Latest Site News

[DalekTurret32]

16/05/2019

#95. Martin Garrix feat. Macklemore and Patrick Stump - Summer Days [ADEQUATE]
#89. Vampire Weekend - This Life [[GOLD]] (FOTW HM)
#77. JayKae and Aitch feat. Bowzer Boss - On The Way Home [ALRIGHT]
#76. Iggy Azalea - Started [FAIR] (Least Fave Of The Week)
#74. Dominic Fike - 3 Nights [GOOD]
#67. Becky Hill & Weiss - I Could Get Used To This [GREAT]
#60. Billie Eilish - you should see me in a crown [[GOLD]]
#49. Bastille - Joy [BRILLIANT]
#41. MoStack - Wild [GOOD]
#18. Hardy Caprio & DigDat - Guten Tag [ALRIGHT]
#15. Logic feat. Eminem - Homicide [[GOLD]] (Fave Of The Week)
#9. Shawn Mendes - If I Can't Have You [ADEQUATE]
#4. Lewis Capaldi - Hold Me While You Wait [GOOD]


Summer Days has a different sound from Garrix’s usual EDM style; it carries a funky electric guitar with some solid production from Garrix himself to give a nice Summery feel.
This Life deals with a relationship that has lost its spark. This concept may seem downbeat, but the electric guitars blending with the percussion present an upbeat vibe to contrast with the lyrical content. The chorus has lead singer Ezra Koenig say that his partner has been cheating on him, while he has been cheating on her, as well as ‘cheating through this life’, thus rendering both sides of the relationship even. There’s also some beautiful additions of a piano in the 3rd verse and backing vocals from Danielle Haim in the 2nd chorus.
JayKae dropped an absolutely fantastic deep hip hop track last month in the form of Heartache. His new single On The Way Home isn’t on the same level of excellence as that track in my eyes, but it’s quite a chill song. I might give this another listen when I manage to find the lyrics to this.
Started has a good setup with those ascending three note synth lines and Iggy has some decent flows and brags, but I wasn’t too fond of the chorus.
Dominic Fike has left me impressed with his contributions to Kevin Abstract’s recent album Arizona Baby and his single 3 Nights has already become a Top 10 hit in Australia. After giving it a listen, I can safely say that this is a pretty nice acoustic guitar-driven tune. Fike delivers some good vocal lines on this and the lyrics remind me of Khalid a bit. I also quite like the backing vocals in the chorus.
I Could Get Used To This does a good job in dealing with intimacy during a relationship, with some colourful dance production from Weiss as well as a sublime vocal performance from Becky Hill (who has provided vocals for a lot of dance tracks I have really liked such as Rudimental’s Powerless, Matoma’s False Alarm and especially Oliver Heldens’ Gecko (Overdrive).)
you should see me in a crown showcases a bowl full of spine-chilling imagery backed up by an excellently dark delivery from Eilish, coming packed with gripping production and a fantastic drum pattern breakdown in the chorus. Also, I like the part in the chorus where she says “one by one by one” due to the mischievous syncopation used to carry it, as well as the drum pattern abruptly stopping at the third ‘one’. It’s my favourite track from her recent album next to “bury a friend”.
In last week’s edition of DT32 Rates The UK Debuts, I remember saying that I would have liked Bastille’s Doom Days [the song] more if there was one more verse added to it. Follow-up single Joy feels more like a complete song by having a complete verse-chorus structure. It's also carried by production that feels quite anthemic. From what I’m attempting to piece together, it’s about a man who’s at a rough point in his life and the fact that his partner is not present adds a level of despair to this situation due to implications that said partner would usually worry about his problems or be there to support him. The chorus reminds me of their 2016 hit Good Grief, due to the choir-style backing vocals and similar rhythm it contains.
Wild comes in the form of a piano driven hip hop song in a similar vein to Mo’Stack’s Top 40 hit from last year What I Wanna. Whilst that song made use of a piano sample from Brenda Russell’s 1979 song A Little Bit Of Love, Wild has a piano line that sounds similar to Cam’Ron’s 2002 hip hop classic Hey Ma, which in turn has its piano line borrowed from The Commodores’ soulful song Easy from 1977. Despite some questionable lines such as one involving Stack only missing his girl when she “post(s) a new pic” and some ‘stealing your girl’ brags coming before the chorus, he shows off a fun personality to go with the piano lines.
Guten Tag makes use of an interesting technique in which the two artists take turns in giving out verses, plus I quite like the beat. Don’t have anything else to say about this, but it’s pretty decent overall.
I was impressed by the three singles Logic has put out this year. Keanu Reeves was solid but this track and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind were absolutely amazing. The track I’m referring to is Homicide. Both Em and Logic make excellent use of their fast flows, with Logic throwing some brutal shots at the state of the current rap scene. The chiming beat is also really hard and does a great job at backing up the artists’ parts, and there's also a good use of a piano addition in Em's verse. The part at the end with Chris D’Elia rapping really slow without any musical accompaniment does weigh it down a bit (though I get he’s parodying Eminem). But despite that, it’s still an excellent rap song.
Last year, Shawn Mendes put out a studio album that spawned three of my favourites from him. One about dealing with anxiety (In My Blood), one filled with an upbeat groove (Lost In Japan), and one that left me teary-eyed (Youth). How does his new single If I Can’t Have You compare to these three? I quite like it, but not as much as the three I mentioned. I like the uplifting groove of the song; there’s a funky guitar in the verses that gets me in a good mood, and the uplifting pianos in the chorus remind me of The 1975 (mainly their ‘iliwysfyasbysuoi’ and ‘ABIIOR’ eras). Some of the love-related lyrics feel a bit cliched though. Maybe this one might grow on me more upon repeated listens because I’m digging this production.
Hold Me While You Wait carries a bigger texture than Capaldi’s previous hit Someone You Loved (which was basically vocal and piano accompaniment). This one has an extra guitar and some hints of string accompaniment added to it. The production is a bit basic, but solid nonetheless. The lyrical content is about a relationship that has lost its spark, and one half of the couple involved is beginning to regret taking it for granted (at least that’s what I’m thinking it's about). While I didn’t like this look into a flavourless relationship as much as Vampire Weekend’s This Life did, it still has some solid execution of its concept.


This week managed to give me three songs with received a coveted 'gold' rating from me, which is quite impressive given that most of the weeks only give out one (and on some occasions, two). It was another good week of debuts for me altogether.