We’ve made it into the second half of the year, everyone. Give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far and please pass the sunscreen. It’s time to call up that acquaintance who lives in the apartment complex with a pool because you’ve got a friendship to revive. But a bit of caution before you load these six songs into your Spotify queue and cannonball into the cool water: This is potent stuff. We’ve got some 4 p.m. wind-in-your-hair tracks here as well as some 3 a.m. what-was-I-thinking songs. Would it be summer, though, without a little of both?
Kero Kero Bonito – “Forever Summer Holiday”
When the playful, sunny British trio Kero Kero Bonito released their debut album in the UK and US last October, it played like a bit of a summer recap record. By creating music fueled by incorporating touchstones from a variety of eras and cultures, KKB has carved out a place for their alluring blend of transportational summer pop which makes for a delightful winter listen. For the upcoming Japanese release of their record, they lucked out with a seasonally appropriate release date and added this meditation on the hot months. As with all other singles from this group, the music video is home-spun gold.
Toro y Moi – “You and I”
New summer vibing music from your old chillwave friend Chaz Bear (née Bundick): This especially floaty track from the new full-length Boo Boo draws on the best of the gauzy ’80s soft pop, eschewing a constant beat or bass line in favor of sparingly introduced synth washes. I picture this making for a great mixtape closer. Also, can we acknowledge how, even halfway through 2017, so many of the chillwave originators are still making excellent music?
Mura Masa feat. Damon Albarn – “Blu”
Forget the feature you see in this track’s title. Don’t think about the title itself, which is almost too on-the-nose considering the name of the guest vocalist’s band. The truth is: This slow-burning electro ballad would be a great track even if its vocalist wasn’t the last great remaining ’90s Britpop star [don’t @ me]. The fantastically on-a-roll 21-year-old Mura Masa is in that enviable position in the come-up where, at least in America, fans can feel like he belongs to them; he’s an internet star whose videos with six-figure play counts still garner “was here before this got big!” and “mura masa is one of the most underrated artists ever” comments. All that said, any accolades for “Blu” deserve to be shared with the sleeper hit of all sleeper hits, Jai Paul’s “Jasmine,” to which Mura Masa owes a significant debt for this one.
Lorde – “Supercut”
Every week since the album’s release, I’ve been hoping the Melodrama standout track “Supercut” will get its release as a radio single. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to assume Lorde will release singles from this record well into 2018, so it’s not as much of a “if” as it is a “when.” Until that happens, we’ll just have to keep listening to the record to hear this banger. I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Lorde is one of the most underrated artists ever, and Pop Gazing was here before this got big.
Moses Sumney – “Doomed”
I often think about how much I miss Majical Cloudz. Like a city rat in the wintertime, their absence in the past year has driven me to seek shelter in free-floating melancholy wherever I can. Seldom have I been able to find shelter in such deep-slicing starkness as effectively as I have in the music of Moses Sumney. This new track, which arrived alongside a tour announcement and will eventually end up on his follow-up to last fall’s excellent Lamentations EP, is an instant favorite. It shuts down the party started by the Song of the Summer; “Doomed” holds you by the shoulders and asks you to be honest and confront the way you really feel.
Vince Staples feat. Kendrick Lamar – “Yeah Right”
At the risk of sounding wildly corny, I will admit that I have an alternate definition for the phrase “Yelp review”: There’s app-driven guidance for finding a fine hot dog nearby, but there’s also the moment where a piece of media is so striking it makes you shout. There’s a bevy of notable surprises through the new Vince Staples album Big Fish Theory, but my favorite came when I first heard “Yeah Right” and realized I was listening to a Sophie production! (I later found out Flume also did production for this track.) After a bit of a snoozy year for the PC Music scene in 2016, I have been consistently wowed by the ways the crew has infiltrated pop music in 2017. Hats off to Vince Staples for making this fantastic album. And then the Kendrick verse in addition to all this? Yeah!
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