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lovejustforaday · 3 years

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2021 Year-end list - #1

Mercurial World - Magdalena Bay

Main genres: Synth Pop, Dance Pop

A decent sampling of: Indietronica, Chillwave, Synth Funk, House, Future Bass, Electro Pop, Nu-Disco

I’ll be honest: Magdalena Bay was a name I had never heard of until 2021 when they put out this debut record, but apparently these guys have been making singles and EPs for the past six years.

Matthew Lewin and Mica Tenenbaum were previously members of a prog rock band known as Tabula Rasa before they decided to switch gears and try their hand at pop music in 2016. Maybe it was fate, because this is easily the best damn pop record I’ve heard all year.

Mercurial World is a bold and eclectic amalgam of different pop tastes that all dissolve into one dazzling neon solution, melting every other part of the brain until all that remains is your serotonin and dopamine receptors. This record has just about everything in the category of electronic pop music - stylish synth funk, a e s t h e t i c chillwave, poppy indietronica anthems, and blaring house beats. And what’s more, it does all of this stuff incredibly well.

Ten or eleven years into the revival of interest in 80s style synth pop that took over the independent music scene at the beginning of the 2010s, I can say that this is the best record the wave has produced. That is, if it still even counts, seeing as how this revival has been a thing for so many years now that it feels normal at this point and, barring “Dawning Of The Season” and “Hysterical Us”, this doesn’t actually sound that much like the 80s.

Also FUCK ME the transitions between songs on this album are god tier. Even on the few tracks I care less for, the flow between songs on this record is nothing short of impeccable. This is how you sequence an album.

After a tongue-in-cheek, mini-intro future bass track “The End”, the album really gets its start with “Mercurial World”. This truly is the perfect title track; a hyperactive microcosm of the record’s many pop colours displayed in a stunning supernova, like the big bang explosion that created the Mercurial World.

“You Lose!” is a killer pop song that perfectly encapsulates that feeling of when you’ve had such a shitty day, week, month (etc.) that you can’t help but laugh at your own stupid misery. This indietronica noise pop banger, with its gorgeous arcade machine sounds, stomping kick drum beat, and chorus that throws everything at you with full force, is the catchiest damn thing I’ve heard all year.

I really don’t listen to songs on repeat that often, but this is just short enough that on multiple occasions I’ve had to hit the replay button three or four times because it’s like pure crack cocaine. I want to listen to that last chorus so loud that my ears bleed while the rest of my body disintegrates. This track is absolutely up there competing with Brockhampton’s “BUZZCUT” and Spellling’s “Turning Wheel” for my song of the year.

A flashing drum machine beat leads into “Something for 2″, an oozy, emotional synth pop serenade about working to make a relationship work. Mica’s vocals are a perfect match for this ‘puppy dog eyes’ kind of a pop song. That pool of humming electro pop synths during the bridge is also just really satisfying.

A flickering synth line at the end of the previous track begins to oscillate faster as the hallucinatory house beats of “Chaeri” begin to kick in. This is 100% music for a rave in a cyberpunk city. But what really elevates this song to the next level is that frigging outro. The building wall of synthesized sound is bloody well done; it makes me think of neon holograms starting to fill up a darkened nightclub until the whole room is one blindingly white haze.

“Hysterical Us” is funky, bouncy dance pop with lovely retro sounding piano chords. The manic whimsy and confetti fanfare of the production really fits well with the playful lyrics about everyday anxieties and paranoia.

And finally, I have to talk about Mercurial World’s epilogue “The Beginning” (haha see what they did there with the opener and closer?). This lighthearted disco party track is one gigantic celebration, a wonderful parade of thousands of voices chanting in unison in the streets. Not many tricks on this one really, just one big musical ball of joy. Maybe it’s predictable, but I found it incredibly satisfying for an album full of so many chill tones to go out with one big hot summer jam.

Before I finish, I feel like I can’t talk about this record without mentioning that I’ve seen people make a LOT of comparisons to Grimes (Particularly Art Angels) for this record.

