Singles Round-up, May week two

Danny Brown| “Kool Aid”
This is way more fun than anything on Atrocity Exhibition, which is nice. Still, no one mixes druggy paranoia (“See, I’m tired of all of these pocket-watchers/ Niggas watching my pockets/ Wanna know where I spend it at, tryna figure out how I got it”) with absurdist sex talk (“Your hoe ate my dick off, call that hoe a cannibal”). With this, and the DJ Shadow / Nas collaboration, the Silicon Valley soundtrack is looking to be fantastic.

The National | “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”
First single from Sleep Well Beast is as tense as anything they’ve done, and the spasm of a guitar line throughout gives the song an added sense of uncertainty. Matt Beringer’s always had a way of abstract-yet-relatable descriptions and he proves it again here: “We’re in a different kind of thing now/ All night you’re talking to God”.  September 8 is too far away.

Origin | “Accident and Error”
Impressive (and catchy) as usual. Origin continue to make tech-death fun, especially the call-and-response between bass and guitar mid way through; Paul Ryan is still death metal’s preeminent thinker and player. The only downside here is the muddy mix.

Miley Cyrus | “Malibu”
It’s summery, sure, but it’s not really anything more. It’s just kinda…there, and it’s lyrics aren’t much better: “And it’ll be us, just for a while/ Do we even exist?/ That’s when I make the wish, to swim away with the fish/ ‘Cause it’s supposed to be this hot all summer long”. It’s kinda like California – it’s aesthetically appealing but fake and plastic once it’s examined to any degree.