1. Bike Dream by Rostam
If you ever want your life to feel like the beginning of a feel-good film (and who doesn’t?), I recommend listening to this song while biking on a sunny afternoon. It comes from the debut solo album of past Vampire Weekend singer and producer Rostam Batmanglij, released one year after his split from the band.
Bike Dream has so much joy in its catchy beat and uplifting tune singing about the simple desires for identity and love (you know, the usual). The chorus lines are especially great – “Two boys, one to kiss your neck and one to bring you breakfast, get you out of bed when…”. Rostam has described: “That is one of the most important lines of the song because it reveals that it’s not literally two different boys. It’s wanting the person that you’re with to be two different kinds of people. Maybe wanting a boyfriend who is devoted to you and affectionate and also wanting one who is discreet.”
If nothing else, it's a sweet image of the different expressions of intimacy in a relationship.
2. Ozean by AnnenMayKantereit
Ever since watching AnnenMayKantereit’s collab with Parcels, I can’t get enough of the voice of the German band's lead singer, Henning May.
Whether or not you can understand the German text of Ozean, the incandescence of May’s delivery conveys it all. Translating the first verse --- “I thought I’d left her behind but she always has a hold on me / she gives me pain to this day and has so often distracted me / Maybe I still need more time."
So goes the theme of the song – of wishing you could separate yourself from pain of the past. But with vocals as enormous and impactful as May's, he can honestly sing whatever the hell he wants.
3. Sooth Lady Wine by Matt Corby
Matt Corby evokes some 70s psychedelia with this one.
Sooth Lady Wine has such good energy – a bit of groovy, soulful jazz with a hazy filter. Nothing jumps out at you, everything just flows along so smoothly – the softened drums, slinky guitar, foggy vocals. There’s even a cool flute overlap three minutes in, and fun fact: Corby himself plays most of the instruments on the track.
In line with its psychedelic vibe, he sings about “getting to the seventh state", some higher consciousness. In an interview he once described that the song is about how hard it is to achieve that kind of enlightenment: “It’s pretty much impossible to get there in this day and age…So the end is like, sooth me lady wine. Just keep me level. Keep me going through this mess in a weird way. The other part is ‘If you feel alright, let yourself dance, get off your fucking phone, take it in.’”
Don’t mind if we do.
4. Made To Fall In Love by Daniel Caesar
The second of two Spotify Singles recently released by Daniel Caesar, Made To Fall In Love finds him trying out a cover of the 2018 original by Bitty McLean and Sly & Robbie. Keeping their reggae-style beat, he puts his own characteristic spin on it – complete with the effortless transitions into falsettos that are so definitive of his voice.
The best thing about this cover is how much Caesar slows things down, stretching the song for over an extra minute. There’s such an easy flow to the two-chord piano groove and bass lines, with every instrument leaning softly into the rhythm. Nothing's in a rush.
Listen on Spotify to all 'Songs of the Week' here.
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