Welcome to the August edition of Beats Per Minute’s monthly playlist BPM Curates.
Summer is over – school is back in. Sad as that might be, now is the time to show off to your friends all the cool new music you discovered over the break. If our June and July editions of BPM Curates didn’t already pack your inventory of tunes, then here’s another new batch that still have the tendrils of summer sun clinging to them as we move towards autumn.
Check out and share our playlist of picks below.
Below is the track list and some notes from our team about why they’ve selected them for this month’s playlist.
A$AP Rocky – “HIGHJACK” (feat. Jessica Pratt)
“HIGHJACK” must surely be of the year’s most eyebrow-raising collaborations, with A$AP Rocky enlisting Jon Batiste, Creed B Good and, remarkably enough, Jessica Pratt for his latest standalone track. It works spectacularly nonetheless; the song starts like a mid-tempo club banger, with A$AP fending off the wolves with defiant bars. The track simmers down halfway, however, like a fist slowly unclenching, as Pratt, Good and Batiste, their soft voices stifling the noise outside from the shit talkers and temptresses. – Jasper Willems
Davidsson – “Light in the Dark”
“light in the dark” is the opening track to Davidsson’s latest album, Lifelines, and it sets the mood perfectly for the hour of music ahead on the record. It’s a lazy, pedal-steel heavy peice of ambience. Notes smear across woozy landscapes as piano chords ripple and rumble beneath. It might take some two minutes of it’s near-seven minute runtime to click into place, but if you are looking for a piece of guitar-led ambience that has shadowy hues, a familiar melodical lilt, and the languid feel of a hot dusky evening, “light in the dark” will suit you perfectly. – Ray Finlayson
Fievel is Glauque – “As Above So Below”
“As Above So Below” is as if hearing an obscure seventies show tune on shrooms. The song unravels like a tiny vortex of swooping instrumentation – woodwinds flutter like a flock of butterflies, guitars twinkle like patterns of florets and Ma Cléments’ saccharine vocals ooze wide-eyed wonder. “How can one believer change the world?” she wonders at the heart of the song’s benevolent chaos, keeping Fievel Is Glauque’s dalliance with hope and haphazardness persistently afloat. – Jasper Willems
Fiona Grey – “Cavalier”
This LA artist traveled to Rome to record her debut album – and the first two singles are “bravissimo”. Her pop gem “Cavalier” was preceded by “Beer Drunk Glory Days”, a gorgeous ballad with a powerful vocal that’s as good as anything Taylor Swift has released this decade. – Larry McClain
Geordie Greep – “Holy, Holy”
The blow of losing London legends black midi (at least “indefinitely”) has been somewhat softened by the announcement of the debut “solo” album from main vocalist Geordie Greep. I say “solo” because these songs – as evidenced by lead single “Holy, Holy” – are still very much full band production (even including black midi drummer Morgan Simpson on many tracks). “Holy, Holy” showcases Greep’s operatic storytelling more greatly than ever, with him acting like a maniacal narrator as his band shifts through a vision of rock that liberally draws from a variety of musical styles with seamless dynamism. It’s a heck of a ride that demands repeated listens to grasp the full scope of the scene on hand. – Rob Hakimian
Jaryn Jones – “Hard To Love”
This Nashville newcomer excels in multiple genres, from the Broadway brilliance of Sara Bareilles to melodic pop like her new single “Hard To Love”. Her first name is pronounced like “Aaron with a J” – and you’re going to be hearing that name a lot in coming years. – Larry McClain
The Killers – “Bright Lights”
The Killers’ new single, “Bright Lights”, oozes a blend of fatigue and resilience, that pressing desperation to remain desirable, relevant, important – to someone or, hell, something. “Maybe I’m tapped out or just plain old tired / tonight the charge is reading low, but I’m still hardwired”, Brandon Flowers belts, tapping into the primary theme of Springsteen’s oeuvre (starting at least with 1975’s Born to Run and apparent through current work). Toward the end of the track, Flowers is joined by a growing chorus of voices, the synth-heavy mix bringing to mind a Broadway production (suddenly more Meatloaf or his protégé, Kyle Craft, than the NJ troubadour). A quintessential example of hands-in-the-air Americana, “Bright Lights” underscores The Killers’ ability to forge effective hooks and explore motifs central to western Romanticism (and the human condition). – John Amen
Nilüfer Yanya – “Mutations”
The beauty of “Mutations”, like many of Nilüfer Yanya’s songs, lies in its subtleties. This track, off of forthcoming album My Method Actor, furthers establishes her gifts at verbalising sensations over concrete thought, as if letting her subconsciousness take over the mic. Lyrically, it puts her in the same rarified air as a Deftones or a Cocteau Twins. “Mutations” feels crisp and effortless in its nimble pulse, which belies the fact that the song’s arrangements and lyrics have been laboured over with extreme care.
