Music & Art

Necessary preface— This is something I have been doing for years— every week I throw together a top 10 list of the tunes I’ve been listening to the most over the past seven days. Since I have so many of them, it’s kind of interesting to go back and see whatever I was listening to a few years back. Mostly, it’s ridiculously nerdy and slightly embarrassing. I may as well write about it.

1. Bon Iver- 715 (CRΣΣKS) (2016)

   Bon Iver is one of those massively popular artists that everyone seems to have been constantly freaking out about and I’ve never really been quite sure why. Up until this latest album, Bon Iver’s music struck me as fairly uninteresting. To be fair, I honestly do quite like a few tracks here and there from Bon Iver (“Calgary” being my personal favourite). This new album is a pretty dramatic stylistic change for Bon Iver, and this track is honestly just a really cool experiment. It’s a couple minutes of weird, layered auto-tuned vocals piled on top of each other without much of a song structure, but it works pretty damn well. Check it out.

2. Richard Hawley- Valentine (2007)

   This man is easily one of my favourite artists, and has been for several years now. His songwriting is reminiscent of traditional pop from the 1950s and 1960s—something you don’t really see at all in recent years, and this tune is a pretty great example of it. Definitely check it out if you’re into music that makes you feel vaguely nostalgic for reasons you can’t quite figure out. His voice is evocative as hell too, damn. HOT TRACK.

3. Animal Collective- Kids on Holiday (2004)

   One of my all time favourites, Animal Collective is definitely one of the more original artists out there, whether you’re a fan of what they do or not. At some point last week while trying to work on an essay, I threw on their album Sung Tongs since I assumed the ambient and strange take on folk tunes would make for decent low-key background music to have on while I worked. It didn’t really work and I kind of just sat there and listened to the album. This song is definitely a highlight.

4. The Magnetic Fields- You Love to Fail (1991)

   My sister turned me onto this band over the summer when she played “100,000 Fireflies” at some point. << That song is incredible. “You Love to Fail” is off the same album, features a similar sound and melodic approach, and is equally happy and sad in my mind. I went through a few albums by these guys last week, and that happy/sad vibe is a constant. The lyrics are almost always contradictory in terms of how the song sounds.

5. The Good, the Bad & the Queen- Herculean (2007)

   Damon Albarn is a genius. No one gives The Good, the Bad & the Queen enough credit but their only album is up there with blur’s Parklife and 13 in my opinion. (Both classic albums). (This one is too). (Check it).

6. Jagwar Ma- Slipping (2016)

   The newest track on this list, Jagwar Ma are coming through with some of the best singles of the year in my eyes. Their earlier 2016 tracks “O B 1” and “Give Me a Reason” are absolutely filthy. They’re combining dance, alternative songwriting and a psychedelic atmosphere like no one I’ve heard in a long time. This particular song amps the psych influences up a bit in terms of the vocals. I can see this being a good tune to workout to.

7. Interpol- The New (2002)

   A buddy of mine and I were hanging out and working on some of our own music one night this past week and we revisited Interpol’s classic album Turn on the Bright Lights, definitely one of my all time favourite records. This song is unbelievable in several ways. Everything comes together perfectly on this track. If you haven’t given Interpol a listen, this song would be the perfect place to start.

8. Danny Brown- Dance in the Water (2016)

   Danny Brown released what probably is the best hip hop album of the year last week in Atrocity Exhibition. The whole thing is straight-up insane, which is exactly what you expect from him and hope for with a new release. It’s probably the craziest thing he’s put out so far, with production that’s both exciting as hell and genuinely terrifying at many points. There’s no denying this track is one of the few all-out bangers on the album. It’s unhinged in the best possible way. AH HA HA HA HA

9. Danny Brown- Golddust (2016)

   Here’s another highlight off Atrocity Exhibition, one that really highlights the dark undertones Danny Brown explores on this new album. The focus on addiction and drug-fueled excess is at the forefront of many of the tracks here, with this particular selection being a prime example. Post-punk seemingly influences the production on this track; with a grimey guitar pattern driving the industrial sounding beat throughout.

10. Temples- Certainty (2016)

    Temples are one of the absolute best psychedelic bands around right now, and are only getting better. This is the first single off their upcoming album, and it caught me off guard when I saw it was released last week. It’s a natural evolution in their already stellar sound, with a synth line that drives the whole track and really gets in your head. This song takes the number 1 spot, I easily listened to this more than anything else last week.