JeffMix 5 | 2018.02.03
My favourite five songs of the week
1 | km, “Downside”
Music is not a meritocracy. If it were, this song would have far more than the few hundred plays it has on Soundcloud to date. Details on km are as sparse as her name (initials? an abbreviation for kilometre?): she’s an independent singer/songwriter out of Australia who, according to her Facebook page, performs music as a hobby from being a young working parent of two kids. Here’s hoping it becomes more than a hobby.
2 | Soccer Mommy, “Cool”
From one mommy to another, sort of. Sophie Allison’s recording name may be easy pickings, as is a song simply (and perhaps lazily) titled “Cool,” but the second strong single off the Nashville 20-year-old’s soon-to-be-released album Clean (the first was “Your Dog”) can earnestly be called a winner.
3 | Gender Roles, “About Her”
“Crush it up and put it in my drink” sing Gender Roles, the latest signees to influential U.K. label Big Scary Monsters. Their angsty new single “About Her” might be more pub than punk, but it’s a sign of rowdier things to come from the Brighton band.
4 | Khruangbin, “Evan Finds The Third Room”
Having just gone through a deep dive into Stop Making Sense-era Talking Heads, I’m eager to hear influences of their seminal Afro-rock album, 1980’s Remain In Light. And you’ll find it on Khruangbin’s bass-heavy “Evan Finds The Room,” a slice of slinky world funk from the Texan trio’s newly released record, Con Todo El Mundo. Get out those oversized suits…
5 | X Ambassadors, “JOYFUL”
X Ambassadors are best known for “Renegades,” a 2015 single featured prominently in a Jeep commercial. Critically, it’s tough to rebound from that. But two new songs from a forthcoming album, including the surprisingly powerful (and all-capped) “JOYFUL,” suggest there’s more to the Ithaca, NY trio than soundtracking the back roads.
