TRACK OF THE WEEK
Calvin Harris ft Young Thug, Pharrell Williams and Ariana Grande: Heatstroke
This is the soundtrack to one of those luxurious HD pool parties you’re never invited to. It sounds like someone unscrewing a cool light beer and thumbing a lime wedge into it, while girls in cork-soled heels walk into perfect aquamarine water and successful drug dealers eat hors d’oeuvres. In short, being the best DJ in the world is a good look for Calvin Harris.
Kendrick Lamar: Humble
Kendrick is back, which is good, but also bad because now I have to take anywhere between one and four days off work to scour the internet and work out what he’s rapping about. Humble, quick review: extremely “meh” the first time you hear it, unstoppable play-it-again banger the next, might be a massive Big Sean diss track, probably isn’t. I’ve only been working on this one for 72 hours, so it’s probably too early to tell.
Arman Cekin ft Snoop Dogg and Paul Rey: California Dreaming
There’s absolutely no way Snoop Dogg didn’t cobble this feature verse together from the notes of the last song he did about California, the Katy Perry one. Good old Snoop: startled awake at 2pm on the day of the recording session, half-stoned and panicking slightly. Booting up his old, shitty laptop, fans blowing like an engine: SNOOP LYRICS > CALIFORNIA > 2010. Wandering into the studio in some baggy jeans where he does this in one. That is what happened. Nobody can tell me otherwise.
Bleachers: Don’t Take the Money
I mean, yeah, this is brilliant. As with all Bleachers songs, it sounds like the climax of an 80s high school romcom – the crucial scene at the dance, hazy lighting on crinoline and satin, the leads finally kissing and running out into the hot rain of the American summer. This song has effectively made me want to watch a film that doesn’t even exist.
Gorillaz: Saturnz Barz
This wins points for being good. In fact, most Gorillaz songs – against all logic – are pretty good, although the “group” is almost expressly a Damon Albarn vanity project, and the novelty of its members being cartoons has long worn off. However, it also loses points for having too many Zs in its title. The band is already called Gorillaz, Damon; it just izn’t necezzary.
