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Real talk: mashups are almost always terrible. Like mind-blowingly terrible, in the realm of unmelodic nonsensical junk. Do we all agree? Good! Now watch my back-pedaling because “I’m Jay’s Girl” (that’d be a bootleg combo of Friends’ “I’m His Girl” and Hova’s “Encore”) is flipping brilliant. The bassline that we’ve been shaking our thangs to for over a year now is an unlikely but entirely satisfying ying to Jay’s “Yup! It’s yaboy!” yang. Add a little boardwalk bell ching and a few handclaps, and you’ve got yourself a cherry for your summer jam sundae. Live it, learn it, leak it below.
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I’ve never been to Brighton, England but if it’s anything like its nouveau yacht-rock sons Cave Painting and their immensely dreamy song “So Calm,” I’m moving, stat. Moving to where the wind blows a barefoot pop breeze, the guitar licks stretch into ribbons of pastel taffy and the voices of the populace coalesce into a bittersweet bird call. So very escapist, so very good. Download it and discover your happy place.
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Just when we thought Usher and Diplo’s “Climax” couldn’t be any more of a panty dropper, in comes TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek with body oil and rose petals. Here’s a revise that compliments (rather than fights with) the original, through a wash of subdued sirens, sub bass, ticky beats and wet, wet FX, turning Usher’s R&B jam from satin to absolute silk. Add it to your swelling catalog of "Climax" edits and handle with care.
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Forgive me Father, for I have slept on this one. Future Islands’ latest “Cotton Flower” is a starry pop bird slicing through the ragged wind of Sam Herring’s awesome old man vocals. He sounds nothing like Rod Stewart, and yet I cannot stop thinking of Rod Stewart as I listen. Or maybe it does sound like him, in spirit, that is.There is a heaviness imported here, a crack in the glass of the '80s melodies; a chill beneath the tropical synths. It’s a generous song in which to wallow, the kind of track that should be played during the slideshow at graduation instead of whatever plays instead (Is it this? Do they still play this?). Find it here, as part of the Less Artists More Condos 7-inch series and go contemplate something.
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“Live Your Life.” Sound advice indeed. But did you know it's also a Pharrell-produced pop single by throaty Malaysian songstress Yuna? 'Tis true. Here, her bedroom anthem gets even slinkier with a clubby R&B bent via DJ Ayres and Scott Melker. See also: syrupy, synthy, sexy. More silk sheet and bottle service music on her come hither LP, of course.
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On "Faster Horses," MNDR flips an obsession with house and minimal techno into undeniable pop sugar. Her debut album, Feed Me Diamonds, is coming August 14 via Ultra, and this one is being released as a standalone single on July 17.
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(Photo: Flora Hanitijo)
It’s twin dips today from up-and-comer-and-across-the-pond pop princess Foxes, the first being the original “White Coats”: a gooey, sultry score with squelching bass and saccharine vocals and a raindrop breaky Xaphoon Jones edit that’s pure Auto-Tune dance gone goth. Both good, both yours. ‘Cause we like you and trust that you’re gonna go buy all her music over on Neon Gold, right?
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Remember last week when we didn't know anything about Frank Ocean's sexuality and thought his album was dropping on July 17? Us neither. The erstwhile Odd Future member and current R&B crooner's debut Channel Orange is out, now, in fact, and it's sensational. Starting with lead-in "Start" and then transitioning to "Thinking About You" (my favorite song of his; that falsetto, my God, in concert every single one of us closed our eyes tight and squealed along, some kids even falling to the dirt on their knees to grind as low as the track demands) the album then unfolds into a series of anachronistic songs reminiscent of Stevie Wonder and at other times, D'Angelo, all the while punctuated by jazzy, vaguely neighborhood noise interludes. And then of course there's times when Ocean is simply Ocean, as if his music has no influence, rapping slow, cursing, snapping fingers, drawling, harmonizing himself. What results is a beautiful, windblown journey into soul, funk, top 40 and even yacht rock waters, all the way to the "End" (the last track, natch). Hear it all for free, and then, you know, buy it.
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It’s a tale as old as time: Dublin girl and Sydney girl meet in Paris dive bar where Dublin girl was ripping some records. So they flew to Berlin and formed Kool Thing (who you already know from remixes here and here) and then made some cosmic, bluesy alloy of Austra, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine that was bleak gone bright, evidenced by “Plan.Life.Go.” Which is basically a six-minute sojourn down dancepop lane preceded by the longest spotlight gee-tar drawl in recent memory. Yeah, it’s good, and it’s all yours, right here.
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We like AlunaGeorge. We like Friends. By the law of no duh, we like it when AlunaGeorge remixes Friends. The o.g. “I’m His Girl” was a sex whisper with a bassline rivaling Flea’s best. Now? It’s a melting electropop sno-cone: drippy, ice cold, synth-swirls trickling down. Combat the heat with next level gold coin samples, screwed vocals and a bloom of calypso drums. Then get Manifest! (that is, if you haven’t already), out on Lucky Number now.
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