‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Calvin Harris ft. Frank Ocean & Migos – ‘Slide’ This is everything internet-buzz pop music is right now, rolled into a more radio-friendly format. Sure, you may love Blonde and Culture, but you’re not going to … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway Giddens’ second solo album comprises of a moving 12 tracks that travel through 200 years of black American history, using traditional folk rhythms and powerful storytelling as a means to cover slavery, the civil rights … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Aldous Harding – ‘Horizon’ ‘Horizon’, the first single from Aldous Harding’s forthcoming album Party, is straightforward and certain, rooted in her gothic folk past, but not bound to it. Three piano chords repeat throughout, leaving room … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK The Nudge – Dark Arts The second album from Wellington psych-rock album is a three song brain-burner, combining all the right spiked ingredients to keep your head nodding while your mind is expanding. Best listened to waking up in a … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Fruit Juice Parade – ‘Whaling’ Contemporary indie’s reclamation of late 90s Midwestern emo has locally been inflected by both pop-punk (Carb On Carb) and twee (prizegiving circa ‘Soft’); the first single from Palmerston North duo fruit … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Syd – Fin Last week, Syd – of Odd Future and The Internet fame – released her solo debut, a digestible 12 tracks called Fin. It’s R&B sex-mix fodder in the vein of Aaliyah, D’Angelo and, more recently, Solange – … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Thundercat – ‘Show You the Way (ft. Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins)’ Not many things in life are more electrifying than seeing the names Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins in brackets after a song title. As … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Migos – Culture The Falcons are in the Super Bowl, Donald Glover’s Atlanta dominated the Golden Globes, Gucci Mane is free and Migos just dropped their sophomore album, Culture. In his acceptance speech for Best Television Series Comedy or Musical, … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK New Dawn – The Dying Light New Zealand’s ambient scene has remained in the shadows for the most part, but if New Dawn get the attention they deserve, it won’t for long. The Christchurch duo create ambient soundscapes that are … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Stefflon Don – ‘Real Ting’ Having first come to international attention after guesting on Jeremih’s Late Nights: Europe track ‘London’, the Dutch-raised British rapper has been blowing up recently. This, the title track of her debut … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Mica Levi – Jackie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) With its keening, disturbing strings, Mica Levi’s soundtrack for Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013) stapled the alienation of its main character to our ears. Jackie has less of the feel of … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK? ????/???? The Chainsmokers – ‘Paris’ ???? On first listen, The Chainsmokers’ latest, ‘Paris’, is pretty bad. But listen to it a second, third, fourth time, and you might not stop. It’s the synth-heavy pop-drop they dominated … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK The xx – I See You With four years and a solo project passing since the last communique from skeletal suburban R&B trio The xx, the roll-out of third full-length album I See You has been surprisingly light on fanfare – … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Song of the Week Grouper – ‘Headache’ In case you missed it: Paradise Valley, a new Grouper 7″ released just before Christmas, is everything you might hope it would be. ‘Headache’ is the longer of the two tracks, and stands … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. ZAYN & Taylor Swift – ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’ ???? One of the most underappreciated aspects of what makes Taylor Swift such a great popstar is her impeccable sense of timing. Traversing the country-pop of Fearless and Speak Now … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love Give it a first listen and you’d be forgiven for thinking Awaken, My Love! wasn’t a Childish Gambino record at all. Scrapping his now pretty famous freestyle flow of rap and replacing it with … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Run The Jewels – ‘Legend Has It’ Run the Jewels, the duo of Killer Mike and El-P, are tearing it up with renewed post-election anger ahead of their third album (which I assume will be called RTJ-3). On ‘Legend Has … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Various Artists – The Hamilton Mixtape Cover albums are never as good as originals. But The Hamilton Mixtape – a reimagining of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, by some of today’s biggest voices – comes pretty damn close. They’re not … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Nadia Reid – ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ The first single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Nadia Reid’s ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ sounds exactly like a sophomore record should: assured, confident, taking the best of … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Georgia – All Kind Music It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on here. Are the NY-based duo improvising in real time with real instruments? Toiling away on laptops? Cutting up samples and sticking them back together? Jamming out on … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Miranda Lambert – ‘Pink Sunglasses’ The first lady of country’s new double album The Weight Of These Wings is chocka with hits (and she plays around with vocal personas nearly to the same extent Beyoncé did … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Bic Runga – Close Your Eyes Last night, Bic Runga was honored with the ‘Legacy Award’ at the New Zealand Music Awards. Today, she released her fifth album, Close Your Eyes, and, as shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, it’s … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK The xx – ‘On Hold’ The first xx album pre-dated the likes of Miguel and Drake, but its melancholy and longing and preference for a pulse over a beat make it seem of a piece with … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Body/Head – No Waves On Wednesday afternoon, as the whole office began shouting the numbers the NYT’s likelihood-of-winning meter was landing on and our faces reddened with the growing realisation that Trump was going to win the presidency, I took a … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Little Mix – ‘You Gotta Not’ The latest Little Mix is a barnstorming ‘No Scrubs’-style anthem about men that still live at home, rumoured to be shots fired at Zayn Malik (er, again). It’s just unfortunate such a banger had … Read more
‘The Album Cycle’ features new releases reviewed, every Friday. ALBUM OF THE WEEK D.R.A.M. – Big Baby D.R.A.M. Rising to prominence when his vibe-blurring future classic ‘Cha Cha’ copped a sort-of-backhanded co-sign by rap’s most ruthless sonic magpie, D.R.A.M. probably could’ve been forgiven here for turning in a forgettable cash-grab and promptly relocating his entire career … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. BEST SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK: Austra – ‘Utopia’ Sometimes it feels like the loneliest place in music is the hinterland between chart aspirant pop and austere electronic music. Those who who exist in that space lack for all kinds of … Read more