Video & Audio: November 2021
Thank you for talking gibberish to me, Zakes and Kendrick
Rémy Adan: “Le goût de”
Ivorian singer makes a slinky, sexy dance track that slips through rhythmically distinct sections effortlessly mixing triplets and cut time in the grand Afro-Caribbean tradition. At one point, a dog barks.
Kanye West: “Come to Me”
I’m still weighing up whether I can avoid the album, but this is a reminder that few have matched his ability to project vulnerability through Auto-Tune, despite the least convincing “this is not about me” in the history of human communication. If he heavily encourages conflating his personal travails with Jesus’, well, Jesus was vulnerable too.
Sun-El Musician ft. Simmy: “Higher”
Having now listened to one of his albums, the fact that not every Sun House track is equally great just makes the ones that are amazing stand out in starker relief. The right amount of sustain on the chords, a vocalist who can add some realness to the straightforward emotion of the song, and suddenly it’s magic hour light.
Emperor X: “Sad React”
Emojis as the top level of a taxonomy of feeling vs. emojis as a reduction of human experience to one of seven (7) categories smh
Zakes Bantwini, Kasango: “Osama”
The underdog to root for is the slightly detuned note that comes out hammering in sixteenths from the get-go. Chorused gibberish vocals and genial trance synths take turns in center stage, but that note keeps going. Then just when you think it’ll outlast everything, the synth strings have the last word. The bastards.
Brockhampton: “Don’t Shoot Up the Party”
On this heavy counterweight to “Miserable America”, a G-funk synth hovering like a drone pursues their title request, which they follow with a “please.” If it works…
Fergie: “M.I.L.F. $” (2016)
Kevin Bozelka’s contribution to the current all-time top 50 song list epidemic contains some remarkably unlistenable stuff (try 645AR’s “Yoga”, I dare ya), yet on the other hand, I don’t recall any of you telling me Fergie had a song with wordplays like “let me see your MILF-shake.” Thanks, Kevin!
DJ Tarico, Burna Boy, Preck, & Nelson Tivane: “Yaba Buluku”
Having Mozambiquified the South African genre of amapiano by adding his favorite EDM elements to its deep house basis, Tarico ropes in Burna Boy for some well-deserved pan-African and expat streams.
Meek Mill: “Intro (Hate on Me)”
Just about the hardest, fastest three minutes of his very intermittently great career—appropriate for these hard, slow times—though one must note he lacks clarity compared to (the now much more hateable) Nas.
The Killers: “Quiet Town”
Brandon Flowers splits the difference between Mellencamp and Elizabeth Cook out in exurban Utah, where traditional values and opioid abuse coexist maybe not uneasily enough.
Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar: “Range Brothers”
Keem: <neologisms, creative rhymes, realistic emotions>
Crowd: booooo, nepotism
Kendrick: “Top of the morning! Top of the morning! Top of the morning!”
Crowd: <rapturous applause, re-awards Kendrick Seamus Heaney’s Nobel>
Oh My Girl: “Quest”
The Nintendo lead synth makes the low-key vocals even more non-threatening, as if they’ve decided to make friends with the kawaii monsters they encounter on their quest instead of murdering them. Sounds like a good idea for a game!