THE PLAYLIST
Safeplanet / Sang Sawang (Strobe Light)
Thai indie trio Safeplanet returns with Sang Sawang (Strobe Light), their first single since last year’s Din Dan. The track finds the group still operating on the jangly rock spectrum with more emphasis being placed on the guitar-dominant arrangement. “Memories, I’m still holding on to them/ How do I live? I gotta learn how to deal” sings vocalist Thitiphat “Alien” A over a dreamy instrumentation. Another solid offering from a promising local band.
Utada Hikaru / Hatsukoi
Utada Hikaru has recently dropped her seventh Japanese-language studio album Hatsukoi, and so far we’ve heard a handful of singles like Ozora de Dakishimete, Forevermore, Anata, and Play A Love Song.
Now, the J-pop star has shared with us the record’s fifth cut in the form of the title track (meaning “first love”).
As with the trend of this particular album, she’s delivering a string-laden pop ballad which also serves as a soundtrack for a Japanese drama series (It’s Boys Over Flowers Season 2).
Mitski / Nobody
“My god, I’m so lonely/ So I open the window/ To hear sounds of people/ To hear sounds of people,” begins Mitski on Nobody, the second offering is taken from her forthcoming fifth studio record, Be the Cowboy. Set to a disco-tinted production, the track addresses the singer’s struggle with loneliness and alienation as she vocalises the song’s title with tongue firmly in cheeks. But don’t you dare feel sorry for her, because she doesn’t want to be smothered with your sympathy: “I don’t want your pity/ I just want somebody near me/ Guess I’m a coward/ I just want to feel alright”).
Vilde / Warm Milk
To this day, the demise of erudite British indie-rock band Wild Beasts is still hard to process although it looks like we may have a worthy stand-in. Introducing Vilde, a solo project of Kins’ former frontman Thomas Savage who’s bent on blending surging art-rock with a bit of industrial and electronica. His latest, Warm Milk, pits his anguished falsetto against the background of tumbling drums and ominous synths. Throughout its near six-minute runtime, the track weaves in and out of varying tempos and textures, yet with the shared goal of honing and sustaining the build-up that yields a satisfying payoff.
Chaka Khan / Like Sugar
“It’s like sugar, so sweet/ Good enough to eat/ When I feel the funk, I give in/ Get upon a-yo’ feet,” reigning disco diva Chaka Khan announces on her comeback single Like Sugar. As you can probably surmise, funk is the name of the game here and the legendary queen sounds like she’s never left. Besides, there are plenty of grooving basslines coupled with a universal message of losing oneself in dance — what more could we ask for? The song heralds the release of her forthcoming new LP, which will mark her first in over a decade following 2007’s Funk This.