LVL1’s “FVN!” is a gleeful, galloping combination of house and hip-hop, a hedonistic and bilingual track that romps at more than 130 beats per minute. The instrumental is all stabbing synths and kick-hiss drums, with LVL1 rapping at breakneck speed: “Girls just wanna have fun/I just wanna have sex in …
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There’s a particular set of scenes in Angélique Kidjo and Yemi Alade’s newest music video that may most resonate with immigrants in the West. A Black laborer does grueling work at a shipping yard for an envelope of cash he designates to send back home; the Western Union paperwork in …
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TOBi’s “Dollas and Cents” was impressively austere: The beat was distilled to rhythmic elements so bare that they seemed to precede any possible genre distinctions. The bassline, courtesy of the great British-Ghanaian producer Juls, could’ve come from slippery Seventies funk, club-ready Nineties house, or window-shattering West Coast hip-hop. TOBi rapped …
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CL has never been shy about speaking her mind, and on her bratty, super-catchy new single, “HWA” (stylized as “+H₩A+”), the Korean rapper hits back at the “haters” while making her welcome return to the global stage. Co-written with Jean-Baptiste (Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Little Mix) and Tokki, with production from …
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Seven seconds into Kelsy Karter’s “God Knows I’ve Tried,” an electric guitar wails languidly and the listener immediately knows what they’re in for. It’s a power ballad, and an undeniably soulful one at that. “Daddy wishes I was the girl next door, mama tells me I should smile some more,” …
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Songwriters have been experiencing revelations on the road for as long as popular music has existed. A poignant exchange at a roadside gas station; a passing conversation overheard outside the venue. After a while, these comically insignificant moments become the only real way a touring musician encounters the world. In …
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“I’ve been trying to un-fall apart,” the country trio Runaway June sang on their 2018 breakthrough single “Buy My Own Drinks,” an ode tobroken-heart dive-bar hopping.“and I’ve been thinking that some neon lights would be a real good start.” One year later, the group flips the script on “I Know …
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There’s an aspirational thread throughout all of Katy Perry‘s best songs: the candy-coated nostalgia of “Teenage Dream,” the fizzy, life-affirming “Firework,” the empowering “Roar.” During the 2017 Witness album cycle, that playful, hopeful energy was shrouded by Perry’s fixation on personal maturity, as she traded her signature soaring vocals and …
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Okay, sure — an EDM remix of Van Halen‘s synth-rock classic “Jump” sounds pretty horrendous in theory. Hear me out, though! Dutch trance god Armin van Buuren‘s sleek, rave-ready revamp of the 1983 hit is an absolute winner. We can only hope it leads to more glowstick-ready remixes of classic …
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“For the Sun” opens in the most ominous way: by pairing former Cave In frontman Stephen Brodsky’s plodding, doom-rock guitar with gothy songstress Marissa Nadler‘s icy vocals. It’s an eerie combination that becomes more complex and surreal as the song goes on, with grim harmony backup vocals and thick swirls …
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