#best edm 2024

[aerdnafortini]

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[afrohouseking]

DJ James Hype showing off with some crazy transitions! This is a new creation of a mashup never heard before.

[technovintageblo]

🐏Yoga🐏 Official Album Cover

🐏🐏🐏🐏

Meu novo album 🐏Yoga🐏 já está disponível em todas as plataformas digitais !

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ouça e assista no link em minha bio :

linktr.ee/technovintage

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Geralmente quando se cria um projeto, temos uma ideia do que vamos realizar com nossas bases, e eu gosto de fazer música pelas possibilidades de escolha durante o processo, nesse álbum, eu tentei trazer referências claras, que constroem um universo repleto de visões mas com um intuito específico, refazer o que se foi perdido com o tempo.

Em "Yoga" eu me conecto com meus pensamentos mais notórios de criança, curiosidades, memórias, medos e muito dos sonhos que tenho com minha época de criança, é complexo pra mim colocar em prática o que eu estou vivendo agora pois só vou me reconhecer no presente que estou, no meu futuro mais próximo, a sensação de se ver e ir vendo que você se moldou com o tempo e perdeu e ganhou características, só que sua mente continua com a mesma profundeza a anos...

Espero que quem ouça esse álbum consiga trazer suas memórias mais nostálgicas de si mesmo e entenda que nós somos nossos próprios templos, não precisamos de terceiros ou entidades pra termos liberdade de escolhas, tudo que podemos e temos potencial, é nosso, não veio de algo não palpável, o seu poder é seu e sua força só você pode sentir e por em prática!

🐏

🐏

#Yoga #Technovintage #NewAlbum #NewMusic #Concept #Experimental #Pop #PopMusic #Today #New #Music #Producer #Indie #Alt #Alternative #SoundOn #Release #Stream #newsongs #NewMusicFriday #Support #Love #Meditation #Fruit #Spotify #Deezer #AppleMusic #Youtube #Tidal

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[089dj]

Die besten Festivals und Clubs für elektronische Musik weltweit

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Festivals und Clubs für elektronische Musik – Die ultimative Liste für Fans elektronischer Musik Elektronische Musik hat weltweit eine treue Fangemeinde und bietet eine breite Palette an Festivals und Clubs, die für unvergessliche Erlebnisse sorgen. Egal ob du auf der Suche nach den besten Techno-Partys, House-Events oder EDM-Festivals bist – hier findest du…

[audition6]

最新EDMミュージックベストヒット by Alive Galaxy 2023

[violetrose333]

(SEXY Best House Music EDM 2024 Hits Party DJ Mix)

[shadycomputerpolice]

The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony was trash. It was as if the organisers put "What do you youth like?" in ChatGPT and created the ceremony based on the AI output. What was up with that EDM dancing and fainting?

The idea of doing the opening ceremony in the city instead of a stadium was spectacular but the execution was abysmal.

For the athletes procession, we didn't even really get to see the faces of the competing athletes. Just a bunch of people waving their countries' flag on a boat under the rain.

The best parts were Aya, the opera singer who sang the national anthem and the mechanical horse on the water.

[colorisbyshe]

April's Monthly Music :3

I try not to recommend the same artists but Snow Stripper's "So What If I'm a Freak" really feels like a triumphant output. This song feels like watching strobe lights glint off the edge of a knife. Entrancing EDM. Sexy and threatening.

"Alter Ego" Doechii, JT. A club banger. Work your knees and waist and then swing at the girl next to you to assert dominance.

"Somewhere Near Marseilles (Sci Fi Edit)" Utada Hikaru. Despite being a remix, it feels more raw and vulnerable than the original! If you were scared off by the OG's 12 minute run time, this is is an easy and breezy 4 minutes. She has released a full anniversary album full of many of her songs reimagined, remastered, remixed! There is a new song "Electricity" but I think SNM is more interesting.

"Nightmare" and "Killjoy !" Nia Archives. Nia just released a whole album and I've talked about the lead singles before. There is a rawness from an artist who has only begun to ascend to greatness but Nia's twist on drum and bass and jungle can't be missed. She's destined for great things.

"Bye Bye" Ayumi Hamasaki. I don't think this is her best output but I just remembered she exists and it's incredible she's going and her sound is still so... her? Energetic Jpop that isn't very cutesy.

"Gaucho" Alex Anwandter. Chilean dance music with a flair for the sensual and a rhythm that pulses up and down your body. A nostalgic, familiar sound innovated into an entirely new beast.

