Today's mix CD comes from 5 years ago. This was a good time for me, personally - I started my job after 18 months of post-degree malaise and I loved being thrown together with a whole office full of other young people, going out after work and having this fun new social life that I hadn't had before. Musically, my memories of this time are of good pop music (this is the period where I downloaded Spotify and started drifting away from mp3s) and also of listening to my iPod on my commute home with the blue neon lights that turned on inside the bus after dark. Lets press play.
Hotline Bling is one of my favourite pop songs of the 2010s. It's a bit sexist - in the lyric, Drake is upset that his ex girlfriend has moved on and he's acting possessive and trying to dictate what she does next - but I still love it. Drake is a master of crafting phrases that become cultural moments: he popularised 'YOLO' in 2011 and here he describes his phone ringing as a more memorable 'hotline bling'. I also love the aesthetic associated with this song via the music video and artwork. it's Drake dad-dancing in cosy jumpers in pastel-neon lit boxes and it's the millennial pink 1-800-HOTLINEBLING single cover that is the back-patch on my otherwise punk/alt themed denim jacket. It's not a complex song but there's something about it that is irresistible to me.
2. The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends 🎀
The album that this song comes from, 'Reading, Writing & Arithmetic' is one of the most underrated gems of all time so prepare for a glowing review of that some day. Growing up, I was familiar with the late 90s Tin Tin Out cover of this song but the original version was new to me in 2015 when I made this mix. Like Hotline Bling, this is a break-up song but it's more introspective. I love the Smiths-y guitar and Harriet Wheeler's voice coupled with her biting lyrics like "I never should have said the books that you read were all I loved you for". The sweet and sour combination is one of my favourite things about this band and I don't understand why this song isn't as revered as, say, I Wanna Be Adored. This is one of a number of songs on this mix that remind me of specific points in the road on my commute - this one is a diversion along winding streets that the bus was taking around this time.
3. Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean? 💜
This is is the song I got Spotify for. I played it on loop and it was my most-played song of all time on the application for years. What Do You Mean? is the crown jewel in a fantastic run of Justin Bieber singles from this time even though it has what sounds like a ticking clock and electronic panpipes forming the palette of sounds. It's super catchy and he looked really hot in the video, which I remember having that same pastel-neon vibe that Drake was using too.
4. The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face 💜
The best Weeknd songs mix his edgy, alternative RnB style with 80s sounds and this is one of them. His high voice is reminiscent of Michael Jackson but he never wrote pop songs about sex and drugs. I must have watched a lot of music TV around this time as I can visualise its video too, with Abel catching fire. I don't have much to say about the song itself, it's a flawless pop song and I appreciate it. My main association tying it to this time in my life is that it was one of the songs that my friend and I rewrote at work to make it about our job.
I've written about Love Me before so I won't go into detail about the song itself again but I remember coming across this on Spotify and again on Saturday Night Live and being so impressed with it - it's the final piece of the 1975 puzzle that got me hooked on them. This song is one of the cornerstones of my identity and what I saw as a new era/aesthetic for myself at this time; it was bright pink and pop and leather jacket and ripped jeans and having fun. It really is one of those records that I look back on and see as a huge turning point for me.
6. Tove Lo ft Hippie Sabotage - Stay High (Habits Remix) 💙
This is one of the songs that Spotify recommended to me early on that I fell in love with. It has heavy bass and a melancholic tone and it's a supreme remix. It sounds like night time and I remember hearing it on the radio on a dark night when I was getting a lift home from work so again it's tied to a specific point in the road at a specific time. Tove Lo sounds pleading and desperate and the vocal effect put on this is so good that I have no desire to hear the original version of the song out of fear that it won't live up to this.
7. Disclosure ft Lorde - Magnets 💙
The third song that I hear and am immediately able to pinpoint to an intersection on my commute. It's a good dance song and Lorde is so cool, it's nice to hear her doing something like this. There's one line in it, "pretty girls don't know the things that I know" which is so teenage and in that 'not like other girls' mindset on its surface but on a deeper level I think it circles back to being true nevertheless and that's something I often ponder.
8. Calvin Harris ft Disciples - How Deep Is Your Love 💙
Another dance song and I was really pleased when it was a big hit - I thought it was a number 1 but I just checked and it got stuck at number 2. I picture the video for this again, with Gigi Hadid in a green-lit club which reminds me of the millennium. The song also reminds me of that sort of era, in terms of the vocals and the beat it bears a resemblance to the likes of Lasgo and Ian Van Dahl.
9. The Weeknd - The Hills 💜
This song is sinister-sounding, from the heavy industrial intro stabs to the intimate, promiscuous vocals. The Weeknd has a unique sexuality that runs through all of his best music that you don't really get with other artists of his status so I'm glad that songs like this are able to become chart hits.
10. Justin Bieber - Sorry 💜
Another banger from Jbae, as we used to call him. Sorry has a tropical beat courtesy of Skrillex and a killer vocal line provided by Justin. Apology songs aren't usually this upbeat and catchy so this one really stands out and I can see how this song converted his naysayers (of which I've never been one). The video for this is also burned into my brain and was definitely a fixture of the music channel for months.
11. Diplo - Be Right There 💙
This has a kind of retro dance vibe but at the same time the build-and-drop construction is very much 2015. I'm not sure why I was listening to so many dance tracks at this time as at this point I wasn't going to clubs, but I think this is probably another that I'd hear on Spotify's chats and got hooked in by.
