The Hit Songs of the Summer

September 25, 2021 ProducerLunchboxLeave a comment

It occurred to me that I have been derelict on getting my full rankings of the charting single out this summer, which is no good because how else are we supposed to name a song of the summer? Let’s remedy that now that we’re officially into autumn.

June

Roddy Ricch – Late at Night
BTS – Butter
Olivial Rodrigo – brutal
Riton X Nightcrawlers ft. Mufasa & Hypeman
Sofia Carson – Fool’s Gold
Megan Thee Stallion – Thot Shit
Bad Bunny – Yonaguni
Polo G & Lil Wayne – GANG GANG
Jackson Wang – LMLY
DJ Khalid ft. Post Malone, DaBaby, Lil Baby and Megan Thee Stallion
Olivia Rodrigo – hope ur ok
Polo G ft. Lil Durk & The Kid LAROI
Migos – Avalanhe
Anitta – Girl From Rio
Olivia Rodrigo – traitor
Doja Cat – Need To Know
Olivia Rodrigo – favorite crime
Migos ft. Drake – Having Our Way
Olivia Rodrigo – 1 step forward, 3 steps back
Olivia Rodrigo – enough for you
Olivia Rodrigo – jealousy, jealousy
Olivia Rodrigo – happier
Dierk Bentley – Gone
Marshmello and the Jonas Brothers – Leave Before You Love Me
AJ Mitchell – STOP
Chris Young and Kane Brown – Famous Friends
Nessa Barrett ft. jxdn – la di die

July

Dua Lipa – Love Again
Doja Cat & The Weeknd – You Right
Tyler, the Creator ft. Lil Uzi Vert & Pharrell Williams
Tate McRaw and Khalid – working
BTS – Permission to Dance
Rauv Alejandro – Todo de Ti
Tyler, the Creator ft Youngboy Never Broke Again & Ty Dolla Sign – WUSYANAME
Normani ft. Cardi B – Wild Side
Billie Eilish – NDA
Maneskin – Beggin’
Coldplay – Higher Power
Dan + Shay – Glad You Exist
Bella Porarch – Build A Bitch
Jason Aldean – Blame It On You
Doja Cat – Ain’t Shit
Cheat Codes – Lean On Me
BIA ft. Nicki Minaj – WHOLE LOTTA MONEY
DaBaby – Ball if I Want To
The Kid LAROI ft. Justin Bieber – STAY
NF – JUST LIKE YOU
Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits
Cole Swindell – Single Saturday Night
Post Malone – Motley Crew
Walker Hayes – Fancy Like
Chase Rice ft. Florida Georgia Line – Drinkin’ Beer, Talkin’ God, Amen
Aaron Lewis – Am I The Only One

August

Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
The Weeknd – Take My Breath
Silk Sonic – Skate
Lizzo ft. Cardi B – Rumors
Kane Brown ft. Blackbear – Memory
Pop Smoke ft. Dua Lipa – Demeanor
Tones and I – Cloudy Day
Tai Verdes – A-O-K
Lainey Wilson – Things A Man Oughta Know
TOMORROW X TOGETHER – Magic
Aventura ft. Bad Bunny – Volvi
Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood – If I Didn’t Love You
Camilla Cabello – Don’t Go Yet
Farruko – Pepas
Lil Nas X ft. Jack Harlow – INDUSTRY BABY
Luke Bryan – Waves
Bazzi – I Like That
WizKid ft. Justin Bieber and Tems – Essence
Maroon 5 – Lost

And after all of that I am calling the song of the summer, which totally doesn’t line up with my rankings at the time but after hearing it a bunch the song for summer 2021 is…

Silk Sonic – Skate

You cannot deny this feel good jam. It should have risen a lot higher up the charts because this song is just too fun to be relegated to just the second single off the Silk Sonic record.

September 4, 2020

September 11, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

All Them Witches – Nothing As The Ideal (New West Records)

Wow. Musically this is a treat.

This Nashville quartet is steeped in blues, psychedelia, prog, and stoner metal. While they are a hard rock outfit, they employ classical guitar, gothic tones, and their own blend of everything that came out of the Delta Swamp (Dr. John, Soylent Green, Junior Kimbrough, etc).

This is their 6th album, if you don’t count live releases, which I don’t. That’s in just 8 years, making them almost as prolific as King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard or Steve Buscemi. Much like the aforementioned genre-bending geniuses, you never quite know what to expect from these cats. Even just on this record, there are significant differences among the tracks.