"Impossible" Riize. Listen... I'd rather die than promote a new gen SM group and yet... Shinee girls... listen to this. Vibrant EDM. Kpop... isn't a lost cause? Maybe.

"L.A.M.N" Crossfaith. More Japanese metalcore from me. Lyrics are full English, so if you wanna thrash AND sing along... you need not speak Japanese. High velocity screaming.

If you want the Japanese language music back in the Japanese music, give "Endroll" by Raon. This song is somewhere between Yoasobi and Queen Bee.

Quick shout outs:

"Nasty" Tinashe. "Neverender" Justice & Tame Impala. "Candy Crush" ARTMS. "Girls Night" Loossemble. "Hollow Skies - Midgar Region -" Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. "Time" Kiskadee. "En" ENTH.

Throwback (not 2024) recs:

"What's Luv?" Fat Joe. "Calling All Cars" Senses Fail. "As I Longed For" Tatsuya Kitani & Yama. "Make Love" Daft Punk. "Extinction" THORNAPPLE. (Got that one off my dash recently!!! THANK U TUMBLR.) "XXXX" Chungha.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Mention of riize made me want to pick your brain on the current state of kpop. I find the longevity of the 3rd gen boy group popularity fascinating, given how things were for the generations previous. What do you think might be behind the dearth of 4th gen bg kpop musics resonating with the korean public?

I don't live in korea, so I can't comment on the lived realities of music consumption in the country. Given your experiences and music expertise, I'd love to hear your thoughts! My understanding is that 4th gen bg music was not an easy listening experience and the public was turned off by the burning sun scandal??

***

“What do you think might be behind the dearth of 4th gen bg kpop musics resonating with the korean public”

BTS.

And the specific reasons why are linked to a couple other factors.

BTS is still pretty much a wall, even for 5th gen groups. K-pop generations typically last about 7 years, both tied to contracts and the typical life cycle of previous star idols at their peaks. For example, GDragon / BigBang was very popular from 2012 to 2018, for Girls Generation their peak years were 2009 to 2015. Both groups are active till today but even during their peaks, in 2015 and 2018, BTS was out charting both groups.

BTS is ~2 years into their hiatus and halfway through completing their military service and yet, nobody is anywhere near their critical acclaim and charting performance. Like, nowhere in the vicinity.

Like I keep saying, the biggest determinant for BTS’s success is their music. We know K-pop or ‘idol music’ in general is a somewhat niche space in Korea (Korea has its regular pop singers like Gaho, Junny, or Jimmy Brown who certainly aren’t traditional k-pop), but one reason BTS has had the widest appeal to the Korean gp is the quality of their music and lyrics. This is something I’ve talked about before so I won’t go into it lol, but on that note, it brings me to one of the factors I said was linked above.

That factor is song choice. A lot of 4th gen groups have never once not snorted the EDM garbage. You know the ones, the groups who have two hammers: dubstep and trap (EDM), and who see everything as a nail. And that’s before we get into the frankly atrocious writing. Some songs are great to jam out to mindlessly in the gym or the club, but there’s no real substance to it. In my opinion. I also think songs like that have limited (obvious) appeal for the Korean public (with time and exposure therapy they’ll learn to tolerate it).

I think it’s been clear for a long time that most 4th gen boy groups have had to rely on other tools besides music to build up their fanbases. But those kinds of tools result in an increase in dedicated fan girls, not gp support which is what BTS and most girl groups enjoy. And again, a big reason for that is song choice.

Which is why 5th gen boy groups are doing more actual consumable music (thank you NewJeans), groups like Riize, ZB1, TWS, and BOYNEXTDOOR, are making waves and charting higher than Stray Kids or Ateez ever have.

The one leg-up those 4th boy groups have though, is their performance credibility and experience. And that’s what’s going to lead to the resurgence of 4th gen boy groups this year. I actually expect 2024 to be the best year ever for 4th gen boy groups, a modest reversal to the trend so far of the girl groups far outperforming the boys. NewJeans will dwarf everyone else, but overall boy groups in 4th gen will close the gap compared to their peers, in 2024. Ateez and Enhypen (performance juggernauts), Stray Kids and TXT (solid soundscape), The Boyz and P1Harmony (for the really cool kids) will be groups to watch for.

This year is critical for most boy groups because it’s their last chance to gain significant ground with k-pop fan girls (including ARMYs), before BTS comes back.

Because once BTS returns, that wall goes back up reinforced and mutated… it’s going to be so crazy lol.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #21

21. AUSTRALIA Electric Fields - "One Milkali" 27th place

Decade Ranking: 74/153 [Above wrs, below TBA]

We're on a gravitron as it tangles through them billions, illions of arseholes and angels. 💋 -- Michael Ross.

