Tag: pop

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Soulwax – All Systems Are Lying

Another record that went from zero to a hundred on my listening charts in something like a week. I had listened to it once or twice previously but it hadn’t stuck with me, and then last week it just did, a lot. At this point it has a guaranteed Top 3 spot in my year-end list.

The whole album is sprawling with musical references from so many things that I love. And it’s not just a few specific things but entire aspects of music that I’ve been getting hooked on and have been loving in practically my whole life. From the post-nu jazz of the ’00s with its artistic and electronic reinterpretations, through the big beat sounds of the likes of The Chemical Brothers or The Crystal Method, and electro-infused electronic music that I have often a hard time to put in a box other than “electronic music”, all the way to leftfield pop that is just meant to be blasting from the radio.

I rarely pinpoint single tracks because I usually like the coherent experience of a full album best. And this is an a-ma-zing album as a whole, no question about that. Still, Gimme A Reason is just a hymn, I am floored by this song. To me, this is the ultimate pop hit of this year. I don’t even remember when I put a single track on repeat for such a long time as this one. And after a hundred replays I still get goosebumps at the exact same timestamps. I can’t talk highly enough about this one, it’s an essential track.

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Dva – Piri Piri

This album catapulted to the top of my listening charts of this year, it just has a ridiculously strong hook. It definitely helps that sun coming out more, trees are bursting in leaves, and this is essentially a soundtrack to summer. Kung Fu and Lococo are hymns for a sunny day on a meadow by a lake while having food on the grill and tossing frisbee.

Indie pop is a great genre for this record: it is absolutely pop with a world music spin, but it’s quite a mile from mainstream radio pop. Some songs have this strong cuteness factor because of the singer’s voice, like how The Asteroids Galaxy Tour took us by storm in 2009 with their debut. It also brings me back to the Radiocafé era of Hungary.

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Lady Blackbird – Slang Spirituals

Feels to go from the first album‘s jazz sound towards mainstream pop territory. It has some strong hooks, and also some rather quiet, singer-songwriter type songs. I liked more jazz better, but this is still a fine record. Random: Like a Woman is such a great soundtrack song, I could image it played to pieces in movies. The album cover is terrible though, that’s a pity.

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Kylie Minogue – Tension

It doesn’t get any more late adopter than stumbling upon a pop record a year later, and getting hooked on a hit song months after earning a Grammy-award. Anyways, it is what it is. This is a fine classic pop album.

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Ulver – Flowers of Evil

This is not an overall great pop rock record. I had to check a few times while listening that I’m still listening to Ulver—this style and sound feels alien for me coming from them. That said, Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers is a flawless pop rock song.

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Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Mainstream pop is one of my least listened to genres of music, that is to say I probably only listen to less harsh noise than radio pop because in the grocery store and the gym they are less likely to have some Merzbow playing.

That said, this Dua Lipa album is my favorite pick in this area from the first half of 2020. Physical has the biggest hook and the Let’s Get Physical Work Out Video is just brilliant. The original one is nice, too, but aesthetically this complements the sound in a great way. (Also, giving this single a comeback with this second music video just before the release of the album was smart as hell.) And Good in Bed is just the most fun track of the lot.

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Ultraísta – Sister

Self-defiend as alternative, although I listen to this as pop music to listen to in the background. Probably that’s the fail in positioning: it can easily be too pop for an alternative listener but just weird enough not to be played on mainstream radio. However there’s the one hit wonder track (Tin King), which can make its way to all the commercials and TV series soundtracks to financially support the record.