“Boring Angel” - Oneohtrix Point Never (Warp, 2013)
In an attempt to avoid starting a blurb with “we live in a society...”, I’ll just say that Daniel Lopatin knows how to make MIDI sound like the voice of God. If “Boring Angel” is a product of a simulation, I’m cool with living in it. - BR
“Boys” - Charli XCX (Asylum, 2017)
Charli XCX is a pop genius. That should be accepted as objective fact if it’s not already. “Boys” is just one great example of this genius.
Underneath that a sugary sweet surface, Charli XCX dissects unhealthy obsessions for male attention, addictive behaviors and how both are ruinous to friendships.“Don’t be mad at me,” she pleads. “Darling, I can't stop it, even if I wanted.”
There’s no lessons to be learned, no lectures of morality. It just is what it. "Boys" is equal parts crush daydream and harsh reality, and the balancing of those two elements is a lot of what makes Charli’s music so enjoyable. She’s a prime example of pop’s ability to transcend the shallow banner it so often gets pasted with, but at the same time, to still stay aware of what makes great pop music so great. - Meerah Powell
“Braindrops” - Tropical Fuck Storm (Joyful Noise, 2019)
Gangrene and sludge always hung on Tropical Fuck Storm’s music like a layer of pond scum. It was the perfect filter for Gareth Liddiard’s acidic and absurd lyrics and a warped logic that tuned the guitars into misshapen mutants. And the title track from TFS’ 2019 record Braindrops was all their fucked up surreality in unraveling glory. TFS sound exhausted; the weariness underlines the horror as they lurch their way through propaganda, Twitter wars, paranoia, media conglomerates and anything else that can turn the brain into Swiss cheese. “Braindrops” shudders with fear, wondering if psychosis is the only acceptable mental state for the modern world. Liddiard slurs monstrous visions of an Ouroboros formed from a snake up its own ass and heads smashed like “watermelons” on the pavement. Meanwhile, a doctor watches on, wondering when he’ll have enough cash for a hair transplant. The song runs through the pretentious notes of physics, therapists, psychologists and brain surgeons studying the manic movement of an anxious mind, but in a sterile way, avoiding emotions making it “hard to tell how far you are from knowing your heart.” In “Braindrops,” insanity or ignorance seem to be the two choices for survival. - Nathan Stevens
“Bug Thief” - IGLOOGHOST (Brainfeeder, 2017)
Listening to an Iglooghost song is like hacking into a digital Pandora’s box. The constantly shifting tones and chaotic euphoria of “Bug Thief” are just a taste of the incredibly dense, multi-dimensional musings of a mastermind. - BR
“A Burning Hill” - Mitski (Dead Oceans, 2016)
Mitski never cut words for her sudden, stark, startling images. “Venus planet of love was destroyed by global warming/ Did it’s people want too much?” “I wanna see the whole world/ I don't know how I'm gonna pay rent.” She was a 21st century oracle and avatar in just a few short albums. But despite her penchant for directness, her finest moment came in a small, perfect, abstraction. “A Burning Hill” is a guitar, Mitski’s strident voice and a synth humming behind her. She sings about wearing a button down as she’s holding back tears seconds before she becomes a forest fire. “I stand in the valley watching it,” she says, herself, the fire, the woods, the air all at once, “and you are not there at all.” In this moment she is alone, even as she channels every molecule around her. - NS
“Chase the Grain” - Panopticon (Nordvis Produktion, 2014)
Given that the scope of this review is simply the song (which already clocks in at a hearty 12+ minutes), I'll forego contextualizing the piece more than saying it seamlessly showcases everything that makes Austin Lunn such a multifaceted and interesting artist. In the first four and a half minutes the song transitions from a skittering ascension complete with string accompaniment to blistering, melodic black metal to soft acoustic finger picking. Then almost without warning speeds onward like a hell-bent train on god forsaken tracks. Continuing in this vein, Panopticon begins to weave these elements together, allowing the song's rich orchestration to bleed into its screeched vocals and blasting drums. The overall experience reminds me of a patchwork quilt. Out of many, becoming one. - JD
“Childhood’s End” - Majical Cloudz (Matador, 2013)
Much like their ephemeral but absorbing songs, Majical Cloudz seemed to fade out of existence as gently as they had faded into it. After seven years—nothing to sneeze at—the Montrealais minimalist pop project dissipated like a ghost from the attic, leaving behind a small hatch of ethereal tunes whose impressions are not so quickly dispelled. The sound of a record like 2013’s Impersonator is so spare, sacral, and introspective that it could have been marketed as bedroom pop for abbots. Each piece is a balance between tender buoyancy and ineffable, diamond-grade emotional pressure. “Childhood’s End” is, believe it or not, the most driven tune on the record: a percussive heartbeat pins the song to its bedrock, while aquarium synths bubbly warmly in time to the surface, and stringy whimpers stroke the backdrop. The sonic amalgam is muted and plaintive—a snug onesie for Devon Welsh’s sensitive crooning. - BP
“Christ Conscious” - Joey Bada$$ (Cinematic, 2015)
Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for a great beat. But this one has the whole package. Folks praise Joey for his 90s-adjacent flows and NY attitude. He’s a poster boy for bringing “real hip-hop” back. Unfortunately, this means Joey’s timely reflections on blackness and fame in the 21st century often go overlooked. But not here, not now. “Christ Conscious”’s dread and threats were undeniable. - BR
“Clair De Lune” - Kamasi Washington (Brainfeeder, 2015)
The organ is the unsung hero of this tenderly crafted, soaring single off of Kamasi Washington’s revolutionary debut album The Epic. Appearing in the album’s final act, “Clair De Lune” culminates in a joyful thesis, guided by Washington as bandleader-tenor saxophonist as he leads the band (and choir!) through a re-envisioning of the classic piano suite. Washington described the redrafting of Debussy’s tender suite as a “bubblebath love song” and it embodies that lovely nature perfectly. Los Angeles’ jazz renaissance is in full bloom.- Bree Nicolello
“Cold Facts” - KA (Iron Works, 2012)
Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper’s worst nightmare. Ka is an otherworldly specter, always on the edge of the spotlight since the ‘90s, and quietly feeding a reputation that grew into a legend and dissipated into ghostly myth. Until the Brownsville fire chief stepped out of the shadows for an incredible run this decade. Album after album fingerpicking the threads of fate, mixing Samurai codes, Greek Edens and boxcutter fights together into captivation. And “Cold Facts” was everything Ka could do in a tight three minutes.
The barely-there beat is bap without the boom. A stark background for Ka to speak horrific truths. “I need peace, all that beef shit is weak / When niggas that talk trash get sweeped in the street,” he almost speaks that line, as simple, direct and plainly stated as possible. At the end of “Cold Facts,” that’s what made Ka a singular voice this decade. There are no notices and any shadows left don’t hide the blood, the bodies and the reality. - NS