About To Have A Nice Time

Jamie xx featuring Robyn “Life”

As far as features and collabs go, this is a remarkably even merger of aesthetics that really goes give you the very best of Jamie xx in DJ mode and Robyn in euro diva mode. It’s a real best case scenario for a team up that makes me hope they do some more music together, as I think this is most definitely the best thing Robyn in particular has done in something like 14 years. This isn’t to say I think she’s sucked in the time between but when I think of what made me fall for her music in the mid 2000s, this is basically it – a lot of sass and unguarded emotion, a playful spirit and a low key soulfulness, a boldness that tastefully avoids cheap bombast. But there is plenty of bombast on this track, mainly in the blaring horn fanfare riff that’s a perfect tonal contrast with the timbre of Robyn’s voice.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Salute featuring Piri “Luv Stuck”

Piri has worked with enough producers at this point that it’s clear that the through line in her body of work is a natural gift for writing lovely and unfussy topline melodies. Melody is probably my favorite aspect of music, but it’s not easy to write about it – it often feels like trying to explain why one curved line in more beautiful than another, or why some faces are more beautiful to you than others. And of course, a lot of us just like different versions of the same over and over, and I think that’s the case with a song like “Luv Stuck.” It’s not as though Piri is reinventing the wheel here, it’s just that she’s tapping into melodic turns that I’m always going to find beautiful. Especially when the song makes its way around the curve in the “something almost finds me in the nighttime, oh baby, stop hiding from me” line, and she sounds a little bit sad before resolving in the more joyful sentiment of the chorus.

Buy it from Bandcamp.