Majid Jordan

Summer Mix 2021, Part 2: Night

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Here’s Part 2 of my annual summer mix, for your evening/nighttime enjoyment.

The tracklist, along with YouTube and Spotify versions of the playlist, are at the bottom. But first, some notes:

  • The best song of 2021 so far is the opener to this mix: “Be Sweet” by Japanese Breakfast.
  • “Impact” needs to be played on a sweaty, covid-free dance floor as soon as possible. (Also, that song made my top 10 of 2020 last year.)
  • As I’ve said many times, Amber Mark is the most underrated R&B artist we have. By the same token, Caroline Polachek (formerly of Chairlift) is currently our most underrated pop artist. “Bunny is a Rider” is a bop.
  • If you try not to dance during “Watch Your Step” by Disclosure and Kelis, you will fail miserably.

Tracklist (meant to be played top to bottom, no shuffle):

1. Japanese Breakfast: “Be Sweet”
2. SG Lewis ft. Robyn & Channel Tres: “Impact”
3. Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson Paak): “Skate”
4. Laura Mvula: “Church Girl”
5. Natalie Bergman: “Shine Your Light on Me”
6. The Avalanches ft. Leon Bridges: “Interstellar Love”
7. Disclosure ft. Kelis: “Watch Your Step”
8. Tuxedo: “Doin’ My Best”
9. Madlib: “Road of the Lonely Ones”
10. Majid Jordan: “Waves of Blue”
11. Kid Cudi: “Tequila Shots”
12. SZA: “Good Days”
13. The Black Keys: “Stay All Night”
14. Kevin Morby: “Campfire”
15. Caroline Polachek: “Bunny is a Rider”
16. Amber Mark: “Worth It”
17. Bedouine, Waxahatchee & Hurray for the Riff Raff: “Thirteen”

Five Quality Tracks: February 2016


 
 
1. Miguel: “waves (Tame Impala Remix)”

I don’t get outright obsessed with songs very often. That may seem hard to believe, but it’s true. Even when I truly love a song to my core, it’s rare that I feel the need to endlessly play it on repeat. This Tame Impala remix of Miguel’s “waves” is a glowing exception. Miguel and Tame Impala are not only two of my favorite current artists, but they both had big breakout years in 2015. They both pushed toward each other’s worlds with their latest albums, past the boundaries of their respective “genres.” Miguel is known as an R&B/pop singer but I wouldn’t argue if you called last year’s Wildheart a rock album, while Tame Impala, the “rock band,” experimented with pop and funk on Currents. We can see evidence of this convergence between Tame Impala’s sound and the current pop landscape in Rihanna’s latest album ANTI. She straight-up took the production of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” note-for-note and sang over it herself to create “Same Ol’ Mistakes”, and somehow it sounds completely at home! No one would have thought that was possible five years ago. The pop star behind “Don’t Stop the Music” sang over a track from the guys who made “Lucidity”? I don’t know man, but it works.

So, it turns out Tame Impala is actually a natural fit for a Miguel remix. The original version of “waves” is amazing in and of itself, easily one of my 5 favorite Miguel tracks. Kevin Parker, the wizard behind Tame Impala, punches it up a notch with a little more “oomph.” The opening harmonies, which sound like they were ripped from a sun-soaked Beach Boys cut, give way to classic Tame Impala woozy, gauzy psych rock. This seamless Miguel-Tame Impala combination hits my sweet spot dead on. I have a feeling this is going to be a constant presence in 2016 summer playlists.

 
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