THE PLAYLIST

Geumdageum / Maew We love it when artists come up with a name for their own sound just so we don’t have to. Bringing us “street alternative,” homegrown indie six-piece Geumdageum draw their inspiration from pleng puea chiwit (literally “songs for life”), a sub-genre of Thai folk music championing the working-class, while putting an indie-rock spin on it – think something along the lines of YENA. Maew [Cat], lifted from their debut album Sib Baht, sounds as if it was made in the ‘60s, with trumpet and double bass giving off that old-timey feel and the lyrics comparing cats’ aloofness to women’s indifference.

Zayn (Feat. Timbaland) / Too Much

Starting with last year’s Sia collab Dusk Till Dawn, the build-up for Zayn’s sophomore outing has been slow-going, but steady. On the forthcoming record’s fifth cut Too Much, the former One Direction star links up with producer Timbaland, channelling the sexually charged vibes of avant-R&B crooner The Weeknd. “I guess I want too much/ I just want love and lust,” he intones in a soaring falsetto, all hot and bothered like. “You just can’t love enough/ That’s why I need a touch.”

Phosphorescent / New Birth in New England

Every week there’s at least one song that stands out from the rest of the playlist. This week’s honour goes to Phosphorescent’s New Birth in England, the lead cut taken from his forthcoming seventh LP, C’est La Vie. Here, the Nashville-based singersongwriter Matthew Houck showcases his songwriting chops by offering a vignette of two people conversing in a bar: “I said, ‘Hey, I like it how you play the piano’/ She just said, ‘Honey, what are you doing here?’/ I said, ‘Well, I’m sitting in a bar in New England/ I was thinking about another beer.’” Add to that uplifting backing choirs and you have a delightful gem you’ll be humming for the rest of the week.

Robyn / Missing U

Sweden’s pop powerhouse Robyn returns with her first new solo material since 2012’s Body Talk

and, predictably, it’s one for the dancefloor. Like some of her best singles including modern classic Dancing On My Own, Missing U

finds her transforming melancholy into a physical release. “There’s this empty space you left behind/ Now you’re not here with me/ I keep digging through our waste of time… But the picture’s incomplete/ ‘Cause I’m missing you,” she sings over scintillating synths and the iconic four-to-the-four beat.

Wild Nothing / Partners in Motion Take a few seconds and think of all the tropes of ‘80s music. Now, whatever you’ve had in mind will most likely be on Wild Nothing’s latest track, Partners in Motion. The third taste of Wild Nothing’s fourth studio album Indigo, the song oozes retro sonic aesthetics of the said era – shimmering synths, saxophone solo, and goosebumps-inducing modulations. The lyrics, too, are cryptic at its best (“Now I’m obsessive, walking through keyholes/ Fixing picture prints, letting the soil drain/ I had a temper, but now I’m delicate/ I keep it to myself, I keep it to myself”).