I'll open by pointing out that Zach's dress reminds me of those sail-backed tetrapods all mammals have descended from:

BorisBubbles.tumblr.com satisfying your autism AND paleontology fixes since 2017.

On other news, I'm happy to report I've never bought into the "Electric Fields Are Shock Qualifiers" hype. They had a song nobody cared about upon release, to represent a country nobody particularly wants in Eurovision. I'm AMAZED they almost floated into the semi over Serbia.

My personal feelings on the song are quite mixed, mostly because I always recognised "One Milkali" as both a televote flop and a missed opportunity. I always love when countries inject their music traditions into the entries they send to Eurovision, but in "Australia's "One Milkali'"'s case it was a fairly sloppy fusion. The soundtrack opens via Nokia ringtone before it explodes into a digital fart and segues into a generic, catchy EDM track that is in a constant state of competition with it's own background didgeridoo.

On top of that comes a libretto that, using a lot of confusing metaphors and dated pop culture references that border on nonsense, express a utopian vision of Universal Kinship that most people know to be factually untrue. None of us value life equally. I know SOME people find that offensive because they delude themselves into thinking they're good people, so allow me to demonstrate;

IMAGINE your least favourite famous person in the world; a politician or businessman or musician or actor, or writer of certain wizarding novels. Someone you strongly dislike and don't necessarily want dead, but say you'd would be very pleased if this person had chosen to be an accountant over their actual profession, obsessing over NUMBERS rather than their current trade. Now compare THAT person to your favourite people in the world: your parents,siblings, other halves, friends, pets, children (lol this is tumblr - exactly three of you will spawn offspring, the rest of you will grow old with two cats named after fictional characters such as "Khaleesi" and "Deban Aderemi".) You cannot put this person on the same level as them. You will not value this person's life AS much as you value your loved-one's lives, and that's perfectly normal human behaviour. We hold different standards for different people. Anyone who does not is a walking red flag.

With this in mind, you just know that One Milkali would be a hard sell because not many people connect with its intentions, especially now that Eurovision has made a shift towards Tory-ness (💀). It's naive, utopean and out of touch for those that get it and very confusing to those who do not.

I'm making it sound like I dislike Australia, but I actually really like the studio cut (it's better when you don't look). The studio version... well doesn't slap but at least swats? It was a sanitised, tranquilized version of "2000 and Whatever", which I LOVED, and I gave 1M(1B) a few loopings. I, like many people that remembered Electric Fields fondly, and was hoping they would die for Raiven for a live outsell.

Unfortunately, the live of "One Milkali" was not an outsell. If anything it undersold? It was lowkey a tranwreck?

Like, when your top moment of the performance is THE COLOUR PROJECTION AT THE START

(this bit actually ate! pity it happens literally within the opening seconds.)

and the second best moment is a literal ijbol moment when the didgeridoo player (this man is a LIVING DEITY btw) PLAYS HIS INSTRUMENT LIVE RIGHT INTO ZACHARIAAHA'S MIC, DROWINING HIM OUT.

IT'S RAININ' LO- :didge noises:

AND THEN HE HITS HIM WITH IT ON THE HEAD 😂😂😂

Yeah, a few choices were made which were a tad off. The worst one is allowing Michael Ross to vocalize because the man does NOT HAVE A GOOD VOICE. You have three backs, let them sing his bits. Not doing that is the second worst decision. The third worst is poorly mixing those backs in with a very strained Zachariaaha? Also, why are they strutting on the stage like models on a catwalk? Did Aisel have a few on sale from her X My Heart era?

The staging did a few things right - it was colourful, used the space well and had good camerawork. It got the basics right, at least.

It was a sloppy execusion of a clumsily composed song, but, I still enjoyed it overall. "One Milkali" is naive and utopean as fuck, and embraced that vibe and I appreciate that. The Yankunytjatjara bits are great and synergize well with the English. The song was an adequate representation of aborigine culture, hampered mostly by the fact that it didn't go hard enough when it needed to.

It ranks this high because putting it lower makes no sense to me. Unlike Poland, the vocals were acceptable, and the staging was linear and clear. Unlike Moldova, they had a song and a vision and displayed creativity? Unlike Azer and Iceland, Australia managed to fill the stage with some semblance of life and momentum. It still had flaws, but they were easy enough to accept. It makes sense that Aus were the highest NQ in the first semi, as they are on this ranking.

