TRACK OF THE WEEK
Solange
Cranes In The Sky
This song is a beautiful, soulful musing on depression, escapism and Solange’s place as a black woman in the US. You can either see it as representative of her continued development as an artist and essential voice in today’s pop landscape, or as part of a sustained campaign to stop being referred to as “Beyoncé’s younger sister” in every single review of her music. And, do you know what? We reckon the really good “away, away, awaaaaay” bit is what’s going to nail it for her.
Clean Bandit ft Sean Paul & Anne-Marie
Rockabye
Here’s a tropical house track (of course!) featuring Sean Paul (of course!), but with the unwelcome addition of violins. To make things worse, it’s about a single mum who has to strip in a pub so she can feed her son, a point that Paul underlines by shouting “daily struggle!” at random intervals, while the video sees Clean Bandit performing an awkward dance routine with all the enthusiasm of, well, a pub stripper. Horrific.
Maroon 5 ft Kendrick Lamar
Don’t Wanna Know
It’s the year 2078, and archaeologists find a box buried deep in the desert. “Found a valuable historical artefact?” asks one. “It says Maroon 5 – Don’t Wanna Know,” replies the other. “This can’t be it! The song that caused all music to be banned, for everyone’s sanity, in the worst year humanity has known to date!” And then they’ll smash it to pieces, just so no one has to ever hear this bland, lazy attempt at jumping on the tropical house trend ever again.
Cashmere Cat ft Selena Gomez And Tory Lanez
Trust Nobody
Trust Nobody is a sparse house track about late-night, clandestine, back-seat-of-the-car hookups, which, to be frank, is a bit uncomfortable thanks to wholesome former Disney star Selena Gomez groaning and purring her way through lyrics such as, “I’mma tell you how I want it / Baby, tell me how you need it”. Let’s just pretend she’s talking about her Starbucks order in a really sexy way instead.
Mont Jake
Daydreaming
In these tropical house-laden times, you’ve got to be grateful for Mont Jake, a new artist from Denmark who creates the kind of soothing, soulful, electro-tinged anthems that make everything feel all right again. Daydreaming sounds like slipping into a warm bath after a long day of burying Maroon 5’s single in the desert, and it’s amazing.
