Reverse

SomeKindaWonderful's "Reverse" offers up a heavy dose of that reggae rock fusion that is coming (whether you like it or not) and lyrics which will lead you to like it because you believe the entire track can be flipped, in accordance with the song title (i.e. he was the cheated, not the cheater); hate the song because you think it glorifies cheaters; or love it for its simple, yet amazing, lyrical ingenuity. 

An opening verse that starts with "she hung up the phone and said 'fuck you, it's over'" and ends with "I started with darling please listen, and then I picked up the phone" is entrancing. It seems like a simple concept, having the entire track written in reverse (the last line of the song being the first line of the story), but the songwriting choice offers up a refreshing change of pace from most of these reggae rock songs that are coming out of the woodwork with dance along verses and easy to memorize choruses. 

The band's already established that they can write a catchy melody, the steady piano chords and added string track makes the single's composition impossible to not love, and the lyric's inverted style hints that there are better things to come from a band that can think through what they're trying to say, rather than sloppily jotting down lines that sound like the norm for a breakup song. 

Check out the track below for something you can easily become addicted to. 

"Reverse" SomeKindaWonderful

5/31

There has not been a monthly playlist in a while, mostly because I've been doing a shoddy job and stocking up on new music, but sharing none of it (because, you know, life) and spending more time cleaning up the new site than updating it so, as a pseudo, two-part apology, this is my personal playlist for the week and I have spent the last several days listening to previously recorded interviews so that I could finally transcribe these things I've been hoarding on my phone's call log for the past however many months. You can check out two newly posted interviews on that page now (and look for two more tonight) and listen to some awesome music from Stargroves, Little Earthquake, and Fairchild below. 

If you're interested in the music and music news you must know to stay 'relevant', make sure to buy Strange Talk's Cast Away and Semi Precious Weapons' Aviation (because boy bands disguised as 'alternative' or 'edgy' are going to be all the rage), check out SomeKindaWonderful before your local radio station makes you hate the absolute perfection which is "Reverse", appreciate the fact that Ariana Grande is the youngest woman ever to debut a single with over 400,000 downloads because "Problem" has been the biggest single debut of the year (or so the email said and I just don't feel up to further sleuthing), and know that two members of One Direction filmed themselves smoking pot and people started to freak the fuck out but it was all very anticlimactic (I think.. probably.. may not have been as inconsequential to the lives of 1D fans who weren't distracted by Snowden's interview or Angelou's passing..).

"Beware the Dog" The Griswolds

"Rosary" Careless Sons

"Reverse" SomeKindaWonderful

"Waves" Sleeper Agent

"Paris" Magic Man

"Eris" Hyper Heart (free download)

"Hats in the Air" Stargroves

"Brightside" Little Earthquake

"The Revolution" For the Foxes

"My Body" Young the Giant

"Try" Hudson Taylor

"Be Brave" You Love Her Coz She's Dead (free download)

"Goodness Gracious" Ellie Goulding

"Burning Feet" Fairchild

"Westfjords" Stargroves featuring Abigail Breslin

"Tandem" Undiscovered Soul

Got To My Head

WATERS' "Got To My Head" features a youthful rhythm dripping with fun vocal hooks and addictive guitar riffs and is paired with a video just as unobtrusively fun and wonderfully simple as the song itself. A chorus which insists "maybe you got to my head" is easy to sing along with from your first listen while great lines like "like rain on sun-soaked days, I never thought you'd stray, and now I can't stop thinking" keep the song interesting long after you've memorized its sound.

Check out their impossibly fun single for a track you won't mind having stuck in your head the rest of the night.

"Got To My Head" WATERS

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Gold

Sir Sly's "Gold" holds all the trepidation, honest lyrics, and pleading notes of the ever-popular The Neighbourhood, but without that constant pit of despair which beckons you in whether you're ready or not, making Sir Sly's track that much better (in this niche) because I can only take so much empathy before I'm ready to leave and find music that understands me, rather than a track that begs for my consideration. 

A trippy video which features the constantly haunted protagonist running from himself while the lines "darling never settle, chasing down the devil, chasing down the gods, I hope you find your dream" traipse across the backdrop makes the video hit harder than any of this year's other releases from popular artists, which all seem to support the same light and running theme (i.e. "we're young, adorable, and cooler than you"). 

A solid composition and a video interesting enough to keep you watching through the final scene while lyrics as great as "nothing in my life worth proving, chasing, all my time is wasted" and "it's the push and the pull, it's the rise and the fall, I don't owe you a single thing, I don't owe you anything" are brought to life makes "Gold" completely refreshing and worthy of all your late night summer playlists.

"Gold" Sir Sly

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