TRACK OF THE WEEK
Fangclub
Loner
Fangclub are, it says here, a band from 2016 riding the crest of their first EP, but I’m not exactly sure I believe this supposed origin story. They are obviously a leftover band from the 90s grunge scene who slipped through some sort of time portal and are stuck here, thrashing their guitars against the raging of the sun. Loner is very good for a song that clearly came out on a limited vinyl pressing in 1997. Don’t believe Fangclub’s lies.
Netsky ft Macklemore & Digital Farm Animals
Rio
I think we’re all adult enough to admit that what we really want – what we truly, truly, deep down really want – is Macklemore to hop on a year-old song about Rio, drop a few “I just Googled the word Rio” lines about jetskis, and move on again. Well: I have some good news for us all. That exact thing exists. It’s called Rio. It’s about Rio. It has some trumpet sounds on it. It is, given the amount of people credited on it, surprisingly dull.
Mike Posner
Be As You Are
Mike Posner – fresh off the comedown from taking a pill in Ibiza to show Avicii he was cool – is back, this time with JordanXL providing a banging remix backdrop over which he can sentimentally tell teens through the medium of song that Things Are Going To Be OK. “There are moments when you fall to the ground,” Mike Posner, who has done about two songs ever, tells us. “But you are stronger than you feel you are now.” Is there anything worse than an inspirational song? I am afraid there is not.
Kanye West
Fade
You know the Kanye formula by now: there are a couple of samples (Mr Fingers’s Mystery Of Love pulses throughout this); Kanye complains vaguely about how bad being rich is; and then 100,000 rappers hop on to do anywhere between a hook and a verse. On Fade, Post Malone fills the “rapper you’ve almost but not quite heard of” role, while Ty Dolla $ign fills the vital “Ty Dolla $ign” position. Adequate.
Jax Jones ft Mike Dunn & MNEK
House Work
“I call it house work/ Cos it’s life work/ But I’m gonna throw shade if I don’t get paid for this house work.” That’s you, that is. That’s you next time you’re washing up or doing laundry. Because it never ends, does it? The plates just get ever more egg on them. The floors just get dusty again. Chores, the never-ending punishment for living a life. I think that’s what Jax Jones et al are on about here, anyway, with their gloomily catchy night-starter. I could be misreading it.
