Call it the weekend, but Sunday is stressful. Our weekly responsibilities reset. We look to next week with anticipation and anxiety: assignments due, chores undone, unforeseen bumps in the road. So as Sunday winds down, we offer tunes to help you modulate your energy. Here are some recent picks from the team that should help distract from the Sunday scaries.
Rico Nasty, Boys Noise “Arintintin”
Eurovision season has arrived. And while Rico Nasty and Boys Noise aren’t in the running, “Arintintin” ought to be this years winner. The bass line will instantly induce fist pumping with its non-stop, octave hopping. If Sunday isn’t scary enough, the metallic synth lead is so terrifying you’ll need to dance so fast ahead of the beat, you’ll forget all your real woes, at least temporarily.
Tomorrow X Together ”Sugar Rush Ride”
This K-pop song has everything: Nile Rodger style funk guitar, crunk whistles, Britney Spears interpolations, house kicks, and trap hats. It’s maximalist production supports an assembly line of hooks on top of hooks. Take this roller coaster ride through an Epcot-like tour of every musical genre. You’ll be so nauseated, you won’t remember what you were feeling when you hit play on the song.
Charlie XCX, Addison Rae, A.G. Cook “The Von Dutch Remix”
CharliXCX once again gives us the stupidest and smartest pop at the same time. On first listen the track reads like product placement for Von Dutch, the 2000s fashion brand worn by the likes of Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake (when he could still land No 1 record). But in reality, the song contemplates the fleeting nature of pop culture set against a four-to-the-floor kick that sounds like it will never stop. Embrace your own fifteen minutes of fame with this unhinged dance floor smash remixed by CharliXCX’s longtime collaborator, the grandfather of hyperpop: A.G. Cook.
A.G. Cook “Brit Pop”
Imagine hyperpop took a chill pill. A.G. Cook mashes up the high tension genre with the soothing sounds of Enya’s pristine digital synthesizers. Its synths are both delicate and dizzying, moving in constant, random motion. It’s set at a tempo fit for the club, not the spa. Dreading cleaning your kitchen and organizing your papers? Insure a good nights sleep and forgo your final dose of caffeine today because “Brit Pop” should be your stimulant of choice.
Porter Robinson “Cheerleader”
If Fall Out Boy’s emo-pop were written for a 90s Sega Genesis console, you’d get Porter Robinson’s “Cheerleader.” If you can’t handle the problems of the present, this song will have you revisiting your high school gymnasium and every superficial missed connection. It’s all but certain you’ll hear this track in the next A24 teen psychodrama.
Maera O’Reilly “Hockets for Two Voices: II”
I do not believe in the pseudoscience of binaural beats, a style of ambient music that supposedly induces a trance state through small fluctuations in pitch. But I do believe that this Maeara O’Reilly composition will crate a trance state in its less than two minute run the time. The hocket, a style of performance where different voices trade off pitches, has a hypnotic quality that merges two voices into one continuous melody. If you need calm on demand “Hockeys for Two Voices: II” will do it for you.
- Charlie and the Switched On Pop team