Joywave
Like a Kennedy
When all those sociopaths told us how brilliant the whole fascism revival thing would be for music, this is what they meant. Over the sort of piano refrain you usually find accompanying a conscious uncoupling rather than short-sighted nuclear brinksmanship, Daniel Armbruster encapsulates our global state of comatose terror: “Are they gonna bomb us all? Do you think they’ll build the wall?” he deadpans in an AI falsetto as blasts of irradiated space noise build to a barrage.
Beyoncé
Spirit
If internet racists can’t handle a black Little Mermaid, imagine the uproar when they hear there’s now a black, female Elton John. For it falls to Beyoncé to deliver the showstopper from what looks like David Attenborough’s remake of The Lion King. Thankfully, she has dragged the whole project up by its hakuna-matata with broad bursts of savannah nobility and a chorus that captures the sound of Africa as authentically as Boyzone’s A Different Beat.
Charli XCX ft Christine and the Queens
Gone
The mark of quality pop music in 2019 is how thoroughly you can fuck the whole thing up at the end, like a novel with the last chapter printed upside down in Polish. Case in point: bar the casual swearing, you would barely notice this formulaic glitch in the 80s simulation down Yates’s on a Friday until it starts burping, crackling and atomically splitting apart in the last minute. Let’s call it pop musick.
The Wedding Present
Jump In, the Water’s Fine
Fucking up pop tunes? Take a lesson from the grandmaster. David Gedge has been smothering the most magnificent melodies known to Yorkshireman in guitars the density and velocity of space junk for more than 30 years, and this sublime grunge waltz is crying out for you to rediscover them. Or you could just stick with Blossoms. Your loss.
Oscar Scheller ft Lily Allen
1%
Back in 2015 when he was just Oscar and a bedroom laptop troubadour, Scheller dreamed of collaborating with Rihanna. Today, he’s one seventy-eighth of the way there, duetting with Lily Allen on this ode to a burgeoning text romance complicated by the pitiful battery capacity of an iPhone 6. Unfortunately, Allen brought her cheesy reggae pop vibe along from 2006, making the whole thing sound a bit Nokia 3310. Factory settings please, Oscar.