12. Die Antwoord - Sex 🟠
We're at the tail-end of my interest in Die Antwoord by the end of 2015 - it was a brief but intense affair that started 12 months prior. It's also the point where the quality of their music tailed off; this is the only song from their 4th album that I thought was any good. Yolandi's rap is okay but nothing new and the chorus is fine but not enough to give the song a pass. There's a middle section where Yolandi is doing sexual moans and that doesn't do anything for me either - she's no Donna Summer. Usually if I listen to this CD, I skip this track.
13. The Smiths - Frankly, Mr Shankly 💙
We come to something old and the change of pace is jarring, I don't know what I was thinking when I sequenced this. It's very out of place with what's gone before, with its oompah rhythm and real instruments. However, it is one of my favourite Smiths songs lyrically. The entire thing is quotable and it's witty and disparaging without succumbing fully to Morrissey's woe-is-me self-deprecation. The line about how his job 'corrodes his soul' was one that applied to my working life - the colleagues I worked with may have been a joy but the customers were still a chore to cope with.
14. Ariana Grande - Focus 💙
Ariana is one of my favourite modern pop stars. This song isn't a game-changer like some of her other lead tracks are - it sounds too much like Problem - but it's still a solid pop hit. I loved the silver and lilac aesthetic of the video and the use of peak 2015 slang 'bae' in the lyrics. It's modern but gives a wink to classic RnB with the horn section - I loved that juxtaposition between the 2010s and the 1960s that she put into her earlier albums and it's undeniable that she's a very talented lady.
15. Strawberry Switchblade - Sunday Morning 💙
Super sweet, like a strawberry creme chocolate. I like the Velvet Underground's original of this song and I also like this breathy 80s Scottish cover. It's twee but comforting and charming and if I'd been a teen when Strawberry Switchblade's album came out, I would have been totally obsessed with them.
16. CHVRCHES - Leave A Trace 💙
Sticking with the Scottish theme, this is one of my favourite CHVRCHES singles. They crafted great indie-synthpop songs at this time including this one, but I've not been into their more recent work. Leave A Trace sounds glitzy and poppy but still edgy and cool, and it's hard to fault this.
17. The Cramps - Sheena's In A Goth Gang 💜
Sheena's In A Goth Gang is another cornerstone of my aesthetic at this point in time. It's tongue-in-cheek and humorous without being sarcastic like another well-known 'goth girl' song, Black No. 1 by Type O Negative. The Cramps are undeniably one of the coolest bands to ever walk the Earth so everything about this is executed perfectly, from Poison Ivy's surfgoth guitar part to Lux Interior's sneer.
18. The 1975 - Girls 💙
When I first fell for The 1975 I had 8 songs of theirs that I played on rotation and Girls' inclusion on this disc suggests it must be the 8th one that I'd forgotten about (along with Love Me, Sex, Menswear, Me, Only You, Sorry and an acoustic version of Sex). It's so sunny and sharp and fun - I hate the intro and the length of the outro but everything in between is an absolute joy. The lyrics are witty and could have lapsed into sexism if Matty wasn't so clever, telling the tale of a teenage girl running with the grown-up boys who he gets embroiled with. Girls is probably the 1975 song that fits in best with Lad Indie but thank god the band made this then moved on. Top 3 lyrics from this one, in no particular order: "I'm not your typical stoned 18 year old", "she's so Southern so she feels the cold" and "I know you're looking for salvation in a secular age but, girl, I'm not your saviour".
19. She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart 🎀
Musically this is Bauhaus with a drum machine - that muted guitar is so Bela Lugosi's Dead - but lyrically it has the same sinister sexuality that The Weeknd plays with, all delivered with the most deadpan vocal. I am obsessed with this song. The story. The music. It's so hot. Everything about it says 'danger' and I am completely taken in by it.
20. Fetty Wap - Trap Queen 🟢
It takes almost a minute for the beat to drop in this song, which feels like forever. It's one of those one-hit-wonder rap songs that we'll look back on in a "hey, remember this guy?" way - it sounds dated to me now while the other pop songs I've already covered are still pretty fresh. It's a fun song but it falls off its tracks at the end when he starts giving props to his crew and just yelling stuff out.
21. Mr Vegas - Heads High 🔵
Speaking of one-hit-wonder rap songs. This is from that point in the late-90s when dancehall-inspired rap and dance music was big so it sounds like that time but I still love the rhythms. He sings in Jamaican Patois so it's not easy for me to understand what's going on but apparently it's an anti-oral sex anthem which is a thing in dancehall. If that's true it's a weird song to become a hit. Either way, it's still fun but I suspect The Weeknd would disapprove of his message.
It's interesting to me how much of my listening at this time was made up of chart hits. I think the turning point was downloading Spotify and listening to the popular tracks before its algorithm figured me out, so I was connected to the culture in a way that I don't think I have been since, musically at least. I'm not sure whether that's due to where I was at personally, or whether it was just a golden time for pop music; possibly a bit of both. Like I said at the start, this time of my life was full of change and new beginnings for me and perhaps looking forward in my listening habits was part of that. That said, I've rated a lot of the songs highly but the two that I adore most came out in 1990 and 2005 respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment