The weekend is upon us once again. That means it’s once
again time to take a look back at some of this past week’s best new songs and
music videos.
This week saw a lot of new videos from our favorite established
and newer artists. Iggy Pop’s anticipated collaboration with newcomer Oneohtrix
Point Never was finally released this week. Iron & Wine and Manchester
Orchestra both made their returns this week, putting out new videos and
announcing new albums. Royal Blood, Papa Roach and Blink-182 all released new
music videos as well, as did Gorillaz, who after releasing a new album a couple
of months ago surprised fans by releasing a video for a song that wasn’t on it.
X Ambassadors are also on the cusp of making their grand return, putting out
their third one-off song release in four months. We also got a very nostalgic
video from TLC, as well as a very emotional video from pop-punk band This Wild
Life.
Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, has been keeping
an eye out for new music and videos. Here are nine of our favorites from the
past week that we think you should put on blast this weekend.
1.
Oneohtrix Point Never feat. Iggy
Pop, “The Pure and the Damned”: Iggy Pop gives a haunting performance in
this collaborative track for Oneohtrix Point Never’s upcoming album. The spoken
word portions of the song are a bit unsettling, but with the low mix on the
instrumentals, that was most likely the desired effect. (video)
2.
This Wild Life, “Break Me”: I think part of what
drew my attention to this song was the video. The amount of passion in this
acoustic-led track is reflected even more so in the girl’s acting. You can feel
the mental anguish that is starting to take over. As the song swells, she
starts breaking things. It’s really well done. (video)
3.
X Ambassadors, “The Devil You Know”: “The Devil
You Know” has the potential to be another hit for X Ambassadors. Mixing an
Imagine Dragons-esque heavy beat with a much lighter garage rock melody. As a
result, the song swings while at the pace of a freight train. It’s also just
catchy enough for adult contemporary radio to pick it up. (video)
4.
Iron & Wine, “Call It Dreaming”: This is a
nice, mellow song, somewhere between alt-country and acoustic indie-rock. It’s perfect
for laying out in the sun and reflecting on life. (video)
5.
Gorillaz, “Sleeping Powder”: “Sleeping Powder”
sounds nothing like the songs on the Gorillaz’s latest album, which is perhaps
the reason why it wasn’t included on it. The song reminds me more of early Gorillaz,
where Damon Albarn’s and his guests’ vocals can actually be heard over all of
the effects he uses. The video, however, is just as trippy as the rest of their
recent videos. With “Sleeping Powder,” a computer animated 3-D 2D is layered
over 2-D film that’s been put through some sort of image filter. The effect is
a bit fuzzy and at certain points the layers conflict with one another, which
gets a little wonky. (video)
6.
Royal Blood, “I Only Lie When I Love You”: I
really like what I’m hearing from Royal Blood lately. “I Only Lie When I Love
You” is a great bit of garage rock that really gets you moving. The minimal
combination of guitar and drum really lets the melody and lyrics shine. (video)
7.
Papa Roach feat. Skylar Grey, “Periscope”: Papa
Roach have been experimenting a lot with their new album, turning out some
unexpected and interesting songs. “Periscope” is one of those. It leans far
more pop than most of their work and is missing the hard guitars that
characterize much of their sound, even their slower songs. With that being
said, the song has a decent melody and is easy to grasp lyrically and
emotionally. (video)
8.
TLC, “Way Back”: The video for “Way Back” is
like a time machine. Everything in this video, from the way everyone is dressed
to the way everyone is dancing, looks to be straight out of the 1990s. I don’t
mind when artists look back at where they came from, but even I, a big 90s
nostalgia fan, can admit that this video toes the line of being a little too
much nostalgia. As for the song, T-Boz and Chili haven’t really lost anything
on vocal quality. Lisa “Left-Eye” is missed on the track and Snoop Dogg doesn’t
really make up for it, but the song is catchy. (video)
9.
Blink-182,
“Home Is Such A Lonely Place”: This is one of the best songs I’ve heard from
Blink in a while. It has the down-tempo, honest feel of some of the band’s sadder
songs, but the lyrics are much sweeter. The video also adds a layer of
sweetness, showing each band member spending time with their families before
heading off on tour. (video)
These are some of our favorite new songs and music videos
from this past week. Give these tracks a listen and use them as a gateway to
discovering more great music.
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Discover music new and old at Vinyl Bay 777. Long Island’s
top new independent record shop has thousands of titles to choose from spanning
a wide range of genres. Whatever you’re into, we have one of the largest
selections of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and
memorabilia on the island. More titles are being added to our collection all
the time, so it’s always a great time to stop by the store or shop our website,
vinylbay777.com and discover something new.
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