Rolling Pop 2016

Hmm, I like that new Broods song pretty well, actually.

pop artist from Pristina, Kosovo, Era Istrefi

Era Istrefi is Kosovo Albanian, this track is sung mainly in Gheg Albanian

the coolest video of the year, filmed in the icy winter

Era Istrefi - Bonbon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cedoBlUvBlI

spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Uz8ZcQdlOF2qE6q1rcVpw

more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_Istrefi

So this song just popped up as #2 on Spotify's Global Viral 50 chart, which is... weird since it's on my friend's independent label (it's also Maya Vik's label), he just signed them and I haven't seen any real promotion for it anywhere?

Anyway, it's a nice, breezy pop song and I like it a lot so I'm posting it in here in the hope that it'll somehow grow bigger, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR1jnsOpphs

https://soundcloud.com/oslo/kappekoff-all-day-long-1
https://open.spotify.com/track/7BSROePF8jz3tVHbafS2P9

That Kappekoff song was on Fresh Finds, both the main list and the Hiptronix one.

spotify:user:spotify:playlist:3rgsDhGHZxZ9sB9DQWQfuf
spotify:user:spotify:playlist:6tSPShkHtxVL8fWtJqxe7Z

Zara Larsson's had three songs on the UK top 10 in 2016. Two right now. On the way to her first Billboard top 10.

This should appeal to the CRJ fans:

Christie & the Dream Beats - Wasn't My Fault
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoRdIPyaAU8

I know absolutely nothing about this artist (thus far) except that she's Latvian and she sounds like PC Music if they didn't suck in concept and execution:

https://soundcloud.com/janahermann/jana-hermann-kults-2016

Playlist updated through end of April.

ILM's Rolling Pop Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

That list Maura posted is pretty dire.

i like the new Alicia Keys song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YwHRTCyrEo

i do too!

meanwhile justin timberlake's new single sounds like a second-tier derulo cut

new veronica maggio album! this song is my favorite so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l58EfkZm1l0

This was already posted in the Charli XCX thread but I'm sharing it here cause it's ace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w08FnrmqTg

the fifth harmony album is really great! gosh between this and ariana it's so good to hear pop albums that feel effortless and natural rather than overthought/slightly desperate positioning

That's good to hear. I loved the last one too

thought the last was a bit clunky as an album, the difference seems pretty similar to the difference between the last two ariana albums

tropical house really suits them, "the life" is total dumblonde, it's so relaxed and breezy throughout

texts in the morning are a pretty low bar for a love unlike any other you've had before though, imo

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/arts/music/ariana-grande-fifth-harmony-dangerous-woman-727.html?ref=topics&_r=0

Part of Jon Caramanica's take on the pop chart world and how musicians adjust

But what’s striking about these albums is how gently they treat their stars, as if they were fragile artifacts in need of safe shipping. In the past, each act has delivered memorable singing, but something deadening is at play on these records, which reflect a pop universe not much interested in displays of vocal flamboyance.

Pop, as ever, is struggling to identify its center — is it dance-music-centric wallops and bloops? Melodic post-hip-hop rap-singing? Ms. Grande, a boisterous soul singer by disposition, has never been a neat pop fit, but on previous albums has found ways to let her huge voice predominate. On “Dangerous Woman,” though, she’s curiously muted — several of the songs are strong, but they rely on her gifts less. Fifth Harmony’s album, especially, reflects a group of impressive singers fighting against technology and algorithms designed to flatten them into a homogenized whole. Much of the time, they are reduced to rhythmic components, serving up unmemorable lyrics at quick tempos.

In small part, that’s the result of the spread of tropical house, one of the most anodyne branches of dance music, into the pop mainstream over the past two years. (Kygo, a titan on streaming services, with a feather-light sound, contributed production to two songs on Fifth Harmony’s album.) Also, R&B has had diminishing influence over the sound of pop, as it’s been subsumed into hip-hop, meaning that singers inclined toward flash and power have found themselves stymied at every turn.

Add to this one additional recent phenomenon: the resurgence of lite-reggae on the pop charts, whether in the form of the Felix Jaehn tropical house remix of OMI’s “Cheerleader” last year, or the cloying, banal lovers-rock of “Rude,” by the Canadian band Magic!, the year before. In each case, the source genre is denuded, reduced to an unobtrusive lilt — reggae as signifier, not engine.

This isn’t novel, alas. ...

weird piece

Especially weitd that he doesn't mention that there's actually a Vybz Kartel cover version on the Fifth Harmony album.

also a pretty lame watered down interpolation of Mad Cobra's "Flex"

if i had time i would start a thread about the fifth harmony album, it's that good, but in the meantime i just want to make sure no one sleeps on the bonus tracks, esp "big bad wolf" and "dope"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cta9p7HgfAU

glad fergie has come back w/ something a bit more abrasive and audacious this time around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsUWK-fixiA

I like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRUt3FllRm8

Kossisko - "Hard"

Ok i never saw this the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBDNvlvR8vA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL9JoH4Sws

surprised no one's talking about this, seems like total ILX-bait. tim f, lex?

it's extremely okay. never minded hearing it when it was on radio 24/7 but was never overjoyed either.

the chorus feels just a touuuuuch lazy but those harmonies at the end are pretty tight

it was discussed some on Rolling Worst Songs, what I said then: "I suppose it was inevitable that the "sharing economy" propagandic bullshit would make its way, however loosely, into song concepts. can't find a real job, ladies? don't worry, you can spend your time cheerily sexting your boyfriend, who has retconned "Bo$$"

fair criticism, but at least that song sounds semi-fun (despite repeating "work" relentlessly lol) in a year when most big pop albums seem...not all that fun? (i like a couple of em a lot, but still.)

the song is specifically about someone who works the night shift, but never let a close reading get in the way of a blurb that writes itself

anyway, i fux with this (also old) sia/sean paul song too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYh-n7EOtMA

i do not fux with that

"work from home" is okay. rugrats-theme mustard.

ha! that's a great description

i'm into "work from home" even though as a freelancer i find working from home an extremely unsexy metaphor, it's def rugrats mustard but it's never not enjoyable either

the album is excellent, surprisingly

have we really not talked about "work from home" on ilx???

give me "not all that fun" over queasy forced fun every day

if we're talking about like that timberlake song for example, then yeah def

that is an example definitely, "work from home" very much so

I do think it's interesting that a lot of songs right now have what could be seen as propagandistic choruses - "Work," the repetition of the first word in "Work From Home," Daya's "Sit Still Look Pretty," heck even "No" - especially in the age of excruciatingly narrow playlists

where are my THEY LIVE earbuds eh

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/tired-of-love

pretty good, though i'm not sure about the farting synths at the end

now that i've been reminded of fifth harmony i would like to say that the pre-chorus (as the pop industryites call it now) to "flex" is so gorgeous that i'm mad it wasn't written into a better song

Playlist is updated.

The Petite Meller album is a lot of fun (and very good).

Love the fact that batshit crazy videos like this still exist in 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLwgeV7dXOI

Playlist is finalized for the year:

ILM's Rolling Pop Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Nice one.

Is there a 2017 thread yet?