Isu Recommends: March 2020

Monthly Playlist

In case you missed it, you can find the tracklist for February and January here. This is my playlist of songs I think you should check out. The playlist is updated every month and it has ten songs. This is the tracklist for March.

This month, there is a trend of songs being long and unwinding. There are quite a few songs here that are best described as journeys. They take you from one place and carry you on a full musical experience. Three of the songs are longer than 7 minutes, the very first one, the middle song and the last one. This wasn’t intentional, it was just one of those happy coincidences. I hope you enjoy listening to the playlist and find a new favourite song.

Tracklist

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.

1. Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister- Jupiter : Sufjan Stevens makes some of the smoothest music by any artiste. His ode to his Grandfather titled ‘Fourth Of July’ is one of my favourite songs of the last decade. This song is already a bit dated but it only just popped into my radar and I absolutely love it. I think he makes music that fills up the room, especially when played at night and alone. This song is exactly like that. The collaborators on this song have an entire album together called Planeterium
2. Whethan ft Oh Wonder- Superlove: Can’t tell you how much this song gets into my body. Oh wonder have over the years become one of my favourite duos with their poppy feel-good songs. This collaboration played to their strong point and this song is just the type of song to get you to smile for no good reason.
3. Tame Impala- lost in yesterday: Coming off Tame Impala’s new album, this song follows the feel-good mood set by Superlove. I am yet to give the album a full listen but if the other songs are anything like this, it will definitely be a favourite for 2020. If you are accustomed to Tame Impala’s music, you know the songs often feel very 80s disco. This song is no exception.
4. Bayonne- fallss: Bayonne is not a musician that currently gets a lot of my playtime, but after hearing this song, I think that might change. There is a progression that grows throughout the song until the eventual satisfying climax. It’s exactly the right length and it's so great that you might be tempted to replay it a few times.
5. Felix Laband — whistling in tongues: My work music playlist has a lot of instrumental performances (mostly classical.) The right instrumental music is great for setting the mood without distracting with words. Felix Laband is a South African artiste that knows exactly how to make that type of music. This song is off an album of the same name that really got me going in 2016. The entire album is long and unwinding with every second of the trip feeling completely relaxing and invigorating at the same time. (unfortunately, the full album isn’t on apple music so I replaced this song with a song called Minka that was released on a mixtape project as well)
6. Unsecret, Jeffery Amor- crashing down: Thanks to Temi for playing this song for me. It’s a really good song; nice and calming. The type of song I’d listen to if I was extremely anxious and needed something to calm me down.
7. Alexis ffrench- awakening: I actually discovered this song by accident when searching for a different song of the same name (I never found it). It’s a beautiful piano performance that reminds you why the piano is such a respected instrument.
8. Alex Benjamin- Outrunning Karma: Alec first entered my radar last year and his album was one of my favourite of 2019. The mood of his music makes me think about my younger sister. If you don’t yet listen to him, this is a good song to start with. (Ps: it’s not in my top 3 songs of his so there’s more where this came from)
9. Show dem cap, boogey- tipping point : Boogey and Show Dem Camp (separately) have been big influencers of my taste in rap for a very long time. The music SDC makes really hits the right tones for me and Boogey is one of the best lyricists in Nigeria (in my opinion). I downloaded ‘These Buhari times’ last month and the concept of the SDC album is the best Nigeria rap project I’ve listened to since M.I’s Self Evaluation of Yxng Denzel
10. Shabaka and the ancestors: “Go my heart, Go to heaven”: The playlist ends with one more song that takes you on a journey. While the music is predominantly Jazz, there are also other influences that can be heard in the instrumental performance and the vocals. Really, by the time you are through listening, you will understand why I think it’s such a good song.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you like at least one of the songs. Don’t forget to add the playlist to your library so you get the monthly updates.

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