WAMPOHOLIC

Major Lazer, “Get Free feat. Amber Coffman”

Speaking of Diplo, I’ve seen him hyping this track on Twitter for the past week and retweeting fans’ reactions (“EPIC,” “is listening to this 100 times straight overkill?”) so I sat down to listen fully expecting to jump right back up like I got a dancehall in my pants-…all.

I cranked up the volume at the first notes, wondering where the beat was. The reggae carousel sound kept spinning along, and Amber’s vocals hopped on. My brain caught up, and after I clicked into what I was actually listening to, I got so pumped! One of my favorite Major Lazer songs is “Good Enough,” which has a similar stoned melancholy to it. Both of these tracks are wanting something more, but the unique timbre of Amber Coffman’s voice, (unique enough to hold its own amidst the rest of Dirty Projectors’ components,) trickling down each verse, makes her plea for freedom hold a little more weight than “Good Enough’s” relationship woes.

(And holy shit I just downloaded it from their site and it comes packaged with a remix by Bonde Do Role. Listen to that too, a fantastic example of remix as reinterpretation as opposed to genre shift.)

iamdonald:

Childish Gambino, “Eat Your Vegetables”

Ridiculous flow not centered around punchlines, a beat that samples Donkey Kong Country and isn’t the faux-orchestral style of his previous work, and a bunch of Atlanta shout-outs early on. Gambino comes back big.

La Sera, “Please Be My Third Eye”

Chugging fuzz guitars offer a strong platform for the vocalist’s sweet come-hither lilt, begging me to be her third eye. I think those’re vibes contributing the hyped-up Jeopardy theme song of the bridge. Whatever; tonight is when I figured out that being asked to be a girl’s third eye is just about the cutest line I could hear. Let’s dance, shaking our heads back & forth and twisting our hips like it’s the 50s but punker.

when you sit beside me/ i can see much further/ than my own dimension/ i can’t wait much longer

Oberhofer, “Cruising FDR”

Oberhofer’s new album, Time Capsules II, released yesterday, is a heartbreaking romp, full of young love that you know is gonna tumble down. I saw them last week for the fourth or fifth time and had not heard “Cruising FDR” before, but it hit me right away. So charged and catchy, Brad’s voice goes well with this surf-rock space-excursion. The theramin helps too. It’s a lot noisier live, and lends itself well to dancing like its a midnight beach party.

I had Tchaikovsky on blast in my buddy’s van/ and I was driving just about as fast as one can/

Cloud Nothings, “Stay Useless”

I want to lose a lot of this song out of my Corolla windows hauling ass down I-20 as my last summer in Atlanta winds down and the sun sets behind me and I will, definitely, need a second to catch my breath.

There’s a beautiful duality in the chorus’ lyrics: he either needs a breather so that he can remain useless for a teensy-bit longer, or he needs time itself to stay as useless as it has been to him all these years. The opening reminds me of Girls’ “Lust for Life,” and there’s a same struggle to feel like a teenager again in both. Poppy, catchy guitar transports you to a beach, or a patio, or a Corolla, and gives you a quick taste of wherever you made your last stand.

I need time to stop moving/ I need time to stay useless/