New Music Mondays | 04.09.18

Your favorite Monday playlist is here with all the best in new music #NMM

‘Face Up’ – Washed Out

“The newest song in this year’s Adult Swim Singles series is from chillwave extraordinaire, Washed Out. ‘Face Up’ is a slow-burner filled with sweeping synths and jittery, vintage 80s percussion. It sounds like a leftover from Toro y Moi’s latest album, Boo Boo, but with Ernest Greene singing instead of Chaz Bundick. Boo Boo had this sort of vintage instrumentation running all throughout it. Meanwhile, Washed Out’s newest album, Mister Mellow, was a groovy, warped adventure. It’s interesting to see Greene go in this direction, it suits him rather well although this is not his most memorable song. ‘Face Up’ is still a good song to chill out to; we’ll see if Greene continues with this sound going forward.” – Spencer LaChance

‘Campfire‘ – Aminé, Injury Reserve

“Aminé blew up last year around singles ‘Caroline’ and ‘REDMERCEDES,’ and is now back with his first single of 2018 featuring underground rap trio Injury Reserve’s Ritchie with a T. Much of the material on Aminé’s debut album Good For You last year was cheerful and sunny, but also painfully one-dimensional and bland. ‘Campfire,’ however feels darker with its rumbling 808s and sparse beat. It still has the comedic edge signature to Aminé’s music though, like Ritchie bragging about how he has ‘so many hits, I could have my own NOW! comp.’ The only thing to take away from the track is that it rounds out at only two minutes and fifteen seconds. There definitely was room for a verse from Injury Reserve’s other rapper, Steppa J. Groggs whose slightly nasal voice would have perfectly contrasted the instrumental. Still though, ‘Campfire’ is ridiculously catchy and has me excited for more music from both Aminé and Injury Reserve.” – Grant Foskett

‘Mansion Door’ – Shakey Graves

“Shakey Graves, the project of brainchild Alejandro Rose-Garcia, released a third single this past week in anticipation of the forthcoming album entitled Can’t Wake Up. The first two singles, which were released in early February, are wonderful folk-rock tunes that display the group venturing into new musical territory. This newest single, ‘Mansion Door’, is their best effort yet. The track has a distinctly warm feel to it thanks to a full sounding acoustic guitar, soft percussion, and dynamic harmonies. About halfway through, the track climaxes with an anthemic chorus that features powerful guitar and crashing drums. The song is superbly written, after just one listen it was stuck in my head.

Fans should certainly look forward to hearing the rest of Can’t Wake Up. Reflecting on the process of making the album, Rose-Garcia described it as ‘the most I’ve ever intentionally worked on a project, musically speaking, in terms of the scope of it and how much thought went into it.’ That statement is certainly reflected in this new single ‘Mansion Door’, one of the best singles of the year thus far. “ – Joey Molloy

‘Red’ – Sam feat. Camille Frazier

“‘Red,’ the recent collaboration by Northeastern students, Camille Frazier and Sam Blehar, is a deep and expressive R&P track that immediately lets the listener go to a place of self-reflection. This intense emotion is felt immediately at the start of the track as Frazier’s vocals are placed behind a downtempo beat full of reversed notes and ambient sounds drifting off in the distance. However, the majority of the track is dominated by Sam’s passionate verses. Nearly midway through ‘Red,’ the listener gets a full glimpse of Frazier’s vocal strength during the bridge and serves as a answer to the powerful verse just heard. The quality of production should also be noted since it blends well with Sam’s lyrics such as, “How many times can I blame / How many people get too high / How many people don’t lie.” At the end of the day ‘Red’ is an impressive collaboration between two talented and local artists that will appeal to fans of genre-bending songs. I for one can’t wait to see what lies next for these two.” – Parker Brown