it in a song. But none of these memetic references feel forced or cringey in the way that memes so often do in the hands of their target. Ice Spice takes these jokes in stride without forcing it, laughing with us because it's funny, not because it's the profitable thing to do. She feels down to earth, a “what you see is what you get” phenomenon in the best way; a Bronx girl making music with her friend, having fun and not taking herself too seriously.
Princess Diana is undoubtedly my favourite Ice Spice track so far. Her bars slide like butter across a bouncy trap beat, which switches from a wet bass line to dry claps sporadically, keeping the song playful and alive. Ice Spice's vocal tone is always the highlight of her tracks for me, her deep and warm voice provides such a silky texture to all of her tracks, and works so well in contrast against her quirky instrumentals. I could write an entire essay about how much I love Ice Spice, but for now I’ll simply state that I truly don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited to witness a young artist grow.
4. Luci - Sega Bodega
Calling this just “a song I love at the moment” feels a little bit ungenuine. Sega Bodega’s 2021 project Romeo is an audio drug that I have been physically unable to wean myself off of since its release. Creepy, catchy and absolutely gorgeous, the project is unlike anything I’ve heard before. Cicada featuring Arca was in my top three most streamed songs of the last year. But recently, I’ve found myself returning to a track that I don’t think gets even half of the love it deserves. Luci is the project's closing track, and serves as a beautiful representation of all the sounds explored throughout the album. With a ghastly, heavily processed choir and sprinklings of instruments such as steel drum and harp, the track is completely one of a kind.
Just think about what you're saying / Talk in the morning, not under the stars / Swear that I just saw you praying / Promise it's not gonna get you real far
The song plays out over an intoxicatingly catchy syncopated beat, combining the cool tones of metallic percussion and warped vocals with earthly strings and warm noodling guitar. Sega Bodega’s production somehow manages to make the digital sound so natural, like grass growing through cracks in the concrete. It’s the type of track that would ring out through a rave in the middle of an apocalypse, otherworldly and yet somehow so familiar.
The song's drop is what really gets me. The build-up collapses into an incredibly cool near anti-drop, where the instrumentation is scarce, pulsing and mysterious, before becoming engulfed in a romantic wave of guitar, perfectly tying together both sonic temperatures and flooding the song in a tone I can only describe as comforting. I have so much trouble finding the perfect words to describe this track as it is just so unique and in a league of its own. An incredibly special song on an incredibly special album by an incredibly special artist.
5. Shotgun (Magdalena Bay Remix) - Soccer Mommy
The original of this song is so good. With its sultry bass line and ethereal chorus, the song somehow feels both fresh and nostalgic at the same time. It’s the type of track that feels as though its purpose is to play out the ending of a coming of age story.
So whenever you want me I'll be around / I'm a bullet in a shotgun waiting to sound
But to me, Magdalena Bay’s remix brings the track to an entirely different level. The track feels like a sonic sugar rush, coated in the digital glitter of sparkling synths and gossamer pads. The songs bouncing drum line is infectious, and the climbing synth chords in the song's chorus add an air of whimsy to a piece that’s otherwise so bright and alive. The entire song is washed in an 8-bit glaze, making the track feel like it was spawned out of a video game. There are so many interesting layers to the production here; subtle strings, swirling risers, and a processed gun cock sound effect during each chorus that brings such a thematic charm to the track.
It took me a couple listens for me to fully appreciate this song for all it had to offer. It’s an insanely catchy bubblegum pop banger, but it’s so incredibly rich and nuanced below its surface. With its gripping production and immersive mixing, this song has definitely turned me into a Magdalena Bay fan. I can’t wait to listen to what else they have to offer!