Senior Editor Brett Callwood
Pussy Riot
"Make America Great Again"
Leave it to Pussy Riot to spell things out!
Editorial Intern Anna Jordan
Yndling
"It's Almost Like You're Here"
Such beautiful production and vocal performance, a super underrated track and artist!
Editorial Intern Cade Pinkerson
Lush
"Ladykillers"
Sometimes the best songs don't have to be the most serious or lyrically in-depth, but those that poke fun and revel in their own cheekiness. Cut-throat lyrics about fragile masculinity taste a little sweeter going down when sung by Miki Berenyi, with sly, subtle digs at famous men in music from Weezer to The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The track, being notably bouncier than the rest of Lush's catalog, leads to the song feeling like a caricature of the stereotypical Britpop song. Fitting, given the constant mischaracterization of Lush as a Brit-pop band.
Associate Editor Ruby Risch
J. Cole
"Too Deep for the Intro"
Talk about smooth but heavy with purpose—this is an early glimpse at the kind of storyteller Cole would become. This track is off of his third mixtape, Friday Night Lights, and samples a sped up “Didn’t Cha Know” from Erykah Badu. The lyrical depth and layered production here tells us that this is obviously not just another intro. Amen!
Pussy Riot photo, by Igor Mukhin, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
