Let's Eat Grandma/ I'm All Ears
When budding British multi-instrumentalists Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth released their full-length debut, I, Gemini, under a curious project name Let's Eat Grandma in 2016, comparisons to indie-pop outliers like CocoRosie and Cocteau Twins were made. It is not without good reason, though, because that album glistened with DIY experimental pop brilliance and a good handful of quirks (a recorder solo, anyone?). Given their deliberately outlandish name and their brand of self-proclaimed "psychedelic sludge-pop," one couldn't help but wonder if they were being weird just for the sake of being weird, or if they were simply foreshadowing their artistic genius.
With the release of their sophomore effort I'm All Ears, it's become clear that Walton and Hollingworth are not messing about. Their art-pop inclination has taken root and is here to stay whether you like it or not. Introduced by an instrumental opener Whitewater, the album starts off with Hot Pink, a SOPHIE-produced ode to the duality between masculinity and femininity ("Bite my tongue now/That's your cue to bring me down … I'm such a drama queen/You got something up your sleeve, don't you?").
It's Not Just Me and Falling Into Me offer a pure synthpop moment and some of the most memorable lines in pop music this year ("Now we're both so unstable at the kitchen table/With these peanut bagels in a foreign state/I pave the backstreet with the mist of my brain/I cross the gap between the platform and train … My thoughts are pouring down with the rain/But now I see that it's all crystal clear"). Although less joyful in tone, densely-worded Snakes & Ladders finds the pair paying homage to shoegaze through strummed guitars and glowing synths.
Structurally reminiscent of two of the most flawless pop tracks Robyn's Dancing On My Own and Lorde's Green Light, I Will Be Waiting should inspire a bout of catharsis while giving us something to mull over: "The feeling when your head gets/You'll know it when your head gets surreal … And there's thinking/You try to excavate the feelings but they'd stay in/It's like the rhythm of the beat is just a feeling."
Towards the end of I'm All Ears, LEG dials things down a little (The Cat's Pyjamas, Cool & Collected and Ava) before finishing big with Donnie Darko, a near-12-minute closer that embodies the duo's pop savviness and mature songwriting ("'Cause the beatings just get harder and we'll never grow them out/'Cause the hand that does the dealings is the one that feeds your mouth"). Their debut may have had some people dismissing them as just another buzz band, but I'm All Ears will easily convince them otherwise.
The Playlist
Yena/ Circus Song
Thai indie-rock trio Yena is one of those bands we really look forward to hearing raise their voice. After making the case for social inequality through a toilet metaphor, they return with their latest cut, Circus Song. Boasting vivid animal-based imagery ("wailing killer whale," "baby walrus doing sit-ups"), the song offers yet another piece of brilliant social commentary on capitalism and exploitation: "Meanwhile he's guzzling the coffee down/Another pile of profits to call his own").
The Rhythm Method/ Chin Up
Now that the World Cup is in full swing, most of us have probably heard its Diplo-produced official song Live It Up by Nicky Jam (featuring Will Smith and Era Isterefi). But is it really the World Cup if we don't hear at least one song from where it all began? Enter British duo The Rhythm Method who's bringing with them Chin Up, a retro '80s synth-pop offering in the same vein as New Order and Pet Shop Boys. The track features sampled speech from retired footballer Alan Shearer and a hopeful message rooting for England's brave boys ("Every city in town gotta make a sound/Got a feeling England's got this … Chin up, England/It might just happen").
The Carters/ Apesh*t
After a very public marital strife, wife-husband Beyoncé and Jay-Z seem to have reconciled and surprise-dropped a joint album Everything Is Love, a follow-up to the former's Lemonade and latter's 4:44. The power couple, known collectively as The Carters here, pulls out all the stops on lead single, Apesh*t, which features Pharrell's production and guest spot from Quavo. In her rapping element, Bey goes from perfunctory flaunting ("Stack my money fast and go/Fast like my Lambo") to showing appreciation for their wild success ("I can't believe we made it/This is what we're thankful for"). Hashtag blessed.
Alice Glass/ Mine
Alice Glass' latest offering, Mine, finds the former Crystal Castles member revisiting her trauma of being in an abusive relationship. Dubbed "the song about someone who hurts themselves in an attempt to regain control of their own life and experiences," the track rides on a mid-tempo electro production, giving off a certain sense of serenity that contrasts with the dark, harrowing lyrics centred around self-harm ("So tonight I'll take my own body … Abuse myself till I'm finally mine again/I'll go and use a ninety nine cent/Razor drawn, razor drawn line/Leave a trace till I'm finally mine again").
BLACKPINK/ Ddu-Du Ddu-Du
K-pop has been killing it lately on the American charts and the latest conquerors are BLACKPINK, a rising girl group who has made history with their latest cut Ddu-Du Ddu-Du. Lifted from their four-track Square Up EP, the track finds the all-female quartet making history as it debuts at #55 on Billboard's charts, the highest by a K-pop girl group (another all-female K-pop group with a Hot 100 hit is Wonder Girls who blew up worldwide with their 2009's smash Nobody). As for the song itself, it's the usual serving of technicolour pop/trap suffused with sassy lyrics ("Our hands are full of a fat check/If you're curious, fact check").
