Another week, another killer new music playlist for your waiting ears. Crave has put out a Voltron call to its on-staff music contributors from around the world to bring you a killer weekly mixtape, and inspire your soul with some fantastically delicious sounds once again.
Open your ears and feast on a wide assortment of goodness from MONEY, The Drones, Gallant, Naps and more. If you see something you haven’t heard, that’s a good thing. That’s why we’re doing this. Check out last week’s playlist here.
MONEY – ‘I Am The Lord’
Manchester band MONEY tackle themes of hopelessness and despair in their latest album Suicide Songs, presenting a scatterbrain if unflinchingly honest look at depression that accompanies tremendous, sweeping instrumentals with singer/guitarist Jamie Lee’s pained vocals.
Opener ‘I Am the Lord’ is a 6-minute voyage into the ether, with Lee telling the listener “I don’t want to be God, I just don’t want to be human.” According to MONEY, God’s a guy who’s struggling with the same existential dread as the rest of us plebeians.
– Paul Tamburro, UK Editor
Naps – ‘Social Skills’
These Tallahassee cohorts have delivered a beautiful ode, through “Social Skills,” to “a generation propped up on pills.” It’s the kind of hypnotic song that serves as a rescue from the darkness, the troubles that plague a heavy mind from time to time. A little bit Pinback, a little bit R.E.M., the song is the perfect accompaniment to skiing down a gorgeous mountain in the morning light – especially the final third of the song, a carousel of singing about going “for days without speaking”. I can confirm this from experience this very morning.
– Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Sia – ‘Sweet Design’
With her prolific songwriting talents having been snapped up by everyone from Rihanna through to Adele, Sia’s personal output has always been notably eclectic due to it essentially being a mish-mash of original tracks and rejected ones from her sessions with other musicians.
But while she’s best known for her soaring ballads, ‘Sweet Design’ is an energetic RnB number that, when you overlook the fact that it could’ve been ripped straight from a Beyonce album (who more than likely passed on it), is more or less a guaranteed hit. Take this opportunity to enjoy it before it buries itself in your sub-consciousness.
– Paul Tamburro, UK Editor
The Drones – ‘To Think That I Once Loved You’
Drones frontman Gareth Liddiard cements his status as Australia’s foremost contemporary songwriter with ‘To Think That I Once Loved You’ the second single off the seminal outfits upcoming seventh LP.
Crawling towards you like a nightmarish ghoul escaping a sewer drain, the new track oozes with powerful moments of lyrical beauty standing stark against the minimalist beat and sudden, screeching guitars. With glimmers of classic Nick Cave throughout, it’s an introspective and utterly immense new track and I simply can not wait for this new album.
– Mitch Feltscheer, Australian Editor
Kevin Morby – ‘I Have Been to The Mountain’
The slow-rise dynamics of “I Have Been to The Mountain” are positively delicious. Kevin Morby of Woods and The Babies takes his captivating sound to new territories on his debut solo album Singing Saw, which will be out April 15 on Dead Oceans. This track recounts reports of police aggression, Eric Garner and other injustices while weaving his Lennon-esque melody through a bass-thick acoustic rhythm.
– Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Gallant – ‘Skipping Stones feat. Jhené Aiko’
No cliché intended when I say Gallant starts off on a high on this latest track. His crisp, soaring falsetto hits you like a gust of heavenly wind within the opening seconds of Skipping Stones, and just when you think his angelic tones can’t be matched Jhené Aiko comes in to sucker punch your heart with her effervescent vocals. It’s sad and ebullient at the same time. Sure you’ll fall in love with the track, but don’t go making it your signature “couple song” just yet, this one, at least according to Gallant, is “for the lonely ones this Valentine’s Day”.
– Nastassia Baroni, Australian Editor