The album opens with a slow build into a Tool-esque jam in 6/8 (“Saturnine & Iron Jaw”), “Everest” is a Led Zeppelin-meets-Donovan guitar instrumental, which bleeds into a Soundgarden-style downbeat banger (“See You Next Fall”). That gets followed up by a folk/country/blues track (“The Children of Coyote Woman”). The latter of these brings me to my next point, because it is the first song on the album that truly works with this dude’s voice. Up to this point, his voice is sort of like a blemish on an otherwise pristine surface. It’s not bad enough to make you stop listening, may even make it interesting, but causes you to hold back.

The next 2 songs show a different characteristic to his voice without actually changing what he’s doing. The music just finally suits the nearly monotonous style of the singing. “The Children of Coyote Woman”, “41”, and the album closer, “Rats in Ruin”, almost seem like they came from a different band.

The album returns you to regularly scheduled programming: brilliant music and subpar-if-interesting vocals. I, personally, still found that the record was a great listen, but I would understand if you don’t agree.

FFO: Deaf Radio, Agents of Oblivion, King Gizzard

-JR

The Podcast: The Eleventh – August 2020 In Review

August 28, 2020September 11, 2020 ProducerLunchboxLeave a comment

The FKA crew covers their favorite new albums of the month, discuss the best new arrivals in the top 40 and play a new game to help determine the filthiest song of all time.

Zack’s Top 3 Albums of the Month:
1. Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings
2. Mach-Hommy – Mach’s Hard Lemonade
3. Alex the Astronaut – The Theory of Absolutely Nothing

Jeremy’s Top 3 Albums of the Month:
1. Blues Pills – Holy Moley
2. Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings
3. King Buzzo with Trevor Dunn – Gift of Sacrifice

Dan’s Top 3 Hit Singles of the Month:
1. Taylor Swift ft. Bon Iver – exile
2. Taylor Swift – cardigan
3. Miley Cyrus – Midnight Sky

August 14, 2020

August 22, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

Kiesza – Crave (Zebra Spirit Tribe)

Some folks were just destined to be interesting, to be unique, to be awesome. From what I can tell, Kiesza is one of those people.

She was born Kiesa Rae Ellestad in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with a Norwegian grandfather. She has been a sailing instructor, as well as a member of the reserves of the Royal Canadian Navy. She suffered from a traumatic brain injury in 2017, from a car accident, and her recovery had her stay in a dark room for six months. Seriously, go check out her Wikipedia page, as there were several other details that I did not add here.

As a musician, Crave represents her second studio album, with the first one (Sound of a Woman) coming in 2014 – a pretty healthy gap. It doesn’t seem like she’s missed a beat, however. This is reminiscent to what “dance music” would have consisted of in the 80s or early 90s. The title track, as well as “Love Me With Your Life” illustrate the sound the best, but damn near every track has the signature synth and electronic drum beats to some extent. “Love Never Dies” is another solid track, using a sample that could be “When the Levee Breaks” or something close to it – but it works well regardless.

Kiesza’s smooth vocals help to make this a more enjoyable experience. There is a heavy level of production and auto-tune at play, but it sounds good – both as a corrective measure and an artistic one. Lyrically, it’s pretty simplistic, but as I’ve mentioned before, some albums truly need that. Crave with more complex lyrics would cause there to be a bit too much going on, and the lyrics would get lost in the shuffle.

Overall, Crave was a very good, very unique listen. Toes were tapped, and fingers were rapped, all throughout the album, thanks to Kiesza’s interesting style. Hopefully it won’t be another six years for album #3 to drop.

FFO: Robyn, La Roux

-Z.

August 7, 2020

August 14, 2020September 18, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

This week, we decided to try something a little different. We added a “Quickies” section of this review blog for quick, bullet point reviews. We had been discussing how we could cover more ground and talk about more music. This section will allow us, and you, to be exposed to more releases. Check it out and let us know if it’s something you would like us to continue or if it feels like clutter. Cheers!

-JR

Deep Purple – Whoosh! (Edel Germany GmbH / earMusic)

3 members of the current lineup of the band have been there since 1968. Ok, that’s a lie. Deep Purple are sort of an industry joke, with an ever-rotating cast of dozens of Class A musicians, earning its own special band members Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deep_Purple_members). Only drummer, Ian Paice, has been on every studio release. But Roger Glover and Jesus Chri…I mean, Ian Gillan, have been on nearly all of them.