But lmao @ allowing any SF1 NQ to enter my top 20.

THE RANKING.

[afrohouseking]

Carl Cox best drop this year so far at POSITIV Festival! Best techno music festival with the best techno dance music 2024.

[samuelerssonupdates]

Ron Hextall: 37 wins (1986-87)

Pete Peeters: 29 wins (1979-80)

Sergei Bobrovsky: 28 wins (2010-11)

Antero Niittymaki: 23 wins (2005-06)

Pelle Lindbergh: 23 wins (1982-83)

Samuel Ersson: 21 wins (2023-24)

Brian Boucher: 20 wins (1999-2000)

Following in the footsteps of trailblazing rookies and giants alike, Samuel Ersson is living up to his role in net in a huge way, and a historic one. With today's 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins, he has displaced now-color commentator (and once, #33 for the Philadelphia Flyers) Brian Boucher for the title of 6th all-time wins by a Flyers rookie goalie. Ersson has the third-best GAA on this list, 2.66, preceded only by Boucher (1.91) and Bobrovsky (2.59), and the second-lowest total GA, 104. (Boucher, 65 GA, is first.) And also of note: he is tied for the second-most shutouts on this list, with Boucher again coming in first with 4 shutouts.

It's relevant to note that Boucher in his rookie season was the backup to starter John Vanbiesbrouck, who played 50 games to Boucher's 35. (Ersson has played 42 games this season, and only recently reached 50 total GP in the NHL on March 12, 2024, a 3-2 win against the San Jose Sharks.) The rest of the goaltenders who currently sit above Ersson were all essentially starters, though Niittymaki shared the burden pretty evenly with Robert Esche in the 2005-06 season (46 GP to 40 GP). Peeters and Hextall also took their STACKED Flyers squads to the Stanley Cup Finals (Peeters played with some of the most venerated Flyers of all time – Bobby Clarke, Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber; Hextall played behind a filthy 80s team; Tim Kerr, Mark Howe, Rick Tocchet, and the bruise brothers, Dave Brown and Daryl Stanley. Fun fact: Both goalies played with Brian Propp!) Those Flyers had been to the playoffs every season from 1973-1989. Those Flyers won in '74 and '75.

These 2023-24 Flyers came into the season with low expectations, and three years of missing the playoffs. But behind those low expectations is a team that's apparently capable of beating the best teams in the league. Of the 12 wins over top-10 clubs (BOS, VAN 2x, COL, CAR, DAL, FLA 2x, WPG 2x, EDM, TOR) Ersson was the winning goalie for 8 of those. At times, including March 23 v Boston, the team they beat was #1 in the league.

To reach 4th place in all time Flyers rookie goalies, and not just tie with Niittymaki and Lindbergh, Ersson needs three more wins. The Flyers have 11 games left in the season, and the Gauntlet is almost over, with the most recent three games (against the teams that currently sit 2nd, 6th, and 9th in the league) yielding five points in the standings. The future looks bright.

And tomorrow, Florida.

Sources

Mitchell Leff / Rookie Flyers / Flyers History / Jordan Hall

[thanksforthedinosaur]

I was tagged by @explosionshark and @holdsteady (the dream team)

Rules: Put your On Repeat playlist on shuffle and post the first ten songs that show up 1. ivri - planets and faith sounds like guitar riffs i'd write except better. really love the soft + loud dynamics, and the lyrics.

2. Hannah Cole - Table exactly the right amount of horny + indie rock with perfect distortion

3. Teenage Joans - Yoke what more do you need than catchy pop punk with perfect australian accents? in luv <3_<3

4. BUMP OF CHICKEN - Sleep Walking Orchestra after years it still feels like BoC can't make a bad song. really really into the music video; peak cinema.

5. Magnolia Park - I2I came out of nowhere from A Whole New Sound, a soundtrack of pop punk covers of Disney songs. this one is the best

6. Julia Wolf - In My Room feels very deftones/amy lee in 2024. let her cook.

7. fuvk - amateur hour really catchy emo leaning bedroom pop

8. Mili - world.execute (me); chaotic and weird. utterly obsessed with this song. 16 year old hot topic me would have carried out graveyard rituals to it

9. Hakos Baelz - GEKIRIN listening to hololive members recently, but specially Bae. this rat girl made a EDM/metal fusion that's an absolute banger. year of the dragon >:)

10. Porter Robinson - Mother fell in luv with this on a relisten of nurture

if y'all wanna do it (no pressure) i tag @hunnybeemp3 @beginnersmind

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 04/05/2024 (Taylor Swift, Tommy Richman, Kendrick Lamar's "euphoria")

