Danielle Bradbery - This is pretty much the most pop I have heard pop country (even more so that Taylor Swift...). I might like pop country less than regular country? I don't that's wrong actually. It is a very pop country song, but it is a pretty weak pop song IMO. Go with your guy though if you think it is good (also you know what my pick is going to be...)
KORPIKLAANI - This is pretty great. It feels a bit like some Metallica stuff from Garage Days, the way they cover some stuff that predates Metal as a genre really (which is a long way of me saying it reminds me of the delivery of Whiskey in a Jar). THis is pretty goddamned rad. Not as great as the track that autoplayed right after it. If anyone reading this liked this track you own it to yourself to check out
Pilli On Pajusta Tehty which is a live filmed clip turned into a music video (so the song is the studio version), but they are a pretty great band do see all together live. It is also a rad song. Expect it to be the second favourite and my non-Florence pick.
Pentatonix - a song about how great music is telling you to sing by an a capella group? That is... super on the nose. It miiiiight blow past the point of literally being the thing where I don't enjoy it again. That or I am just a grumpy jaded fuck who hates other people having fun. Its cool that it exists, but I am going to go over here with all my sad music and fall in love with my own misery a bit more.
Meg Myers - Yeah! Like this! I love the first 50 seconds intro, then dig the 20 second build to where it breaks. Then it breaks into a nice minimalist chorus. This is more country than the country song (and has actual strong songwriting unlike my opinion of most country). I am trying to think of what it is like... Maybe Hole with much cleaner vocals? It would be early Hole though because it is much poppier than most Hole is after that album that was written with Kurt Kobain (who lets face it, wrote pop "grunge" music as well). Which is weird because the further away you get from that album the cleaner Courtney Love's vocals are, but the more alt rock the songs get. Anyway, this is really good! I was wrong, I think this is stronger than Korplikaani, but YOU are right in that this is a strong week.
Florence + The Machine - The Odyssey continues. The film clip once again just puts the concept of the album right out there in the open. I love that she is so very openly showing that it is a concept album and putting it out there to the world in a sequence of short films. She is doing two things that pretty much died in the 80s and doing it in a genre that never really did it. We have a concept album in 2015. We have film clips as mini movies which no one has done even close to as well as Michael Jackson. However unlike lots of concept albums it isn't really a story (though the videos are!) it is just an album that is exploring a very very tight range of topics and exploring them with slightly different metaphors each track. Unlike Michael Jackson she isn't doing a short film as spectacle, it is a sequence of incredibly serious art pieces. Also can we talk for a bit about how much I like the concept of a song referencing Samson and Delilah referencing the point of view being from the Delilah referencing being the cause of destruction in terms of "pulling the pillars down"?
Now the sun is up and I'm going blind
(Holding on for your call)
Another drink just to pass the time
(I can never say no)
Gods I fucking love this artist, this album, everything about this. I just keep feeling all the emotions during it and get the shivers from this.
Of course this is my favourite and this is my pick. I will be honest before this film clip and typing all this up? I probably would have off handed say Delilah is pretty low on my favourites for the album. I am wrong to do that. Just ... gods. Even just thinking about this one now destroys me.
Tove Lo - The cop's stache is fucking great. Also yeah this is also what I am talking about. Synth pop that is deeper than country is these days. This is a great track... I do think this is also better than Korplikaani and I really liked that track. I don't have tons to say about this. I love "But on the good days I am charming as fuck". I dig the start of the track where she is rocking the Bad jacket dancing through a shopping centre.
This.. is probably the strongest week we have had in a very long time. It is a week with Florence though so Florence wins for me because well... I was super serious when I think she is the best artist of a decade. I just... can't even really parse everything that goes on with her tracks. What the Pentatonix track is ABOUT is how what every Florence track IS for me.
I am kind of on the fence between Meg Myers and Tove Lo as second best. I think I like Synthpop better than indie rock by just a tiny bit like as a genre on average, but I think Meg Myers track is more interestingly put together. Tove Lo uses repetition better though.
On repeat listens... yeah I think Meg Myers is just tiny tiny tiny tiny bit better to me? Some of it might be that Meg Myers is building with the song where Tove Lo is building with a soliloquy.
Oh also I suppose to just heap more praise on Florence, in a week of songs wallowing in being broken people where life is hard, the reason I like her SO much more than everyone else is that she takes me through all that emotional torment in much more focussed instances. Like a very specific part of relationships and uncertainty. Gods it is just laser focused. So good.
Damn, that was hard this week which is ridiculous given how easy this week was.
