New Music
Four Tet to Release Two New Albums Parallel and 871 on Christmas Eve
For many, Christmas Eve is traditionally the night you get to open just one present early. Four Tet is bucking custom by surprise releasing two new albums, Parallel and 871, this very night. The English electronic musician aka Kieran Hebden announced the musical gift with an Instagram post in which he also revealed the efforts’ artwork. Check that out below. Parallel and 871 respectively mark the second and third full-lengths from Four Tet this year following Sixteen Oceans in March. He also surprise released the ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ EP under his Indecipherable Wingdings moniker back in May, and has a collaborative album with Madlib dubbed Sound Ancestors coming next month. You can hear the lead single from that latter project, “Road of the Lonely Ones”, now. Editors’ Picks Earl...
BTS’ Jimin, V Gift ARMY with New Songs “Christmas Love” and “Snow Flower”: Stream
You better not pout, ARMY members, because BTS’ Jimin and V have gifted fans a pair of new Christmas songs, “Christmas Love” and “Snow Flower”. Jimin’s “Christmas Love” is a snappy pop number that shines as crisply as a blanket of fresh snow. The “love” of the track title isn’t about a specific person, however, and more about the feeling this time of year brings to many. Roughly translated from Korean, Jimin sings, “Christmas I love you/ Oh, you’re the one forever/ I wish it was today.” As he explained in a post on the official BTS blog (again, translated from Korean), Jimin wrote the song to reconnect with his childhood memories of the holidays: “As we grew, feeling responsibility for what we have, that responsibility made us, who were innocent, mature and I think that enables us to hide ...
Slaughter Beach, Dog Surprise Releases New Album At the Moonbase: Stream
Merry Christmas Eve! Slaughter Beach, Dog, the side-project of Modern Baseball’s Jake Ewald, has surprise released a new album. It’s called At the Moonbase and it’s available to stream below via Apple Music and Spotify. This is Ewald’s fourth full-length under the Slaughter Beach, Dog moniker. Technically it follows his 2019 album Safe and Also No Fear, but musically this new record is more akin to his 2016 debut Welcome and 2017’s Motorcycle.JPG. Written and recorded alone at home and at The Metal Shop, Ewald’s recording studio in East Kensington, At the Moonbase is an exercise in solitary production and solo songwriting, no doubt in part due to the coronavirus pandemic. Across its 11-song tracklist, Ewald dips into slacker rock, expanded arrangements, and melancholic piano. It’...
Daft Punk Upload Tron: Legacy Bonus Tracks to Streaming Services
Daft Punk have revealed Tron: Legacy — The Complete Edition, a 10th anniversary update of their only film soundtrack. The expanded reissue contains a total of nine bonus tracks, and you can stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. This comes on the heels of their September vinyl box set from Mondo, which notably included seven previously-unreleased songs: “Sea of Simulation”, “ENCOM, Part II”, “ENCOM, Part I”, “Round One”, “Castor”, and “Reflections”. That deluxe edition was only available on vinyl until this week, when it suddenly appeared on some streaming services for the first time. But it had changed over the last couple of months, acquiring an additional two bonus tracks (“Father and Sons” and “Outlands, Part II”, which were previously iTunes exclusives) as well as the fittin...
Kid Cudi’s 37-Second “Beautiful Trip” Breaks Record for Shortest Song on Billboard Hot 100
It took Kid Cudi ten years to release the final entry in the Man on the Moon trilogy, but only 37 seconds to break a Billboard record. “Beautiful Trip”, the 37-second intro to Man on the Moon III: The Chosen, has become the shortest song to ever chart on the Hot 100. The Hot 100 launched 62 years ago to celebrate the most popular songs in America. It’s explicitly geared towards singles, and an unconventionally-structured track like “Beautiful Trip” would never have made the list before Billboard began counting online streams. As it is, Man on the Moon III debuted as the No. 2 album in the country behind Taylor Swift’s evermore, and since “Beautiful Trip” is the opening cut on a streaming hit, it almost accidentally grabbed the No. 100 spot on the Hot 100. The song ...
Darkside Reunite for New Album Spiral, Share “Liberty Bell”: Stream
After six long years, the wait is finally over: Darkside have returned. The electronic music duo of Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington has announced a new album, Spiral, due out Spring 2021 via Matador Records, as well as shared a lead single called “Liberty Bell”. Formed nearly a decade ago, Darkside found critical acclaim thanks to their 2013 full-length debut, Psychic. Their time in the spotlight was very short-lived, however, as Jaar and Harrington announced their “indefinite hiatus” less than a year later. According to a statement, Spiral was completed in December 2019. It was then mastered by Heba Kadry (Beach House, Slowdive) and mixed by Rashad Becker. Today’s release of “Liberty Bell” provides a first look at what to expect from the forthcoming sophomore album. And it appears to be ...