Just a week after her album’s impact, Taylor’s been dethroned by… Sabrina Carpenter! She grabs her first #1 on the UK Singles Chart with the smash hit “Espresso” and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, Yeat praise

Rundown

As always, let’s start with the notable dropouts, which are songs exiting the UK Top 75 - that’s what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. Now this week, we bid adieu to: “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift (it got three-song-ruled and dropped out from #3, more on that later), “act II: date @ 8” by 4batz featuring a remix by Drake (not his best week, more on that later), “Von dutch” by Charli XCX, “Kitchen Stove” by Pozer, “Whatever” by Kygo and Ava Max, “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and FINALLY, “Lovin’ on Me” by Jack Harlow.

As for our gains, we see healthy boosts for “Pedro” by Jaxomy, Agatino Romero and the late Raffaella Carrá at #60, “Outside of Love” by Becky Hill at #54, “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners at #46, “The Sound of Silence” by Disturbed at #42 (yeesh), “These Words” by Badger and Natasha Bedingfield at #22, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by David Guetta and OneRepublic at #20 - I guess obvious covers and remixes have a good week - then finally, a song hitting the top 10 I’m personally very happy with: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey at #6. #1 incoming? Please?

We also continue to see the rise or, rather, resurgence of Amy Winehouse’s catalogue due to the biopic, with “Valerie” with Mark Ronson at #38, “Back to Black” at #39, and a re-entry for “Tears Dry on Their Own” at #49, which peaked at #16 when Ye’s “Stronger” was #1 in 2007. On that same album, he says he hates Nazis, look how far we’ve come. Anyways, “Tears Dry” contains a sample of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, made famous by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, which didn’t chart in its original form for the longest time here. It peaked at #6 in 1970 but only in the form of a cover by Diana Ross, whose version charted whilst Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” was #1 - just shows that we don’t really remember the bigger hits of the time. The Boys Town Gang reached #46 with their cover in 1981, Whitehouse and Jocelyn Brown both charted with covers coincidentally in August of 1998 - they peaked at #60 and #35 respectively - and finally, the original first charted at #80 in 2013, amazingly still its peak, and briefly re-entered earlier this year. “Tears Dry” itself was sampled the last time Amy made the top 40 in 2023, with Skepta’s #28-peaking tribute “Can’t Play Myself”.

As for our top five this week, we start in the dregs with “i like the way you kiss me” by Artemas at #5, “Beautiful Things” by Benedict Cumberbatch at #4, “Too Sweet” by Hozier at #3, then of course Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone at #2 and “Espresso” at #1. It’s an interesting one today, folks, with a lot of unique and frankly, fantastic stuff to cover, so let’s start with… Kygo?

New Entries

#75 - “For Life” - Kygo and Zak Abel featuring Nile Rodgers

Produced by Kygo, Nile Rodgers, Ollie Green and Franklin

I’m honestly a bit surprised Kygo is still notching chart hits, especially without a big name attached this time. Sure, Nile Rodgers is a legend, but he’s doing so much dance-pop garbage in his later years that I don’t think many people check specifically for his collaborations, so there’s got to be something in this that’s unique, right? Aaaaaaand it’s a sample. It’s a nostalgia bait sample of a 2000s EDM track because of course it is. French house act Modjo debuted with “Lady - Hear Me Tonight”, which spent two weeks at #1 in 2000 and is an absolute classic I still return to today, even if Modjo were basically a one-hit wonder. “Lady” of course is built on a sample of “Soup for One” by Rodgers’ own band CHIC, which comes from a 1982 soundtrack album, never charted and kind of been eclipsed by “Lady”, largely because the original is honestly pretty bad, uninteresting and surprisingly stiff for an 80s funk track, with some of the weakest and most slap-dash implementation of synths. “Lady” really took the best parts of that song - its undeniable guitar melody, that isn’t even put to great use in the original - and constructed an entirely new, incredible song out of it. So I can’t tell if it’s pathetic and desperate for Rodgers to try and reclaim it, or something that speaks to the power of musical transformation. Oh, what am I kidding? It’s Kygo, it’s just kind of boring. It’s a rote piano house track that goes for the same tropical atmosphere Kygo has been doing for years - a lot of the same festival synths are there, it’s all full of bubbly swooshing that actively sound like pastel colours. The only real hook of the song is taken from Modjo and re-sang by Zak Abel, with slight lyric modifications taken from the “I’m Good (Blue)” department of refusing to allow for fun in your dance songs, and even that just feels desperate. What did Nile Rodgers even do here, man? Sign a legal document saying you can use the hook? It’s not even his Goddamn hook.

