THE PLAYLIST
JITIVI / Khun, Kon Rak
Plot’s frontman Jitivi “Pai” Banthaisong has branched out with a solo project JITIVI and, judging from lead cut, Khun, Kon Rak [You, beloved], he seems to be digressing from the usual indie punk route and gravitating towards something a little more electronic. Set to krautrock-inspired drum pad beats and low-slung synths, the song finds Pai reminiscing about a doomed romance back in 2011 when his neighbourhood in Thon Buri happened to be flooded. “No more paradise/ Without you, the Thon Buri side has gotten darker,” he sings over a rigid repetition of the drum loop. “I’m begging you, Goddess of Love/ Show us some sympathy.”
Ariana Grande / God is a Woman
Well, we’ve come a long way since Joan Osborne was wondering out loud whether god was one of us or just a slob like one of us back in the mid ‘90s. Fast forward two decades and Ariana Grande asserts that not only god is indeed one of us, he is also a woman. “You, you love it how I move you/ You love it how I touch you/ My one, when all is said and done/ You’ll believe God is a woman,” she sings, later joined by Madonna who recites the Ezekiel 25:17 line from Pulp Fiction, fittingly swapping “brothers” for “sisters”: “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my sisters.”
Christine and the Queens / Doesn’t Matter
Dubbed “a crisis song,” Doesn’t Matter is a second single off Christine and the Queens’ forthcoming new LP, Chris. Here, the French musician Christine (real name Héloïse Letissier) is going through a spiritual conundrum, questioning her faith in earnest: “It doesn’t matter, does it?/ If I know any exit/ If I believe in God, and if God does exist.” If that sounds a tad heavy for a pop song, it does, but, thankfully, this is offset by propulsive ‘80s drum grooves, slinky basslines, and underlying sense of celebratory liberation.
All Saints / Don’t Look Over Your Shoulder
Fresh from celebrating their 20th anniversary in the business at London’s Pride, All Saints have dropped Don’t Look Over Your Shoulder, the second cut off their fourth studio album, Testament. Musically, the pop ballad comes off as a little forgettable, the fact further exacerbated by a hackneyed life-affirming platitude (“Don’t look over your shoulder/ Just keep walking away/ We can breathe now, it’s over/ And erase all the pain”). Not their most brilliant material, but at least their vocal harmonies are still on point.
Twenty One Pilots / Jumpsuit
After the massive success of their last album Blurryface and the subsequent tour, American duo Twenty One Pilots now return with Jumpsuit, the first taste of their forthcoming fifth studio record, Trench. Compared to their earlier materials, the track signals a heavier rock, more screamo sound from the pair, plus a whole new narrative involving a new alter ego named Clancy and the fictitious city called Dema.