Yeah, I can definitely hear it, if mostly because they both make colourful synth pop, and because of the similarities between the giddy vocal styling of both Mica and Grimes. But even as a long time fan of Grimes (antics aside) since her Visions era, I find some of the reductive comparisons being made are simply absurd. Magdalena Bay are their own artists, a much funkier and poppier outfit to Grimes, who more often likes to get very freaky and ethereal.

Moreover, I could just as easily note the many parallels on this record to many of the other exciting electronic pop records to have come out in recent memory. “You Lose!” gives me some noisy Pixel Bath vibes, while “Something for 2″ has E•MO•TION era Carly written all over it, and “Dreamcatching” reminds me of that chilled out pajama pop sound on Kitty’s Rose Gold.

Whether any of these LPs are actual inspirations for this record is pure speculation, but Magdalena Bay has definitely done their homework. As former prog rockers just entering the world of pop, they’ve clearly already become well versed in a lot of the best sounds to have come out of pop in the past six or so years. But if anything, I feel like the band is paying homage to these sounds with creative infusions, brilliant executions, and sometimes even subversion.

Even while wearing their influences on their sleeves, this is still something really special. Mercurial World is a really impressive undertaking that manages to keep fresh and innovative with all of the pop sounds that it takes influence from.

Matthew and Mica have already left a bold mark on the world of electronic pop music, and yet somehow this is only their first full-length LP. Needless to say, I am beyond ecstatic to see what these two do next. A worthy album of the year for 2021.

9/10 (But don’t be surprised if I bump this to a 10 some day)

Highlights: “You Lose!”, “Chaeri”, “Something for 2″, “The Beginning”, “Dreamcatching”, “Hysterical Us”, “Mercurial World”, “Secrets (Your Fire)”, “The End”

#magdalena bay #mica tenenbaum #matthew lewin #mercurial world #synth pop #dance pop #pop music #electronic pop #aoty #2021 #album review #music review #year end list #list #electronic

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thesinglesjukebox · 6 years

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ARIANA GRANDE - BREATHIN

[7.50]

In lieu of the real Jukebox entry for this song, we're just going to show you a picture of a pig.

Tobi Tella: When Sweetener was released, a lot of people were taken aback by how weird it was. Some people were mad, but I see it as artistic evolution beyond the fun pop music she's been making for years. "Breathin" sounds more like her old work then most of the album, but the subject matter is decidedly mature, talking about her struggle with anxiety. I love the repetition of a chorus and think it's a powerful sentiment: sometimes you just need to take a step back and breathe. Especially after all the things that have happened to her, "Breathin" feels triumphant. [8]

Edward Okulicz: For a pop star, Grande's borne a huge amount of the brunt of other people's pain, hatred and aggression, so I admire her so much for being able to both put it aside to deliver good pop singles over and over, and here, to work with her own tension to create a great single. There are women who would kill for this as a lead single and she just craps it out as single number three because she damn well can. "Breathin" is Sweetener's take on the "Into You" template, sure, but it mixes that track's confident, erotic pulse with thick layers of anxiety. Rather than sensuous fulfilment, "Breathin" flirts with danger, with suffocation, but both melodically and lyrically conquers both -- "keep breathing, breathing, breathing" is like a mantra, and it feels perfect right now in 2018. It's a strong song to begin with, but it's also the little moments in performance and production that help make it so good: the way the music drops out during the second chorus, the guitar solo that sounds like it's struggling for air, Grande's yelp of "no!" towards the end. These are all magnificent sounds deployed smartly. Grande's untouchable but somehow performs with empathy and believability. If being a great pop star is writing or grabbing the best material and crushing the heck out of it, Grande's got few equals at the moment. [9]

Alfred Soto: Form, say hello to content. The high, striated vocal suggests anxiety even if her lyrics were less explicit. Terrific marriage of Swedish pop and stadium electronica tropes -- check out that treated guitar solo. [7]