Honestly, this album does not sound like it was released in 2020. I suppose it’s a breath of fresh air in that regard. Chock full of the goofy, intense theatricality that we would have expected of these cats back in the mid-’70s, Whoosh! is just plain fun. Who doesn’t like organ solos, choral harmonies, classic guitar tone, and sing-along grooves? Vocally, Gillan is starting to sound his age, with just a hint of Joe Walsh creeping into his voice. But what he’s singing doesn’t really need the high-pitched wails that he has been doing for 50+ years.

This is your dad’s music, in the best possible way. It really might be the perfect feel-good soundtrack in the time of pandemic. Put the windows down in your car, stay on the highway, and take “The Long Way Round”.

FFO: Kansas, BTO, Styx

-JR

July 24, 2020

July 31, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

Gaerea – Limbo (Season of Mist)

Gaerea is not a band. They are a “Vortex community”, “bestow[ing] their Undying Sigil to the masses”.

For an act that has been around less than 5 years, this black metal quintet from Portugal is certainly making an impact on the global scene. The theatrics create a mystery about the group. Only 3 members of the outfit have been named, the remaining 2 shrouded under a hood bearing the Undying Sigil.

Limbo takes us to Dante’s first circle, the hopeless wasteland where human chattel await their eternal damnation. This imagery is potent throughout the record, starting with the vivid depiction on the cover and continuing seamlessly through the music.

Calling this “black metal” is a bit of a mislead, though. The theatrics and themes aside, the music actually feels more like doom metal, with plenty of sludgy breakdowns, atmospheric bridges, and a sense of guitar melody that you just don’t get with black metal.

Whatever you want to call it, Limbo is relentless. It opens with a powerful overture of a song, “To Ain”, an 11-minute opus that sets the tone, theme, and sound that will occupy your earspace for 52 minutes over 6 tracks. The structure of the album is classical in nature, using movements to walk us through the “new” stages of grief: sadness, denial, anger, madness, and despair. The album closes with “Mare”, a 13-minute monolith that bookends Limbo with that same feeling of being held captive, but with chaos lurking overhead.

I found myself listening with rapt attention. Limbo is an absolute masterpiece and Gaerea has created the perfect soundtrack to 2020. It really feels like we’re in the First Circle, awaiting damnation. I hope they don’t make us wait too long to experience the Second Circle, where we will be blown about in a violent storm without hope of rest.

Bring it on.

FFO: …And Oceans, Enthroned, Carach Angren

July 17th, 2020

July 24, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer811 Comment

Meghan Trainor – Treat Myself (Epic)

I sat down with this record expecting, even hoping, for something to tear apart. I was not ready to actually enjoy (most of) a Meghan Trainor album. The lead single, “No Excuses”, is such a trainwreck of a song I was ready to launch into a tirade about faux-sincerity, narcissism, and banal pop tropes that are all embodied by a mush-mouthed blonde commercial puppet.

Sure, she switches between personalities from song to song, decrying the horrors of a relationship, then wanting him back. Sure, when she sings the phrase, “Love Yourself”, it somehow sounds like she’s saying “Out dog yourself”. Sure, every song is a repetitive, four-chord, easily-digestible melody.

But…

Goddammit if it doesn’t work this time. Ignore the Nicki Minaj part of “Nice To Meet You” and the melody and beat are quite pleasing. Close your eyes and listen to “Funk” and you can almost hear Janet. “Working On It” might be the most honest a pop star has been recently about personal failings. Throw a Spanish verse into “Lie To Me” and it could be Shakira. And the best part is, she finally has a producer that nearly eliminated the overuse of handclaps and ‘60s pop basslines.

My favorite track on the album has to be “Here To Stay”, in which she basically says, “Yeah, I’m a piece of shit, but apparently you’re into that, so let’s do this.”

The problematic tendencies definitely still exist (“Babygirl”, “Genetics”, and the aforementioned “No Excuses”), but by and large, this is a huge step in the right direction.

FFO: Janet Jackson, Sabrina Carpenter

July 3rd and July 10th, 2020

July 24, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

We owe you a bit of an apology. A lot of good music happened in July, but due to some personal things that happened during that time (not going to bore you with details), we struggled to get things written. Rest assured, we were listening and intend to remedy the lapse in posts…

Right now.

Cuddle Magic – Bath (Northern Spy)

Bath is the sixth album from Brooklyn-based sextet, Cuddle Magic, and it is a damned shame that it took me six album to hear of them. As of this writing, I have not traveled back through to their origins, but if Bath is at all indicative of their body of work, they have a fan for life.

