In the intro to our Top Songs, we usually like to take a look at some of the top news stories of the week. Of course, this week, that would be the tragic passing of David Bowie. There have been so many touching tributes, and we’d like to do our part by dedicating this set of songs to the Thin White Duke. Always an innovator, experimenter, and passionate artist, he was a true example and inspiration for musicians and music lovers alike.
10. Eats Everything – “Big Discs”
If you know anything about Bristol’s Daniel Pierce, you know that “Big Discs” is essential Eats Everything. A big dude with an impressively witty demeanor, Pierce continues to arrive to the DJ booth as a student of the culture, no matter how many international events he has headlined. “Big Discs” is the result of these sweaty late nights: a trippy house single not afraid to tip its hat to the disco of yesteryear, complete with the muffled roar of a woozy 3 a.m. party. Eats Everything is a DJ’s DJ, and the prolonged drops of this single are set to incite many a dance floor this spring. Just be patient and keep those hips gyrating! Grab the two-track Big Discs EP January 22nd via Catz n Dogz’s Pets Recordings. –Derek Staples
__________________________________________________________
09. EERA – “Drive With Fear”
The first official single from UK-based songwriter EERA echoes more of her Norwegian hometown than it does her current London surroundings. Like fellow Scandinavians Lykke Li and iamamiwhoami, she embraces delicacy in her vocal performance, hitting high notes with a wintry edge to her soprano. She’s also got a feel for robust, shuffling rhythms that shake up the ground beneath her multitracked voice. “Drive Like Fear” cruises like a car speeding down a highway at night with no headlights: thrilling and nervous and desperate, with an opaque sense of danger. It comes from EERA’s debut self-titled EP, out from House Arrest on March 4th. –Sasha Geffen
08. The Last Shadow Puppets – “Bad Habits”
Side projects are interesting creatures — perhaps they’re excuses to collaborate with other cool musicians, or maybe places to put songs that don’t fit your main band. As such, they run the gamut from misguided to amazing. As “Bad Habits” shows, The Last Shadow Puppets thankfully continue to gravitate towards the enjoyable pole of the spectrum. “Bad Habits” is a little leaner on the lyrical side for the band, but there are still delicious moments (“Red lolli-POP!”) braided with the urgent, dramatic strings that made their debut, The Age of the Understatement, such a compelling listen. –Karen Gwee
07. Amber Arcades – “Turning Light”
The machine-like drum pattern that opens “Turning Light” might sound a little cliche, but let the dream unfurl, and Amber Arcades will pull you under her spell. The robotic beat is in fact just a part of her Krautrock scheme, in which shimmering electronics and bouncy bass slip straight into your brain and pass through in enchanting waves. Arcades is the project of Dutch musician Annelotte de Graaf, whose velvety vocals fit straight into the core. Amber Arcades’ debut album is due sometime this spring from Heavenly Recordings. –Adam Kivel
06. Tacocat – “I Hate the Weekend”
Not everyone gets to work for the weekend. Some people are out there trying to stay alive seven days a week, and the new one from Tacocat goes out to them. The Seattle power pop quartet call out the hard partiers on their new single “I Hate the Weekend”, pulled from their forthcoming third record, Lost Time. If your idea of a good time is getting so drunk that you ruin the neighborhood for people who live there all week, Tacocat have some choice words for you, along with a few handclaps and killer drum fills. Leave it to the same band who penned the period pain anthem “Crimson Tide” to make complaining about yuppies sound so much fun. –Sasha Geffen
05. Explosions in the Sky – “Disintegration Anxiety”
Its been five years since we last got a non-soundtrack album of new material from post-rock legends Explosions in the Sky, but that wait is finally just about over. And if you think they took that time off, kicked back, and relaxed, think again: They’ve got some issues they’re working through, as proven by “Disintegration Anxiety”. The smoldering track builds layers of stuttering guitar, electronics, and percussion into a dizzying head-rush. As you might expect from the title, the pressure gets to be a bit much, things start to fall apart, and everything fades away. It’s a real treat, a great sign for The Wilderness, due April 1st via Temporary Residence Ltd. –Adam Kivel
04. Woods – “Sun City Creeps”
On April 8th, Brooklyn’s Woods will release City Sun Eater In the River of Light, their ninth studio album in just under ten years, via Woodsist. The album’s lead single, “Sun City Creeps”, establishes a new fascination in mariachi horns. The song brings a welcome world music infusion into the collective’s psych folk, and its the first bread crumb that can lead to a brand new rabbit hole. As NPR points out, the single’s title is a clever take on Arizona avant-garde rockers Sun City Girls, a trio that managed to release 50 albums and 23 cassettes in their 26 years. Jeremy Earl and co. will need to pick up their pace to match that release rate, an endeavor we’d be happy to watch. —Derek Staples
03. MORLY – “The Choir”
Minnesota producer MORLY has followed up her 2015 EP, In Defense of My Muse, with a new single called “The Choir”, a song that evokes both insistent individuality and calm loneliness. In her words, MORLY conjures up an intriguing scene of feeling disjointed from a choir, specifically naming fellow singers Shirley and Fabra only to shrink into enigma with the refrain: “So I’ll sing good too.” And she does — her voice, and the way she manipulates it in the background, recalls the fragile, deliberate precision of FKA twigs, and the sparse, skittering space she resides in feels similar to the glacial, electronic openness James Blake is so adept at toying with. –Karen Gwee
02. Anna Meredith – “Taken”
Anna Meredith has never put out a full-length album, but she has been a composer in residence at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Her path to the kind of music that gets consumed on Soundcloud has been an unusual one, but she squares the more formal points on her resume with an unabated sense of wonder and a keenly playful ear. Her new single, “Taken”, from her debut album Varmints, stacks electric guitar chords against synthesized arpeggios in an arrangement that finds a niche somewhere near Owen Pallett’s: pop music informed by classical training that never closes itself off to the untrained ear. –Sasha Geffen
01. Anderson .Paak – “Come Down”
“Huh, but don’t I make it look easy/ Don’t I make it look good,” Anderson .Paak drops on his latest track — and yes, he really does. The rising MC continues to prove his versatile flow and stellar energy on the aggressively funky “Come Down”, a track as frenetic as it is fascinating. The bass rolls and dives at the lead, .Paak nimbly leaping from syllable to syllable with a burn at the edge of his voice. “I might never come down,” he swaggers, and considering the streak he’s on, he very well might not. “Come Down” comes off of the recently released Malibu. –Adam Kivel