#69 - “Solo” - Myles Smith

Produced by Peter Fenn

Myles Smith is a singer-songwriter I hadn’t heard of until today but has been active since at least last year and is making at least some consistent buzz so I was interested to see what his first slow-burning chart hit here has to offer and… are we just, IN, 2012, 2013 now? We had festival house with the last song, the next song is heavily Yeezus-inspired, and this is a full-on Aloe Blacc stomp-rock song. It isn’t bad either - I actually had to get used to hearing his richer voice on this kind of scattered clap-stomp-holler folk track, and whilst this is nothing unique given the solemn pianos, spattering of strings and of course, that jingling indie folk rolick, that doesn’t feel particularly organic on this one, it still is far from bad. The lyrics are somewhat generic but not in an awful way, and the “so low”/”solo” double meaning is somewhat clever or at least, would be if in the context of the song, they actually meant separate things. It’s a bit annoying that it’s the main conceit because both have negative connotations for Mr. Smith here, so it just feels like he’s repeating himself rather than elaborating on his feelings or presenting a dichotomy. I imagine it’ll be a lost on a few people due to botched execution, which bothers me because it was an active attempt at clever songwriting that gets kind of lost in sonic translation. This sounds like I’m picking apart the song’s flaws but it is really just a fine little woodlands jams with a great singer, infectious hook and by the end, a damn fine melodramatic string section. I can see it growing on me, especially due to its gorgeous outro, but for right now, I’m somewhat lukewarm, not going to raise a fuss if it ends up smashing though and in a Noah Kahan world, I suppose it’s quite likely.

#64 - “If We Being Real” - Yeat

Produced by Synthetic, Radiate, Fendii, LRBG, Perdu and Dreamr

So terrible news: I like Yeat now. I’m still not granting him his silly little umaluts, and I won’t go too in-depth here, mostly because there’s another song worthy of in-depth analysis, and every piece Yeat’s put out fits into the jigsaw of the album’s narrative as a whole… it would require a lot more time and space, and frankly words, that I’m willing to give #64. No track feels unnecessary on 2093, the atmosphere is consistent across all 24 tracks, and lyrically, it’s a concept album, which I would have never expected from Yeat and he pulls it off brilliantly both sonically and thematically without straining himself to areas he probably couldn’t reach like trying to be super lyrical or stepping away from rage pads. Given the album’s experimentation and length, I wasn’t surprised by the lukewarm commercial reception, but I did at least expect maybe the songs with Future, Wayne or Drake on the deluxe, to have charted by now, when this hasn’t even happened in the US. So when the penultimate track on an album that’s over an hour in its standard issue becomes his first solo hit in the top 75, I have to assume TikTok virality is involved.

Regardless, I’m glad it’s here because it’s brilliant. Sonically as a separate track, it’s one extended verse over a corrupted industrial beat that cracks in right after a mystical intro full of textured but meandering strings, that get swooshed out of existence by a cinematic, malfunctioning clunker incorporating Yeat’s inhuman ad-libs, manipulated behind vocal recognition, into infectious loops within the beat. This is one of few songs - another’s coming later - where I can understand the sheer amount of producers. Lyrically, the title refers to Yeat or more accurately, his psychopathic billionaire character, attempting to shed some of his CEO veneer and ultimately failing, adopting a lot of the violent, power-hungry rhetoric the rest of the album relies on, making it a pretty ironic and depressing title, especially when considering its place in the rest of the album, coming right before the… actually honest and heartbreaking closer, “1093”. In the backhalf of this album, Yeat’s bragging sounds increasingly monotone and routine, and him rapping in and out of distorted filters or going up and down from his traditional murmur to a choking yell, exemplifies how sick and tired he is of the lyfestyle he curated for himself. This song in particular ends with him barely on beat for a beat that doesn’t even really have a beat, becoming a factorial ambiance more so than anything coherently rhythmic. I have no idea why this song in particular is going viral - it doesn’t have a chorus or even really some of the catchier, more potent lyrics on the album, and its beat barely functions as such for the vast majority of the song - Hell, it’s not even one of the album’s integral moments like the opener, “Bought the Earth”, “ILUV”, “Shade”, “Riot & Set it off”, or really countless others, but I’m not complaining because the sound design, the care placed into thematic and narrative consistency, it’s all still here. This is a 10/10 album, and if this song gets more people to check it out, I really can’t be upset with that.

