Grimes
We Appreciate Power
A grinding industrial J-pop song inspired by Kim Jong-un’s propaganda girlband Moranbong, Grimes’s first single in two years casts the avatar formerly known as Claire Boucher as a cheerleader for The Singularity. “AI will reward us when it reigns,” she deadpans like a psychopathic Siri, urging unbelievers to submit to the yoke of UltrAlexa with promises of immortality in a sim utopia: “Pledge allegiance to the world’s most powerful computer.” Elon Musk BDSM, basically.
Los Unidades ft Pharrell and Jozzy
E-Lo
If, like me, you hoped Coldplay were using a false name to indulge their secret love of Jeff Lynne’s symphonic pomp, prepare for ERG-level disappointment. The Afrotronic bent and prisoner-of-conscience lyrics here fit the theme of the Global Citizen 1 EP, released ahead of a festival marking Mandela’s centenary, but this wallpaper EDM could make a Martin Luther King Jr speech sound vapid. Noble sentiment, but an earful of nightmare.
Phoebe Bridgers ft Jackson Browne
Christmas Song
The plus side of streaming killing the novelty Christmas No 1 is that, come mid-December, this column will not be stuffed with covers or charity songs in aid of Brexit fatigue. Instead, we get genuinely adorable Christmas tracks such as Bridgers’ cover of McCarthy Trenching’s ghost-piano ode to the existential desolation you only ever feel while cry-smiling your way through a cracker joke.
Chance the Rapper
The Man Who Has Everything
Meanwhile, Chance takes time out from fielding questions about his stalled collaboration with Kanye, Good Ass Job, to surprise-drop his languid retro soul-rap Christmas list on SoundCloud, compete with a chorus sample of a Laplandish elf. This year, he’s happy with the love of his children and looking for racial emancipation, an end to Trumpism, maybe “Santa to show up to doors he never ring”. If we must do presents, just get him a Beverly Hills mansion with a nine-car garage. Nothing fancy.
White Lies
Believe It
The video for this features White Lies gathering characters from the sketchier sides of Tijuana for what looks like history’s shittest room party. Or perhaps their guests are shocked comatose that the band who basically invented modern synth-rock are still producing timely, ultra-catchy stunners, but it’s the 1975 headlining Reading & Leeds. No justice.
