This week, John Legend collaborates with Pharrell Williams, Leon Bridges looks to West Africa, and Hermanos Gutierrez travel to the Andes. Also, new songs from Joy Oladokun and This Is The Kit.
Photo of Leon Bridges by Joshua Kissi
This week, John Legend collaborates with Pharrell Williams, Leon Bridges looks to West Africa, and Hermanos Gutierrez travel to the Andes. Also, new songs from Joy Oladokun and This Is The Kit.
John Legend and Pharrell Williams Collaborate on “Fireflies”
Given their respective track records, the combination of singer John Legend and producer Pharrell Williams seems like a surefire way to create an all-conquering hit. So “Fireflies” may surprise many listeners – this is a song about life “in the projects,” and while it offers a glimmer of hope it also acknowledges darkness and hardship. It’s the second single from Legend’s forthcoming album, Muse, which is due on October 23, and which will certainly include some bona fide hits. But “Fireflies” has something else on its mind: Legend plays a repeating, falling piano riff that quickly takes on an ominous quality; Williams brings his usual orchestral flair to the arrangement, but here it’s more dramatic than uplifting. The video, featuring Legend with the Hollywood Cinematic Orchestra, is a black & white stunner, and the song, barely three minutes long, hits with the force of something much bigger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P82Y2YPC3w&list=RD7P82Y2YPC3w&start_radio=1
Leon Bridges Goes Global on Happiness Anytime
Leon Bridges built his substantial reputation on his vintage soul sound – warm horns, often soaring falsetto vocals, all the signifiers of classic 70s soul in a contemporary setting. But his new LP, Happiness Anytime, looks further afield, with Bridges working with members of the British dance band Jungle on songs that draw on Latin rhythms and West African energy. (Bridges has been rolling out these songs over the past year, but today’s LP release finally brings them all together.) Leadoff track “Light The Way” immediately calls to mind the horn-forward grooves of Ghanaian highlife or Nigerian Afrobeat. These were popular sounds in West Africa at the same time that Bridges’ soul antecedents were lighting up the charts in America, so despite the shift in tonal and perhaps geographic center, Bridges still sounds like he’s right at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBQYANdjiP8
Hermanos Gutierrez Look To The Andes On Their New LP
The Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutierrez have just released their seventh album as Hermanos Gutierrez. The duo guitarists have become known internationally for an atmospheric blend of twangy, dusky soundscapes that resemble some of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks, 60’s-style surf guitar, and ambient electronics. The resulting music has conjured images of mysterious nights under the open skies of the American Southwest. But this new album, Los Ojos Del Condor (The Eyes of the Condor), looks to South America, and specifically the Andes. The guitars are occasionally joined by the charango, the small mandolin-like instrument that is part of the traditional Andean sound, and the rhythms draw on that traditional music as well. “Canto Andino,” or “Andean song,” is a good example; the steady tread of the drum suggests a trudge up a mountainside, but it soon turns into something almost dance-like. The video is also a heartfelt celebration of Indigenous Andean culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNEawx_99mk&list=RDTNEawx_99mk&start_radio=1
Joy Oladokun Presents Hope As a “Heavy Thing”
As the American daughter of Nigerian immigrant parents, Joy Oladokun’s music over the past decade has been a convincing mix of genres or styles. Folk, rock, and Afropop have all made their presence felt, and Oladokun’s new album, Hope Is A Heavy Thing, continues in that vein. With contributions from Nigerian producer Spellz and Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold, there is perhaps a more evident stream of West African music here, but there are still songs that deal with folky introspection as well as out-and-out rockers. The album opens with “Raised By The Radio,” which starts small – just Oladokun and her guitar, weaving a charming tale of a girl who grew up on the radio, and for whom God and the deejay are practically the same thing. The arrangement grows into something that echoes her lyric about “songs of yesterday,” as the track accrues the big sound of classic pop. But the song ends with a question that perhaps reflects the album’s stated theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3TpBnDHB9Q&list=RDS3TpBnDHB9Q&start_radio=1
A Quick Hit From This Is The Kit
British singer, songwriter and guitarist Kate Stables records under the name This Is The Kit; since her debut album in 2008 she’s made idiosyncratic folk-rock that recently has taken on more of an indie-rock edge. This week she released this short song as a teaser for her next record. It’ll be called Ghost Coat, and the single is “Skim a Stone,” a typically oblique song that appears to be about holding on to hope, but which may also have a “careful what you wish for” vibe. The layered electric guitars, paired with Stables’ penchant for almost obsessive repetition in her lyrics, effectively create a suggestion of urgency and anxiety, and yet her voice offers warmth and, perhaps, something approaching comfort.
The album, Ghost Coat, comes out on January 15.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMZetrwFc2M&list=RDfEw6VZq9xg8&index=2