I don’t know if you’re gonna like the chorus, I didn’t, but listening to the full thing through gives a good story to picture. Steven A. Clark has some smooth southern draw to his R&B, which ranges into some sort of indie.
Better question – not that there was a question before – who the hell is the gal? I really don’t understand why musicians don’t give proper credit to their features… [ frustrating ] She does only make a small appearance a minute in and one other on repeat, but somewhere on SoundCloud is not asking much.
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I didn’t quite listen to the lyrics on Phonat’s ‘Never’ at first, it’s all about the sound at the start, but they’re my favorite thing about it now. The sound however is something to talk about, especially in Icarus’s version. We’re trying to lay off the remixes right now and save ’em for a collection, but Icarus speeds up the tempo and lays in some disco-house synths to livin’ this one up to where it’s needed.
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Sitting here listening to NTEIBINT’s ‘Never Without You,’ trying to think up anything to write on so we can get Stella’s voice out there, gets me thinking about how music has gotten me through so much. We can’t pick our lives or even our minds, but at least we’ve got music to help us cope with this shit show.
As much as NTEIBINT has supported Stella with a fairly fresh beat, the girl gets most our praise. Stella’s got a country blues tone that reminds me of Stevie Nicks. Though Stella leans more city proper than Stevie’s country swang.
[I’m really just comparing the two so I can show off this clip of Stevie practicing ‘Wild Heart’ – but listen to Stella first!]
If you had to pick between Banks, Lana Del Rey, Lorde & Lykke Li, who’d it be? Mine’s definitely the baddest bitch of the bunch. I don’t know what it is. And how long it’ll last. But I know it has something to do with how she slips her personality in her songs in such small spaces. How she sings “only then, can we begin” melts my heart every time I hear it.
Check it out in one of Lykke’s latest, ‘No Rest for the Wicked.’
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I swear I’ve heard Izzy Bizu’s White Tiger before, but the best ones always feel that at first. Izzy’s got a pop in that faint rasp voice and her piano counterpart Mika Barroux plays off it well. Kinda jealous of him right now – for that piano dexterity, yes, but more so this look she gives him in their music video.
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Shiny Toy Guns reminds me of a few different music influences all rolled into one. First off, Chad Petree’s vocals sound a helluva lot like Damon Albarn’s of Gorillaz and Blur. A similar inflection in their voices, which seemed like a British thing but Chad’s from Oklahoma.
Other influences include Last Lynx and their ‘Killing Switch‘ song. It’s that male // female duet against a lighthearted, upbeat beat that lump the two songs together. It also reminds me of Shallow Hal’s club montage with that 90’s perception of what 70’s disco sounded like — but I’m not even gonna try to attempt to convince or prove it to you.
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Forget our favorite ladies (and one dude) of 2013. 2014 is her’ and it’s already topping them all.
And only someone such as Yukimi from Little Dragon could make it so obvious. She’s got something in her voice few singers can compete with in personality & character. Not only that, but the boys behind her are giving her production, like in “Klapp Klapp,” the compliment her sound needs to stay in the spotlight where music’s progressing right now. The only ones that may be able to do them better are Disclosure. Better yet, wouldn’t that be one hell of a collaboration.
Who do you think would collab best with Little Dragon? Gorillaz is tough competition.
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Electronic music more than ever shows us that it isn’t just about what sounds good to the ear. If you analyze every single sound in Phantogram’s ‘Fall in Love,’ you’ll miss out in the beauty of when it all comes together. Listen to her voice and let the beat fade into the background.
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The only thing more difficult than writing is categorizing these damn top 2013 lists. I messed up our last 2013 favorites, the lady vocals, so I thought I would clarify this list for all of us.
A few years back this would have been called, “Indie to R&B,” in fact it was, but the latter has flipped producer-side and is more accurately classified under electronic for us this year.
While this is obviously intended to be centered around indie & pop music, including alternative & folk, genres are hard to pin down, especially to one or even two nowadays. So to give this list a more accurate, less appealing title, the music here is centered around a vocal-bases.
Like rock before it, indie & pop have become rock’s sliding scale contemporaries, putting the singer smack out in front. Which compared to electronic goes back to a composer or producer-bases, like jazz and classical before it.
And yes, there are elements of electronic, jazz & disco on this list, which is why I had to go on this rant in the first place.
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Rarely do I keep going back to the same musician and consistently post everything they put out. I crave novelty and vocals especially tend to dry up fast. Bordeaux, however, is one of a few exceptions.
In my favorite single off his latest side project, Warm Space, ‘Rust Lovers’ takes that voice I love so much and puts it into a very warm piano piece. The other two tracks are still a good taste of Bordeaux’s style & voice, but I love the lyrics in ‘Rust Lovers’ most. Not necessarily just for the meaning, but what his voice brings to it too.
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