Lil Durk Pays Tribute to King Von with New Single “Backdoor”: Stream
Lil Durk has released a new song called “Backdoor” dedicated to fellow Chicago rapper and King Von who was fatally shot outside of a nightclub in November. The third single from upcoming album The Voice, it sees Lil Durk protecting himself from his enemies and staying vigilant so as not to end up like his fallen friend. “Before you leave that door, you gotta pick that glock up,” he says, later adding, “I’m riding around with choppers.” In the track’s corresponding video from JerryPHD, Lil Durk sports King Von’s own signature O’Block chain around his neck. As Complex points out, he also shared a text exchange on Instagram confirming his choice of jewelry. Watch the “Backdoor” video below. Lil Durk previously shared The Voice single “Stay Down” featuring Young Thug and 6LACK. This ...
Mac DeMarco Shares Cover of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’
Even though this year’s holidays are shittier than ever, we still have Mac DeMarco’s annual Christmas song. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” done in his signature twangy indie style, is his contribution to the 2020 holiday canon. It comes with a music video where he’s performing in the mountains next to a blow-up Santa Claus. His previous carol covers include 2018’s “Wonderful Christmastime” and last year’s “The Christmas Song.” Watch the video for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” below. [embedded content] DeMarco dropped other work this year: In August he put out all the demos from his latest record, 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy, under the titles Here Comes The Cowboy Demos and Other Here Comes The Cowboy Demos Additionally, back in October, the Canadian m...
Darkside Return With Spiral, Share New Song, ‘Liberty Bell’
Darkside, the electronic duo comprised of Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar, is back. They announced that they’ll be releasing their first new album, Spiral, next spring. The pair previously put out their debut LP, Psychic, in 2013. Spiral has been in the works since 2018, and the album was completed last year under the watchful eye of the duo and engineer Rashad Becker. You can listen to the first song from that album, “Liberty Bell,” below. [embedded content] Earlier this year, the pair released a live album, PSYCHO LIVE JULY 17, 2014 on Bandcamp. You can listen and/or grab that one here. This was the first sign of activity from Darkside following a lengthy layoff. Darkside’s Spiral will be released on Matador Records. You Deserve to Make Money Even When...
Burial Unleashes New 12-Minute Song “Chemz”: Stream
Just weeks after collaborating with music titans Thom Yorke and Four Tet, enigmatic producer Burial has returned with a solo song all his own. And it’s got a whopping 12-minute (!) runtime. Titled “Chemz”, the sprawling cut is a nonstop rave of the UK garage variety. And like a DJ set condensed into a bite-sized bit, it has its distinct movements: there’s the hyperactive start; the melodic wave that builds to a classic breakbeat; and the all-in dramatic end, where Burial cranks things up to techno-raging levels. A press statement on Bandcamp succinctly describes “Chemz” as “hooky, rushy and loved up – both an unhinged premonition of unleashed post-pandemic joy and a demonic flashback to past ecstasies in a hardcore style perfected in the UK.” For those who’ve tuned into the producer’s work...
Mac DeMarco Shares Mellow Cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: Stream
Christmas is just four days away, which means Mac DeMarco is back to fulfill his annual tradition of covering holiday songs. This year, the Canadian jizz jazzer has shared his take on Judy Garland’s classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, which you can stream below. The original version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a wistful, tender track about holding on to hope despite being stuck in a tragic place. It always hits home, but this year it feels especially relevant during the pandemic. In DeMarco’s hands, though, the song takes a more laid-back approach, stretching Garland’s original words into a hazy, mellow rumination over a stringy trip-hop-like trance. DeMarco shared his cover alongside a lo-fi music video. In the clip, the Here Comes the Cowboy singer c...
Iggy Pop Releases COVID-19 Rocker “Dirty Little Virus”: Stream
I’m happy to report that not all 70-plus white male classic rockers are COVID-19 deniers. Iggy Pop is back with a new song inspired by the novel coronavirus, and unlike Eric Clapton and Van Morrison’s recent anti-lockdown collaboration, Pop’s “Dirty Little Virus” accurately reflects the severity of the pandemic — even if the lyrics are, times, quite painful. “COVID-19 is on the scene,” Pop sings to open the song. “Grandfather’s dead. Got Trump instead.” Later he croons, “She’s only 19, but she can kill ya. She ain’t my type, but it is what it is.” In a video accompanying the song’s release, Pop explained that he was “moved to write a direct lyric, not something too emotional or deep, more like journalism. Who, what, where, where… I left out the why, because that gets too complex. But...