Katie Gill: After the absolute banger status of "No Tears Left To Cry" and the sultry power anthem of "God Is A Woman," it might surprise people that "Breathin" is...fairly conventional. It's pretty much a middle of the album song, a dance pop song that seems tailor made to hang out on the Hot 100 for fifteen or so weeks just because that's what halfway decent dance pop songs do these days. Still, it's a fairly conventional banger about dealing with anxiety attacks, which is a sentence that I never thought I'd write, so I've got to give the song minor props on that alone. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: To each their own, but being told to "just" keep breathing, over and over, doesn't make me feel particularly relaxed. I'm supportive of the notion that songs addressing mental health struggles don't have to be morbid and melancholy, but with lyrics like "all I need is to see your face," "Breathin" can't seem to decide if it wants to be an intro to CBT or an ode to the stabilizing force of a romantic partner. That the chorus defaults to the kind of all-consuming synthwave that defined previous stand-outs "Love Me Harder" and "Into You" points more toward the latter, which is where Ariana is more comfortable. Of special note is the bridge, featuring some submerged guitar wailing and nonsense murmurings that approximate what the agitated mind actually sounds like. [6]

Vikram Joseph: "Breathin" might well be the first pop song about an anxiety attack since Shura's "Nothing's Real," but the comparison doesn't greatly flatter Ariana Grande. Shura's song is an unusual, impressionistic depiction of a panic attack that landed her in the emergency department, instilled with a real sense of drama by its swooping, muscular art-disco throb. "Breathin," meanwhile, is a fizzy bop which sounds like a concerted effort to provide Sweetener with at least one straightforward, radio-ready single; it's perfectly enjoyable on its own terms, but sounds much too generic and assured to be an effective vehicle for what Grande really wants to talk about. [6]

Pedro João Santos: Sweetener isn't titled that for nothing: its cohesion draws from a holistic mood and its hedonistic, lush R&B settings, as bespoke mobiles for Ariana's personal restoration and gratification. But it was promoted through "No Tears Left to Cry" and "God Is a Woman," obvious outliers in a quirkier, more vaporous sequence -- although never sore thumbs. Their synth-inebriated declarations, and more rigid structures, carve out a different corner in that ambience, like a menacing nocturnal world, a dark alley in the city leading right up to the psyche. "Breathin" is an emphatic part of that -- the final piece in a tryptic of songs that are intrepid, urgent and combative in unique ways. While its predecessors block out sadness and sexism, this one exerts those forces more literally, drawing vivid outlines of anxiety and the need to attack it. It's a triumph in how honest it is and how it transfers its energy to the music: its pulse and velocity increasing as concerns become overwhelming, the frenzy teased in the bridge and unleashed at the end. These are new angles from which Ariana can shape a sound she's explored most similarly in "Love Me Harder" (though the tension there is purely sexual and less consistent), even if it's the least musically distinct of the trifecta of singles (not to mention the album). Unfortunately,vin a song as well-rounded as "Breathin," repeating the title consecutively doesn't quite cut it, even if you can't fight it lodging into your head. Considering the cerebral lyrics, that might be quid pro quo. [7]

Stephen Eisermann: This track is without question the strongest song on the album and so fitting with everything Ariana's been going through. She's handled everything thrown her way with such poise and to have her spill her heart out and bravely tell us how anxious she's been -- to a banger of a beat, no less! -- is so refreshing. There's vocals, slick production, an awesome vibe -- it all works and it works so, so well. [9]

Anna Suiter: It feels right that the singles for Sweetener have led to here, a song about coping with anxiety in the only way you know how to. There's honesty here, both in the need to keep going and the reluctance to maybe do what you're being told to do. The song itself knows how to breathe, how to reassure, how to release tension where it might be too overwhelming otherwise. It manages to do all of that without feeling like a meditation, too. [8]

Matias Taylor: "Breathin" is breathless at barely three minutes long yet perfectly paced and formulated, with the pre-chorus becoming louder and more frantic as she feels her "blood running," then the metaphorical and musical anxiety breaks in the release of the chorus. It's the kind of perfect marriage of sound and subject matter whose simplicity belies the underlying pop wizardry. Once Ariana loses herself in the bridge -- "my my air, my my air," words are barely necessary to describe such a feeling, and it starts to sound like a future signature song, one destined to be forever sung at karaoke bars, blasted on the car speakers, or jammed to alone in a bedroom on headphones as it provides a momentary reprieve from all the things that make it feel like the sky is falling. There's a pop song subject matter in even the simplest, everyday sensation that, amplified by a melody sent from heaven and soaring production that rises meet it, turns into universal, transcendent truth. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Ariana Grande #pop #music #music review #writing

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