@madonnas: OMG I love the Skrillex song too but I was too embarrassed about it to include it
@Penk: Aww that's nice of you to say. I have to use creativity to make up for my lack of skill in graphics
@Bloomers: I knew my inclusion of any Big Boi would make you happy hahaha. I feel the same about Wild Heart! Really good for Sara and the original is a song I love. Still check out Bilal do it!!! His album isn't too long.
Do you have a Best Of this year? I don't think I've seen it and I loved yours last year.
@Remmy: I was gonna go with a standard pic of soup but I figured gotta spice it up a bit!
“Drink tequila for me babe, let it hit you cool and hot.”
Song: E·MO·TION by Carly Rae Jepsen
Why: Ya you knew she was gonna be on everyone's list. I think the title track is pretty underrated! If Run Away With Me is an indicator on how great the album will be, EMOTION is the track that gives you the feeling that the album is more mature but still sweet and "girl-next-door-like." In your fayantaSEE. DREAM ABOUT MEEEE. Oh God it's stuck in my head again.
Check Out: Run Away With Me is an obvious highlight. Boy Problems is also GREAT and somehow Sia actually played part with a good song??? All That is the funky slow R&B jam we've been waiting for for AGES from a pop girl. I love the sax in Let's Get Lost. And just recently I've gotten into When I Needed You... it's probably top 3 from the album.
Avoid: Warm Blood still hasn't grown on me sry.
Chairlift
“Getting what you want can be dangerous...”
Song: Ch-Ching by Chairlift
Why: It's far from my favorite Chairlift song, but it's still such a jam! Particularly the "pre-chorus?" and chorus are so good and get stuck in my head all the time. Not to mention I LOVE the video. I wish I had gotten an avi from it in all honesty. Maybe when the album comes out.
Check Out: Romeo is another song they released so far from the album and I like it!
Avoid: Nothing yet. Maybe next year!
Charli XCX
“Vroom vroom... BEEP BEEP, so let's ride!”
Song: Vroom Vroom by Charli XCX
Why: Ever since Charli started going down the Sucker route she's gotten a lot of hate but it's so undeserved! She's always been the best writer of her peers and goes in lots of different territories in such short amounts of time.
Anyway, Vroom Vroom I wasn't sure about at first. We'll get to it, but I find Sophie's productions to be half amazing and half stupid noise. And not everyone can sing over a Sophie track, but Charli definitely can.
Check Out: N/A I don't really count the Sucker extra tracks.
Why: I'm not big on Chet himself, but when he released this remix of his song I really got into it. I do like the production in the song and I think the two singers compliment each other really well.
Check Out: Eh I listened to his album. Not too much to talk about.
Avoid: Same as above.
Chic
“And if you come along, I'll be there!”
Song: I'll Be There by Chic
Why: OF COURSE now that people are in love with funk again and Nile Rogers is everywhere, Chic was gonna have some sort of comeback. This song is so unabashedly FUNK and DISCO and 70S!!!!! I cannot stop vibing. The video's fire too.
Check Out: Back in the Old School was another song that they put out this year. I love it as well!
Avoid: N/A
Christine and the Queens
“But I'm actually good, can't help it if we're tilted.”
Song: Tilted by Christine and the Queens
Why: I'm kinda cheating here because Christine, the FR version of the song, came out last year. I can't even explain why this song is so good... it just vibes so well and the production is soft but hard hitting... yeah. That's the extent I can actually get to lol.
I gotta say, Christine may be my favorite new find of this year. I really liked her stuff before I saw her live, and then I saw her live AND I IMMEDIATELY FELL IN LOVE holy cow she is an amazing live performer. And she interacted with me a lot, which was awesome!
Check Out: No Harm Is Done is another great one with a great featuring by a guy named Tunje. iT is also a great silly song about "being a man," Sainte Claude is an amazing almost all FR song, and Paradis Perdus mixes a FR song with Heartless by Kanye very well.
Avoid: Safe and Holy I like, but I'd say is my least favorite from the album.
Why: Yeah yeah I'm part of the "Bones was better than Eye" crowd let's just get that out of the way now.
I really just love the drop in this song. It makes me lose my **** and nearly crash into every car on the road when I'm listening to it in the car. You know it slowly gets there throughout the whole song which makes the breakdown even more gratifying. You gotta listen to it in a way you can go ham otherwise you just won't enjoy it.
Check Out: I find myself listening to Make Them Gold a lot actually now that the album's been out for a while. The bridge is pretty bad, but I love the song overall. Bury It was a favorite of mine ever since the album came out.
Avoid: I think these are unpopular opinions but I really don't like Never Ending Circles and I'm not the biggest fan of Empty Threat either. Or Down Side of Me.
Courtney Barnett
“LYRICS”
Song: An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in NY) by Courtney Barnett
Why: In the group of Courtney/Julia/Natalie/whoever else this year released REALLY SIMILAR, Courtney was the least memorable for me. Spoiler, Julia was my favorite of the three and the only I really... cared about THAT much.
I like this song because it's kind of an interesting spin on loneliness in a new place. Songs like these are usually mulled down by sometimes annoyingly slow production, but not so much in this song. It's actually made into a really catchy track. I like that. It's not too try hard or complex of a song and that works for Courtney.
Check Out: Boxing Day Blues and Elevator Operator were other songs that stuck with me after listening to the album a few times.
Avoid: Small Poppies and Kim's Caravan both were just too long for me and dragged on and on and I really didn't care for it.
Clearest Blue the 'why' part is kinda what I think about it actually.
1998 is really cute, one of Chet's best songs, and the remix features my beloved Banks so it's even better. I really like Emotion but there are a few better tracks on the album (e.g. Warm Blood ). I low-key liked Sucker but her new single is terrible for me, and I enjoyed Ch-Ching.
Ooh, haven't thought about Bilal since his duet with Solange (on Sol-angel and the Hadley Street Dreams lol). It was called Cosmic Journey and I remember being obsessed with it back whenever that album came out... '08?
Carly!
Chairlift! I am so excited for Moth, what do you think of Romeo? Ch-Ching is way better for me, but I still like Romeo.
Courtney! Hmm, I thought Courtney was the best new indie rock lady of this year. Natalie was nice, and Julia, I ****ing love Sea Calls Me Home, that saxophone solo! Whew! Regretfully I still haven't peeped that album though.
Also I love Kim's Caravan, but maybe it's just because I got excited people are finally singing about environmental issues.