[Listen] ALL THE REST: “Our Youth”

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“for anyone who doesn’t quite have their life together. Very rarely do we learn from any mistakes other than our own. Sometimes we make a mess, but that’s just how it goes”

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I knew as soon as I heard the very first 2 seconds of this track, that it would belong to my all-time favorite list: a list of songs that I maintain on those virtual post-its on PC, with one click could quite dangerously disappear and I’d have to rack my memory to start all over again.

All the Rest are the newest addition to this list, and its no wonder that this song resonated with me… much more than any other in the past few months. Most of these songs on my list follow a pattern; they have not much in common in terms of genre but more in tone, generally uplifting but existential, energetic but wistful. Songs to listen to so you can take time to momentarily sulk and feel sorry for yourself, but then move forward with life.

‘Our Youth’ draws pangs of familiarity, with sharply recognizable 80s chords (think Eurythmics), catchy, high-pitched vocals and body-swinging ‘pa-pa-para-para‘s. But this isn’t just another peppy indiepop track, as the lyrics mull over future unknowns, misfortunes and naivete just as much as the next brooding, millennial ballad to hit the charts. The exception is that the band packages disillusionment with some semblance of hope, leaving you optimistic rather than bereft.


Listen here:

More All the Rest to come.

[Listen] MAGDALENA BAY: “Ghost”

Mica Tenenbaum of Magdalena Bay © Nicole Almeida

Retro pop

Indie pop

Synth-pop

Heavy pop

Glitz pop

Space pop

Neon pop

Magdalena Bay began writing ’90’s music from the future’ together since high school. Listening to this track of theirs is quite like time-travelling in a glitch-infused tornado of neon color. Pulsing beats, jarring vocal chops and a carnal base topped with contrasting lofty vocals and synths all build up to a thrashing climax: Jamming, clashing, brain-dazzling electronic sound.

Both recent graduates of college, the duo have found solace in pop in expressing a nostalgia for another time of freedom and self-expression.

In an interview with Atwood magazine, the band commented on how today’s pop music has indulged into the sound of the past, on a global scale. The band argues that this is a reflexive response of using that blinding brightness of 80s and 90s sound to counter the dominant currents of darkness surrounding pop in the past few years.

Read more here:

Talking Retro Pop and Vintage Film: A Conversation with Magdalena Bay

And listen here:

Amazingly, Magdalena bay are also responsible for all of their glitch-crazed graphics accompanying their videos and campaigns, essential to creating ‘the vibe’ of their music according to the band.

[Listen]: YUMI ZOUMA: In Camera

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Presenting OtO’s most mellow post yet, Yumi Zouma bring fresh grass, blue skies and the dream-pop world of New Zealand to their track, In Camera. Known for being Chet Faker’s and even Lorde’s opening act at a point in time, the band embraces its Oceanic influences in an incredibly atmospheric way; soft, layered vocals on a backdrop of cruising, plucky guitars that have you humming.  The beat gives you the feeling and image of those warm-toned, high saturated do-nothing days, lounging about in the sun.

Unabashedly huge Fleetwood Mac fans, the band’s retro inspiration in the track is subconsciously felt, tinged with the sensation of memory, as if you’d have heard the track before, but never quite caught the lyrics. The  production perhaps is responsible for this, the band primarily relies on virtual synthesizer emulators accompanied by light instrumentation.

The album, Willowbank, is named after a wildlife sanctuary in Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s hard to only talk about the music without connecting to the recent tragedy in Christchurch in the past week… if anything, this post is in remembrance of that peace the band members found in their hometown, and in hope that peace can be found once again.

Read more in their interview with WhattheSound here: http://www.whatthesound.com/interviews/yumi-zouma

 

And an extra track just because every time I listen to this band I fall in love just a little more. I’ve never heard a track so accurately represent a color in pure sound… powder blue.  

 

[Listen]: JAI WOLF: This Song Reminds Me of You

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Jai Wolf Back again releasing singles of his 2019 album this week.  Electronic music can be tear-jerking: whoever said that synths, beats and melody had no humanity really need to listen to this track, pure composition needing no words to reveal a yearning heart.

Give Jai Wolf some love, his album will drop on April 5 and he’s on tour! Full album review and tour dates will follow shortly.