Folk-pop is a genre that doesn’t get a ton of radio play or heated discussion outside of your local bookstore or coffee shop. It’s also rare to find a folk-pop outfit that challenges the dynamics of the genre. Bath is acoustic. It is also orchestrated to be extraordinarily intoxicating. Voices float in and out at precisely the right moments. The instrumentation is consistent by changing to suit each individual song, whether that’s a harmonica (“Gracefully”), a pump organ (“This Way”, “Eleanor”), or the simple pluck of an acoustic guitar (“Hurt a Little”, “Still In Touch”), it is the perfect accompaniment to the softly sung vocals of Benjamin and Kristin.

Yeah, I learned their names. So what?

From the first moments of “What If I”, you can feel the love. Love for the music. Love for each other. Love for the listener.

Oh, and the fun part…

The whole album was recorded live in a bathroom. That’s right! Six people, no headphones or electronic tricks. Just microphones, instruments, and pure, unadulterated talent.

FFO: The Shins, Bon Iver, Iron and Wine

June 26, 2020

July 3, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

HAIM – Women In Music Pt. III (Haim Productions)

First and foremost: there is not a “Women In Music Pt. I” or “Pt. II”. There is a lot of significance to the number “three” here, however, given the three sisters that make up HAIM (Este Haim, Danielle Haim, and Alana Haim), this being their third album, and likely other references that I’m not smart enough to get. Regardless of nomenclature, though, this is a powerhouse of a pop album.

Women In Music Pt. III shines for all of the different areas that it touches and excels in. From a funky beat on “Los Angeles” that would be at home in an early 90s hip-hop track, to something closer to a Fleetwood Mac track (“Up From A Dream”), HAIM hits all the literal and figurative notes.

I refuse to call HAIM a “girl group”, because that would insinuate that “boy groups” are on the same level, which the vast majority are not. The sisters have not only matured their sound, but have truly expanded upon it here. I will be doing them the justice that I should’ve done them years ago, and going back to check out their previous two albums. I know they won’t be as good as Women In Music Pt. III, but they will still be a treat.

FFO: The Aces, MUNA

June 12th, 2020

June 19, 2020October 16, 2020 monkeyhammer81Leave a comment

Note: The post is uncharacteristically light on material this week. We would apologize for that, but we don’t produce the banality that got released on June 12th. When an artist does something of note, we’ll comment. Feel free to argue for your favorite artist that we slighted this week. Or any week for that matter.

Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour (Parkwood Entertainment)

Sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey have both lived a full life in the entertainment world, despite being only 21 and 20 years old, respectively. From acting credits including The Fighting Temptations, Meet the Browns and Let It Shine, to being discovered from covers performed on YouTube; following all that up with a mixtape, two EPs, and now their 2nd studio album, Ungodly Hour – and their first charting single on the Billboard R&B Songs chart. At this point, you’ve already got a pretty good career. Or, in the case of Chloe x Halle, a pretty good start.

The superstar that discovered the Chloe x Halle duo on YouTube was none other than Beyoncé, who sought them out after listening to their cover of Bey’s “Pretty Hurts”. The influence is palpable; all three women are strong, sensual, introspective and unapologetic. The production is at the perfect level, enough so that it doesn’t just fade into the background, but not so much that it overshadows the work of the two songstresses.

The best song on Ungodly Hour, in my opinion, is also the charting single. “Do It” is a legit earworm through and through, with a great beat and fun lyrics (“He say, ‘Where you from?’ Tell ’em, ‘Outer space’/’Cause a bag the only thing I’m tryna chase”). “Overwhelemed” is a short track that highlights the more emotional side of the duo, while closing tune “ROYL” (short for “Rest Of Your Life”) is a nice nod for doing your thing in the limited Earth time you have left. In all tracks, the sisters are balanced, both within themselves and together as a single entity.

Even with all the success they’ve had already, the future remains bright for the pair. Halle will be starring as Princess Ariel in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid soon, with Chloe nabbing a role alongside Russell Crowe in upcoming horror flick The Georgetown Project. I’m sure it won’t be long before the two get back in the studio to start work on album #3 – and if I had to guess, we’ll be talking about how they just keep improving a few years from now. Beyoncé better watch out, lest the students become the teachers.

FFO: Beyoncé, Solange, Teyana Taylor

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