#58 - “Love Me JeJe” - Tems

Produced by Guilty Beatz and Spax

So what’s “Love Me JeJe” actually mean? Well, in Nigerian Pidgin, it means “gentle” or “tender”, and the use of a more regional term rather than the English actually contributes greatly to why I think this song works: Tems’ buttery voice has always been able to display both coldness and a sensual warmth, often at the same time, but on some of the bubbliest guitars I’ve heard over an Afrobeats rhythm since the genre started charting consistently, she’s fully in that second category. Hell, most of the lyrics are pretty basic here, especially the practically meaningless chorus, but that’s to its benefit because thinking too much about this song defeats its purpose: to be gentle. It’s a frankly adorable expression of love and care at its most optimistic extent possible. Despite the clean, tropical percussion, it still feels cute and homegrown. Hell, the second verse, after a nice back-and-forth choir vocal, even references the Nigerian electricity provider that’s apparently nationally infamous for its power outages, with the lyric comparing the love she feels with her partner to the feeling when electricity comes back on in the village and all her neighbours inform the locals. Combine that with how breezy this is, the easy-flowing bridge into an outro full of murmuring, chatter and reverb-drenched laughing, it just makes for a really cute, likeable song. Not necessarily what I expected out of a lead single from Tems, but a delightful surprise. Now to balance that with pure hatred.

#50 - “euphoria” - Kendrick Lamar

Produced by Cardo, Kyuro, Sounwave, Johnny Juliano, Yung Exclusive and Matthew “MTech” Bernard

There’s part of me that finds it quite funny that Drake gets into serious beef with an incredibly analytical and perfectionist rapper like Kendrick right after putting out his own exposé of himself. For All the Dogs is as much of a dissection of Aubrey Drake Graham, albeit perhaps unintentionally, as Kendrick or really anyone could perform, as long as you’re paying attention. It’s been like that (no pun intended) for a while, but his latest is the most obvious and desperate attempt at clinging to status and image that it places his insecurities fully on display. You could recite lyrics from that album on a jazz beat and call it a diss track, so the fact that Kendrick went back to back with damn near dissections of Drake’s paranoia - especially on the Instagram follow-up track he made that is chilling - as well as a myriad of different issues he has with Drake, simply because… well, he doesn’t fuck with Drake. One could argue that this feud is complex and storied, with so many different  beligerents… but the motives behind it are genuinely a lot simpler than most rap feuds, and the diss tracks that are made from it are way more straightforward. They just outline the reasons they dislike each other, almost systematically, it’s genuinely refreshing, or at least a lot more than what’s going on with Quavo and Chris Brown, yeesh.

This track in particular is as calculated as can be, acting as a dissertation on why K-Dot doesn’t really like Drake too much. It’s condescending, damn near academic, with its smooth jazz intro and categorical shoot down of each possible avenue you could hit Drake from. We have sextuple entendres on this thing, a total of three beats, two of which are cheap-sounding but absolutely murderous drill bangers, and Genius annotations that rival War and Peace when combined. I’m not a lyrical expert, and there’s so much in here that I didn’t get until I was pointed towards that direction by Genius annotations, Reddit, X, or, embarrassingly, YouTube Shorts. You don’t need to research or analyse for this to hit hard though, there are plenty of lines that aren’t going over anyone’s heads… until you look into the exact way the bars are constructed and suddenly they have 20 double meanings and hidden easter eggs. This is really sheer venom, filled with so many layers that I wouldn’t be surprised if he genuinely wins a GRAMMY for it - and it would be in character considering Drake doesn’t even nominate his songs anymore. It’s already having an effect too, that 4batz album came out today, and he’s not signed to OVO as rumoured. Ye’s on the record… but not the already existing and heavily-streamed Drake remix. Already, he may be losing some of that prestige.

As far as it is sonically, it’s six minutes of murder, and Kendrick’s delivery is energised, violent, damn near deranged at times, to perfectly balance how, somewhat subtly through his meta commentary about his own bars and albums, the lyrics are basically an essay. It has an introduction, a conclusion, a hypothesis, written examples, he even presents counter-arguments and weaves them into his own analysis. By the time he was going extremely in-depth about his experiences as a father, and just repeating that Drake knows nothing about that, it almost felt like overkill. My personal favourite lines and ideas presented here are the concise slow dagger of the intro verse, the “Demun”/”throwaway” scheme, the voice and character he puts on between “Cutthroat business” and “I’ll explain that phrase” - he’s like a disappointed teaching assistant, obviously the YNW Melly line and its set-up, the incredible Daft Punk line that got a cackle out of me on first listen, then followed up by a mocking interpolation of one of Drake’s most revered songs, the straightforward rant about everything he hates that references an iconic moment of DMX’s trademark honesty (rest in peace), the “record” scheme in verse three, and when he started the fake Canadian accent, I just lost it. Drake’s biggest weakness here is that when he’s funny, I’m laughing at him, but when Kendrick’s funny, I’m laughing with him, and much louder. If he does respond, unless the man tells us that Kendrick’s whole life and career has been a farce, or he brings, like, the actual former President Obama on the track or something, I can’t see how it tops this. This is one of the best diss tracks ever in terms of sheer detail, and might honestly be one of the greatest throwaway rap singles period. It’ll be tough to beat.

