As the nation welcomes July with indiscriminate air explosions and holy shit temperatures, we can let the smooth salty fresh jams of eight great tracks to cool our brows and blow our minds. Yeah... This year we have the Fourth of July on a Wednesday, which basically means we are writing off this whole week. How will you stay cool? These jams:
Hot Jam of the Week: "Crush" by Tessa Violet
I actually listened to this song so much this week it feels like I discovered it years ago. The video is a hypnotic millennial exercise with a really sweet and honest exploration of those first crush feelings. SUMMER Crush feelings?! I really dig this - it could be a breakout for Violet who's been around a while but I don't totally see it becoming a dominant jam or anything.
"Hunnybee" by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Alright, so I threw this on last week as a lark, and then for some reason kept hearing it over and over this week until I was compelled to add it again. No, this isn't really a mainstream hot track. It's a cool track. A cool track for cool cats. Yeah - no fur licking for us. We stay cool just by listening to "Hunnybee."
"Sit Next to Me" by Foster the People
This jam has popped in intermittently, and as both the only rock song I currently like (is it actually rock? Or pop? Pop rock?), along with a jam that crept into my ear again and again this week, here we are. I haven't yet put that much thought into this jam at all, but it is a cool track. If you haven't guessed, we're all about cool tracks this week.
"Yikes" by Kanye
Here is another song that's kind of weirdly positioned as either a Summer Jam track, or frankly, a commercial track at all. It's all about mental health and getting help and the cultural stigma attached to both. It's fairly open for a Kanye song, except for the fact that despite all the accusations about his ego, Kanye's actually one of the most open artists ever. I suppose that's a little ouroboros, but as the lyrics of this track strike me more and more it's a notable track to drop here.
"Bed" by Nicki Minaj ft. Ariana Grande
So, what do you do when "Chun-Li" doesn't quite hit like you wanted it to? Bring on the most popular artist of the moment and drop "The Light is Coming." Oh wait, I meant, switch who is featured on whose song and drop "Bed" instead. Nicki and Ari have partnered up a lot and their chemistry is always fantastic. This could be primed to be pretty good, although I'm not sure its catchy stickiness is really there. But is chill. This week we're
"I Like It" by Cardi B and lots
I was just reflecting on the fact that Cardi must have filmed like fourteen different video appearances before she got pregnant. In this day an age, she should have just pulled an Ali Wong and went for it, but as you can track my dealing with this song over the past few weeks I think I've finally come around. It's surging on the charts, too, because everyone loves Cardi B for some reason. She somehow sings with way better English than when she speaks.
"Never Be the Same" by Camila Cabello
We're a bit past halfway, but can we call it? It's a low down dirty drag race between Camila and Ariana this summer. We'll see who gets crowned Queen unless something really really big comes along. They do keep negating each other, so we'll see. I am kind of just reaching the crest of the wave where I don't much care about this anymore, but for now it's still being played everywhere, so dip.
"No Tears Left to Cry" by Ariana Grande
Yep. For Independence Week we have women of color in the top four spots and people of color in the Top Five. America! Blatant immigrants, too! Ariana is actually just super Italian, but are Italians white? I don't know. This isn't a productive area of discussion. Productive ariana of discussion. The song is still killing it after I keep doubting it, and it's still Ariana's world - I could have easy thrown "The Light is Coming" on here, too, which may be my fav song of hers at the moment.
Next week...
"IDGAF" was close this week. As was Taylor Swift's "Delicate," which I've kind of ignored so far this summer because it's not all that great. The Carters keep coming out with new stuff, but none of it really does anything for me. Other than that, for some reason we suddenly cared about XXXTencion because of his tragic death, which is hella sad, but I mean...didn't make his songs any better.
Note the harshest NMW comment ever - 07/02/18.
Hot Jam of the Week: "Crush" by Tessa Violet
I actually listened to this song so much this week it feels like I discovered it years ago. The video is a hypnotic millennial exercise with a really sweet and honest exploration of those first crush feelings. SUMMER Crush feelings?! I really dig this - it could be a breakout for Violet who's been around a while but I don't totally see it becoming a dominant jam or anything.
"Hunnybee" by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Alright, so I threw this on last week as a lark, and then for some reason kept hearing it over and over this week until I was compelled to add it again. No, this isn't really a mainstream hot track. It's a cool track. A cool track for cool cats. Yeah - no fur licking for us. We stay cool just by listening to "Hunnybee."
"Sit Next to Me" by Foster the People
This jam has popped in intermittently, and as both the only rock song I currently like (is it actually rock? Or pop? Pop rock?), along with a jam that crept into my ear again and again this week, here we are. I haven't yet put that much thought into this jam at all, but it is a cool track. If you haven't guessed, we're all about cool tracks this week.
"Yikes" by Kanye
Here is another song that's kind of weirdly positioned as either a Summer Jam track, or frankly, a commercial track at all. It's all about mental health and getting help and the cultural stigma attached to both. It's fairly open for a Kanye song, except for the fact that despite all the accusations about his ego, Kanye's actually one of the most open artists ever. I suppose that's a little ouroboros, but as the lyrics of this track strike me more and more it's a notable track to drop here.
"Bed" by Nicki Minaj ft. Ariana Grande
So, what do you do when "Chun-Li" doesn't quite hit like you wanted it to? Bring on the most popular artist of the moment and drop "The Light is Coming." Oh wait, I meant, switch who is featured on whose song and drop "Bed" instead. Nicki and Ari have partnered up a lot and their chemistry is always fantastic. This could be primed to be pretty good, although I'm not sure its catchy stickiness is really there. But is chill. This week we're
"I Like It" by Cardi B and lots
I was just reflecting on the fact that Cardi must have filmed like fourteen different video appearances before she got pregnant. In this day an age, she should have just pulled an Ali Wong and went for it, but as you can track my dealing with this song over the past few weeks I think I've finally come around. It's surging on the charts, too, because everyone loves Cardi B for some reason. She somehow sings with way better English than when she speaks.
"Never Be the Same" by Camila Cabello
We're a bit past halfway, but can we call it? It's a low down dirty drag race between Camila and Ariana this summer. We'll see who gets crowned Queen unless something really really big comes along. They do keep negating each other, so we'll see. I am kind of just reaching the crest of the wave where I don't much care about this anymore, but for now it's still being played everywhere, so dip.
"No Tears Left to Cry" by Ariana Grande
Yep. For Independence Week we have women of color in the top four spots and people of color in the Top Five. America! Blatant immigrants, too! Ariana is actually just super Italian, but are Italians white? I don't know. This isn't a productive area of discussion. Productive ariana of discussion. The song is still killing it after I keep doubting it, and it's still Ariana's world - I could have easy thrown "The Light is Coming" on here, too, which may be my fav song of hers at the moment.
Next week...
"IDGAF" was close this week. As was Taylor Swift's "Delicate," which I've kind of ignored so far this summer because it's not all that great. The Carters keep coming out with new stuff, but none of it really does anything for me. Other than that, for some reason we suddenly cared about XXXTencion because of his tragic death, which is hella sad, but I mean...didn't make his songs any better.
Note the harshest NMW comment ever - 07/02/18.
No comments:
Post a Comment