It’s pop music bending to the rules of impressionistic art. The drums sound as if forged from sandstone from a temple, the guitar work ripple like billows of paint underwater, and the string section break the surface like it’s gasping out for air. To maintain a straight face amidst all this tastefulness seems like the default thing to do, which is why I love all the more how Nilüfer’s voice birds around the music, naively vocalising her inner revelations before thinking them through. The way she bites down the words “Watch this” before the song’s shadowy instrumental passages embrace you yet again… that’s the kind of cool you simply can’t teach. – Jasper Willems
Orla Gartland – “Late To The Party” (feat. Declan McKenna)
Teaming up with Declan McKenna, Orla Gartland’s latest taste of her new album (Everybody Needs A Hero, due 4 October) captures that restless electricity that Gartland excels in; there’s so much bustling energy wrestling to find an outlet on “Late To the Party” that it feels weird that the song is a mere three and half minutes long. With each syllable imbued with a loaded eye roll-like delivery, Gartland might share the stage with McKenna, but she draws all the attention back to her. A performer through and through, she’s impossible to take your eyes off her here. – Ray Finlayson
Pharmakon – “Wither and Warp”
Pharmakon’s new single, “Wither and Warp”, from the upcoming album, Maggot Mass (out October 4), shows Margaret Chardiet continuing to explore mixes that evoke claustrophobia and the nightmare of ever-dwindling options. Vocally, she’s more tonal than lyrical, her growly voice battered by industrial-leaning sonics. As the track unfurls, it grows slightly more rhythmic, including what sound like riffy guitar lines that soon segue/collapse into a disturbing cacophony. This is 2019’s The Lighthouse meets Milton’s notion that “The mind is its own place” and can, in turn, be a hell or heaven (in this case, irrefutably hell). “Wither and Warp” captures the essence of prolonged suffering, what it might feel like to be spiritually condemned, sentenced to eternity in flames, a cosmic vacuum, or at best an extremely small room (that somehow seems to keep getting smaller). – John Amen
Samantha Margaret – “Mass Appeal”
There’s an endless supply of boyfriend/breakup songs on the streaming services. In comparison, Samantha Margret is our pop poet laureate because her songs tackle serious societal issues while still being highly entertaining. On “Mass Appeal” she explores how a woman can be both flattered and repulsed by casual male attention. This song shows why Samantha is becoming one of our most culturally important voices. – Larry McClain
Soap&Skin – “Mystery of Love”
It’s a daring move to take on a highlight from Sufjan Stevens’ extensive catalogue (and an Oscar and Grammy nominated track/fan favourite at that), but if there ever was anyone who is up for the task, it’s Anja Plaschg (aka Soap&Skin). No stranger to covers (her forthcoming album TORSO compiles the many she has released over the years), Plaschg turns “Mystery of Love” into a wistful ode. Sustained by sturdy and delicate piano, a warming orchestration of strings and brass colour the landscape. Stretching the track to over six minutes, not a moment feels wasted, Plaschg unfurling the lamenting lyrics at her own pace and, like all good cover tracks, makes it her own. – Ray Finlayson
Tinashe – “No Broke Boys”
With her long overdue smash hit “Nasty”, R&B treasure Tinashe made clear that she needs someone who’s going to “match her freak”. On another highlight from her new album Quantum Baby she makes clear another stipulation if you want to get with her: “No broke boys”. Something of a 2020s update to “No Scrubs”, Tinashe’s out here strutting her stuff, knowing that she’s too good for every damn man who even dares look. It also features one of the most fun and earworm singalong choruses of recent memory. – Rob Hakimian
Wallice – “Heaven Has To Happen”
We’ve probably all experienced imposter syndrome – but Wallice experienced in front of huge audiences night after night supporting bigger acts. The rising LA artist has poured those experiences into her debut album The Jester (due in November) and lead single “Heaven Has To Happen” is a visceral yet irresistible window into that world. Flitting between quiet please of “heaven has to happen soon”, via sudden bursts of noise and concluding with an enormous sax-led instrumental finale, this track runs us through the gamut of emotions associated with living your dream and being terrified of it at the same time. – Rob Hakimian
Listen to our BPM Curates: August 2024 playlist here.