#31 - “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” - Tommy Richman

Produced by Max Vossberg, Jonah Roy, Mannyvelli, Sparkheem and Kavi

This is the sudden breakout hit for Virginia rapper-turned-singer Tommy Richman, which actually comes in two versions on Spotify, the original and a more distorted “VHS” version. Also, this is brilliant. Sure, Richman just sounds like Brent Faiyaz, but a trend I haven’t been able to talk about on here necessarily but has been very exciting for me is the return of grittier, groovier synth funk and hyphy beats into underground hip hop and R&B, with this representing the more melodic end of that sound, which is typically restricted to Midwest and Dirty South rappers. The sound design on this one is actually even unique to that sound, starting with a bizarrely British-sounding Memphis rap vocal loop which I think isn’t a sample and is just him doing a bad impression, filtered below an infectious beat that actually took me by surprise. It even has cowbells and the type of punchy jabbing drums that I love from classic southern rap, but instead of the smooth-talking rappers you usually expect over this, we get a Brent Faiyaz impression that didn’t click with me until hearing this song. I never really got his appeal until I hear it over this and I start to realise the very distinct new jack swing element to his vocals, as he pretty seamlessly transitions from soulful double-tracked harmonies to much more rhythmic, half-rap flows. Now this ISN’T Brent Faiyaz… and I still don’t really like Brent Faiyaz, but hearing his wannabes I think helped me gather what was distinct about him, and the literal Richman North of Richmond here pitting his filtered splatter of vocal ideas and riffs over the beat in a very Devil-may-care fashion exemplifies the elements I do like about him, just with an instrumental that I personally like a lot more. Also, the VHS version is labelled as such but is really just like a bass-boosted version of the song that sounds like it was done in 10 seconds in Audacity, though the vocal mixing sounds a bit different too. I would love for someone to explain why that was the version I ended up adding to my playlist, because I couldn’t tell you.

#8 - “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” - Taylor Swift

Produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift

I know I wrote my whole Taylor spiel last week, but I’m not bothered about this one at all, and I really did expect it to be a fan favourite, mostly because, as the one track I actually enjoy on the standard version, she’s having fun! The lyrics are actively vapid, which doesn’t feel like the intention when she’s singing over soppy adult contemporary but very much feeds into the almost childish character she plays here over synthpop with an actual pulse. The synths here sound like a theme park she’s taking the boy to, especially with the backing vocals and chatter samples implemented into the ambiance and classic Antonoff wonky synths - though some of this doesn’t even sound like it’s in his ballpark. Like were Marian Hill or Sofi Tukker ghost-producing this? Some of these loop choices and flashy sound effects are frankly ridiculous, in the best way of course because the song is camp and fun. Sure, some of Taylor’s lyrics still come off a bit awkward, mostly because of her choice of slower melodies sometimes clashing with the fast-paced patter of the synthscape, but that’s a nitpick. I do love this song, I think it’s fun, Hell, I think it’s funny which is something Taylor has always kind of failed to translate to me in the past, so that is something. I just don’t think we have the same sense of humour. Does she like Norm Macdonald? I don’t feel like she does. Correct me if I’m wrong, Swifties.

Conclusion

It should be incredibly obvious who gets Best of the Week, it’s Kenny, easily, with “euphoria”, and I’m sorry, Swifties, but Yeat better. “If We Being Real” takes away with the Honourable Mention pretty easily as well, though really, strong competition and strong week all around - Tems was close too. There can’t be a Dishonourable Mention in this climate so, Worst of the Week goes to Kygo and Zak Abel for “For Life” that “features” Nile Rodgers, it genuinely just is a lazy template of a song. As for what’s on the horizon, I’m not sure. Dua’ll have some impact, but outside of that, time may have to tell. For now, thank you for reading, long live Cola Boyy, and I’ll see you next week!