Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’ has no real right to be a chart-topper. Tame Impala‘s first new track in four years made for a hazy, disco and piano-house indebted comeback. ‘Jesus Is King’ certainly proved divisive, but it’s hard to imagine anyone failing to praise the album’s standout track, which gallops along like one of those weird spider cars ‘Ye and his dad use to cruise through the countryside in the song’s lush video. BBT, Lizzo made her name this year with her powerfully positive affirmations of selfhood, but Tempo tees off in much snarkier style: “Slow songs, they for skinny hoes,” she declares. Since the song’s release, it’s been given a host of brilliant, techno-leaning remixes from producers such as The Black Madonna, Factory Floor‘s Gabe Gurnsey and more, and was a staple in festival DJ sets across the summer. ‘Binz’ was arguably its biggest concession to commercialism, featuring R&B legend The-Dream and a bouncing synth line, as the author daydreams about getting “a presidential suite” and leaving “with they linen”.
but there’s someone outside that caught my eye”. Probably. He's a phenomenon - huge in his native Scotland, and amassing fans across the UK every week. Invoking the name of the strongman turned Death Row Records boss Suge Knight, Da Baby’s breakout single is all about graduating from thug to kingpin but still being ready to put hands on fools—or, you know, dangle them off of a balcony (allegedly) if need be. Two of rap’s most future-facing stars from either side of the Atlantic collided over an instrumental fit for a Hitchcock feature-length. Don’t remember this year for the nonsense, remember it for Rosalía and Billie Eilish’s rehabilitation and reinvention of pop, for the homegrown rap powermoves of Little Simz and Stormzy and powerful positivity from Lizzo and Michael Kiwanuka. Share. The lyrics were empowering, too, King Princess celebrating submission and telling a lover, “I don’t care if you degrade me / ‘Cause after all you are my safety / And everything you touch just feels like yours to me.” RD. She doesn’t need you or your bullshit: “You can send a diss / I will never write back”. After you’ve finished watching the tear-jerker. Her smoky croon does the heavy lifting: the way she draws out and sinks into the phrase “I’m doing wonderful, just fine, thank you” feels like the deep, full-body stretch that comes after a satisfying afternoon nap. This track is from, no doubt, one of the greatest dance albums of the year ‘Tangerine’ from Shanti Celeste. But not all revelry equates with excess, even when the world is crumbling. At just 19 years of age, Rema is the next big thing in afropop.
Deal wiv it. ‘Chiseler’s Rush’ is an inspiring techno hit with oscillating, effervescent sounds. She has spent her career shapeshifting between genres and personas, from solo folkie to barnstorming indie bandleader to Mark Ronson- collaborating pop singer. Even as Lykke Li catalogues the torments doled out by her would-be lover, the distant steel pan chime, sparkling disco chorus and sugar-spun melodies maintain the glimmering mirage of possibility. “I knew I liked the song a lot, but I had no idea what to expect,” she told, in a recent interview. –Madison Bloom, On Western Stars, a Springsteen album full of character studies, the protagonist of “Hello Sunshine” may be the one who most resembles the man himself.