Music is a huge part of my life and, as a result of this, I like to talk about it a lot; however, previous blogs that I've written for have been very specialised (usually talking about film) which means that I haven't really gotten the chance to cram my music taste down all your throats. But since The Pop Culture Cynic is a glorious mish-mash of...
everything, I figured I'd take this opportunity to chat about music! So whether your music collections needs some fresh tunes (I can pull that off, right?) or you're planning a totally rad party (I can definitely pull that one off!) or whatever, here are five of my picks that will definitely be featuring in my summer playlist. I'm not promising that this list will introduce you to brand new, recently released music or totally underground stuff that no-one knows about; you might have heard these songs or bands before and you may have hated them - each to their own! My initial plan was to just do a list of songs that I'm into right now, but then I realised that all the songs I'm going to write about could more or less come under the category of indie rock/pop, so I've decided to make a series. This is my "happy indie party woo" list. Maybe next week I'll do "songs to cry in the shower to". I've also linked all the titles to the songs in question, so give 'em a quick click. Go on, I know you want to. Let's roll.
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| Mmm, so white-washed by the sun... Photography! |
The Royal Concept are a Swedish four-piece band who previously went by names like Concept Store, The Concept and Stockholm's Royal Concept, much to my confusion whilst I was YouTube-ing their songs. All their songs are great and y'all should check out their album
Goldrushed, but if committing to listening to an entire album seems a little bit daunting (been there, The Hush Sound, I'll probably never listen to you in full. Sorry.) then I will urge you to listen to their single "
D-D-Dance", which came out in 2011. It's an upbeat tune with acoustic and electric guitars and sharp drums and slightly distorted vocals coupled with electro-pop goodness and what else can I say other than: it's happy. It makes me smile and makes me want to dance, which it what they're probably aiming for given the chorus: "D-D-Dance dance dance 'til you get it right, always on the go, keep your head up now." Forgive me if I am convinced for three minutes and forty six seconds that I can
dance out my troubles.
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| Got a fair bit of hair envy going on right now, don't speak to me. |
Okay, so I play this song and I have this montage of my life play out before my eyes and it's me getting my life together, it's one of those montages. You know, cleaning my flat, going to the gym, partying (responsibly, of course) and generally just getting shit done. If you had to double check the link that you clicked on to make sure I didn't accidentally link you to a Fun. song, I wouldn't blame you. Bleachers is the side project of Fun
. guitarist Jack Anontoff and thus a similar sound wasn't unlikely (although often, in my experience, when bands have side-projects, it's to try out different sounds; y'all heard
Charlie in Fightstar, right?).
I Wanna Get Better was Bleachers first single to be released and was set out into the world in February earlier this year. I'm not overly fond of the falsetto bridge, but I really like the rest of the song and it only lasts for about ten seconds, so I struggle through; aren't I such a trooper? The only other song Bleachers has out now is called
Shadow, which I do like, but I think
I Wanna Get Better is catchier and I like it more, so it would definitely come out on top if I were to chose between the two. Which I suppose is obvious since it's my primary pick out of the two songs in this post. I'll be quiet.
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| Look, look at our abstract album cover! We're indie and loveable! |
It was reeeeeeeally tough for me to chose a singular song by WALK THE MOON to feature in this post because I'm really digging their self-titled album. Again, I would urge you to listen to the
full album because it's absolutely great. I chose
Anna Sun because ... aaaargh, no, all their songs are great, go listen to them all. Okay, I think I chose
Anna Sun to represent these guys because this song was what kind of gave them their first break and the music video is pretty cool. What can I say, I'm a sucker for one shot sequences, and the second part looks like a party I'd like to go to. I think if I knew about this song back when I was in high school, it would have slotted nicely into the house parties I used to go to.
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| Not if he's seen my dance moves. |
I've heard this song on a couple of adverts, so you've probably already heard it too and it's probably going to get picked up by radio stations (it probably already has, I don't listen to the radio...does anyone?) and get played over and over and get really annoying but nonetheless! I think it's a really great song and I really like the music video for this one as well, the style really gets me and I like a lot. It's probably because the woman singing during the chorus reminds me of
that scene in Mulholland Dr. and I love that scene a lot. A lot, a lot. Like I've done with every other bloody song I've mentioned, I'm going to recommend that you check out his other stuff too. There's only five songs of his kicking about at the moment, so what have you got to lose? I'm going to level with you guys though, when I did get round to listening to his other songs I didn't like them. I don't know what it was, they just didn't quite hook me and so I let it be. I accepted it as one of those "I really like this song by this artist but all the other songs are kinda sucky" moments and listened to
Riptide a lot. But it was when I was listening to
Riptide that I suddenly refused to let this be the case. How could an artist that released a song I love so much not be able to produce equally as excellent songs? So I listened to them again and the second time around, they really got me. So if they don't strike you as much to fuss about the first time, leave them for a wee while and revisit them, you might be surprised.
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| I don't know what that is, but I wanna drink it. |
I'll get this out the way now - go listen to the
entire EP, it's great. Phew! Now that that's out the way, I can talk about
We Won't Go Home. These guys have a really cool blend of male and female vocals. Good old fashioned four-piece formation with a kick-ass
lady on the drums and vocals. That is some
Phil Collins shit right there. Anyway, yeah, the band is an American band who, in 2009, won Best New Artist, Best Song and Best Live Band at the O.C. Music Awards with their debut single "
Little Games" becoming the No.1 song on
Hype Machine. This is one of those songs whose chorus is simple enough ("We won't go home, we won't go home, ooh ooh.") that if I heard it at a party or in a club and was off my face, after about a minute I would feel comfortable enough with the lyrics to sing them, which I think is pretty cool because one of the things I hate when I go out is not knowing the songs that are being played and I love singing along to songs. Sorry if you've ever stood next to me in a club, singing was perhaps a little bit generous of me.
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| me, caught mid-holler. |
I think I'll wrap things up there. Those are my current top five indie rock and/or pop picks of the moment. Hopefully you guys enjoy them as much as I do! If you'd like to listen to them all uninterrupted, I've complied a handy little YouTube playlist for your listening pleasure which you can find by clicking
right here. Catch y'all next Saturday!
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