Billie Eilish – WHEN I WAS OLDER (Music Inspired By The Film ROMA)
Here’s something weird! Billie Eilish is a 17-year-old pop singer with weirdo aspirations and with a massive online fanbase. Roma, on the other hand, is a slow, lyrical, beautiful Mexican art film about the life of a domestic worker who lives with a relatively wealthy family in Mexico City in 1970 and 1971. It’s a movie with no clearly delineated plot, based around tiny moments that lay out the sharp boundaries between economic classes. Roma is not a movie aimed at Eilish’s demographic, but here’s Eilish with a Roma song anyway.
“When I Was Older,” Eilish’s new song, does not come from the Roma soundtrack. That would be ridiculous. It’s not that kind of movie. But Eilish has pointed out that the song was inspired by Roma. Indeed, the official title of the song is “When I Was Older (Music Inspired By The Film Roma).” And it’s probably not a coincidence that the song is coming out now, as Netflix, which released Roma, is trying to get more people to watch the movie, especially during its big Oscar campaign.
It’s hard to see how “When I Was Older” has anything whatsoever to do with Roma, though its themes of alienation might have some resonance. (Also, Eilish sings about being a sailor on the open sea, and there is one memorable Roma scene that takes place on a beach. So there’s that.) But it’s a weirdly pretty song, an Auto-Tuned hymn that leaves plenty of negative space. It’s a sign that older folk like us may want to start paying attention to Eilish.
Read the rest of this article at Stereogum
James Blake Featuring André 3000 – Where’s The Catch?
Andre 3000 Delivers A ‘Heady-Ass’ Verse On James Blake’s ‘Assume Form’ Track ‘Where’s The Catch
Andre 3000 shines in his first guest appearance since 2017 with English singer-songwriter James Blake on the latter’s brand-new album, Assume Form, on the song “Where’s The Catch?” Blake previewed the song during a DJ set in 2018, but now that the album is out, fans can truly appreciate the intricate wordplay and feats of precision offered by the elusive Atlien rap pioneer. Despite noting that he hates “heady-ass verses,” Andre turns in a verse he readily admits is “a little heady” in a quick preface before launching into a verse that touches on knotty subjects like anxiety, harmony, and entropy.
Read the rest of this article at Uproxx
93PUNX – ZOMBIE
Vic Mensa marked the one year anniversary of Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan with a cover of the band’s 1994 hit “Zombie.” Listen to the song below
The cover was released under the name 93PUNX, an outlet for the artist’s heavier music recorded during sessions for 2018 EP Hooligans.
Speaking during a Beats 1 interview late last year Mensa confirmed he’d worked with Travis Barker of Blink-182, Bad Brains’s H.R., and Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden on new music. A longer project is expected to follow.
“We connected to ‘Zombie’ because we were born from violence. RIP Dolores,” the rapper said in a press statement.
Read the rest of this article at Fader
Sharon Van Etten – Jupiter 4
In the opening bars of “Jupiter 4,” the latest song from Sharon Van Etten’s forthcoming album Remind Me Tomorrow, there’s a noise reminiscent of the sound of travel: a windshield wiper struggling across a dry surface, or a reel dragging backwards in slow motion. Since Van Etten released her last album, 2014’s Are We There, her life has rerouted in several ways: becoming a mother, acting on “The OA,” going back to academia. “Jupiter 4” sounds like the product of a songwriter undergoing a revival, unpacking and remoulding their own romance with music again.
On “Jupiter 4,” with the aid of producer John Congleton, she engulfs herself in a dark landscape of heavy synths and drum machines. On Are We There, Van Etten’s pain was exorcised from deep inside herself, its presentation a sparse and solitary outcry in an otherwise quiet room. Now, however, the trauma is in her surroundings. “Jupiter 4” is an ode to the eternal search for love, with Van Etten’s voice a vessel for optimism and survival amid the deluge of external destruction: “Baby, baby, baby, I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone like you,” she pleads as the chords grow stormier and murkier. Her efforts no longer feel elegant; here, they’re threatening. Love remains a light in the dark, but a light to where? As the track swirls and fades, the mystery remains unsettling.
Read the rest of this article at Pitchfork
Teen Daze – Spring
Teen Daze is the stage name for solo musician Jamison Isaak who is set to release his sixth album, Bioluminescence in April 2019. The album is the latest release on Isaak’s own label, FLORA, which has been operating since 2016 and is the home to a variety of Isaak’s projects. The song, “Spring” is one of the tracks from the album. Striking a balance between the digital and the natural has always been one of the main purposes of Isaak.
Bioluminescence was created over the summer of 2018, produced in Isaak’s home studio after a year of collecting samples and field recordings across several continents. Teen Daze says the goal of the project has always been to find a seamless blending of organic sounds and digital ones, of melodies and textures.
According to a recent statement, for every synthesized noise you hear, there is the sound of a rock hitting water; digital synths are paired with the sound of the Pacific Ocean. From there, the tracks were sent to be mixed by Joel Ford (Airbird, Ford & Lopatin), who helped shape the album into its final form, and from there, to be mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri (The Sight Below, Black Knoll Studio).
Read the rest of this article at mxdwn.com
