THE PLAYLIST
Milkshake/ Hae (Share) Made up of five female members whose characters range from “Gossip Girl” to “Street Divas” to “Girl Next Door” to “Dream Girl” and “Independent”, Milkshake is Thailand’s answer to the Spice Girls — albeit 20 years late. Their lead single Hae (Share) is a high-energy pop-dance song in which the girls sing about people’s obsession with social media. “Here we go, here we go/What’s new, whatever is coming/We will follow and flock,” goes the rambunctious chorus. While it’s fun and flirty, they come across like a high school dance troupe rather than an actual group signed by a major label.
ANOHNI/ 4 Degrees Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons has shared a new song under her ANOHNI alias called 4 Degrees. Co-produced by Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never, the song is released in solidarity with the recent climate conference in Paris. Its title refers to the predicted rise in the Earth’s temperature by the year 2100, bringing forth catastrophic results. “I want to hear the dogs crying for water/I want to see the fish go belly up in the sea,” she sings solemnly alongside blaring horns, reflecting the destructive hubris of humans. “And all those lemurs and all those tiny creatures/I want to see them burn.” Then with callous apathy, she concludes in the chorus, “It’s only four degrees”.
Will Young/ Brave Man Brave Man is the latest single taken from Will Young’s sixth studio album, 85% Proof. Doing what he does best, the former Pop Idol winner begins: “See these scars of these years gone by/They don’t hurt me, just remind me I can cry.” The song then grows into a string-laden, choir-assisted power ballad as Young continues to mention his “aches and pains” and how he’s “running through the rain” and “not scared to feel the pain”. He could easily be a male version of Adele if he keeps this up.
Kylie Minogue/ Every Day’s Like Christmas (Stock Aitken Waterman Remix) As is customary this time of the year, a Christmas album is due — and this time it’s Kylie Minogue’s turn. Her Christmas LP, Kylie Christmas, features duets with TV host James Corden and her sister Dannii, but the real highlight has to be the joyous Every Day’s Like Christmas. Written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and produced by StarGate, the track receives a remix treatment by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, a triumvirate of producers behind Kylie’s earlier hits like I Should Be So Lucky, Hand On Your Heart and Better The Devil You Know. The song also marks the trio’s reunion in more than two decades.
Psy (featuring CL)/ Daddy South Korea’s unlikely pop sensation is back with another inane single, Daddy, taken from his just-released sixth studio album, Chiljip Psy-da. Here the Gangnam Style singer has joined forces with CL of girl group 2NE1 and give us a classic Psy dance jam, which increasingly relies on the sheer madness and virality of its music video rather than its artistic strengths. “Hey, where’d you get that body from?” CL quips, to which Psy answers “I got it from my daddy” — an obvious riff on will.i.am’s I Got It from My Mama.