New Music, July 2015

I've had a busy month for music discovery with Apple Music's free trial and catching up on my backlog of NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. Here's some of the songs that have stood out for me.

Strange Hellos, Torres

This one's from All Songs Considered -- it starts very quiet, gets moderately loud after the intro and then escalates. It's catchy and fun. I've started listening to the album, Sprinter, on Apple Music, but I haven't had enough listens to really have an opinion yet.

River, Ibeyi

I picked this up from Apple Music's Beats 1, but it was also featured on All Songs Considered. This is probably my favorite track of the month. I really like this song, and I really like the self-titled album it's on, which is really solid straight through. This is definitely an album I will be continuing to listen to regularly.

The video is simple but effective. River in particular reminds me a little of Zap Mama, although I probably wouldn't say that of Ibeyi as a whole.

Pedestrian at Best, Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett's Pedestrian at Best has catchy lyrics, a sort of stream-of-consciousness vocal style, and was one of my early favorites from Beats 1. All Songs Considered also has Courtney Barnett on a guest DJ spot which helped some of her personality come through for me, as well as showing one of the influences for Pedestrian at Best.

I'm given to understand the whole album is good here too, although I haven't given it a fair shake yet.

Can't Feel My Face, The Weeknd

One of my wife's friends is really into The Weeknd, so I've heard some of his music before, but not really enough to have a strong opinion yet. I will say that Can't Feel My Face, which plays on Beats 1, is catchy and fun.

I've got some more ASC backlog as well as more of Apple Music's free trial, so I'm sure I'll have some more songs to come.