BTS at the American Music Awards

By Featureflash Photo Agency

Congratulations–you've survived 2019

We've been through haunting commercials, traumatically bad movies, and the fall of a favorite childhood author. But through it all, there's been Spotify, judging our music tastes like a disapproving boomer. And yet, we persisted. In alphabetical order, these are the top 50 musical lifelines of the 2010s. In the top 25 are the likes of BTS, Bon Iver, Kendrick Lamar, and Childish Gambino. Among the bottom 25 are FKA twigs, Tayor Swift, Julien Baker, and Charli XCX. Notably absent is anything by Ed Sheeran or Justin Bieber, because we don't believe bad listening habits should be encouraged. Happy listening in 2020!

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Lizzo poses in the press room at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards at the Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14 with both live and prerecorded segments63rd Annual Grammy Awards - Press Room, Los Angeles, United States

Photo by Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock

Lizzo dazzled on her SNL debut this weekend, but fans might have noticed another source of energy and talent emanating from next to the "Truth Hurts" singer as she belted out her tunes.

That would be Celisse Henderson, who shredded on guitar as Lizzo sang.

Lizzo: Truth Hurts (Live) - SNLwww.youtube.com

Henderson is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who is a member of the band Ghosts of the Forest. She took center stage during Lizzo's performance, adding a layer of gritty, bluesy rock to the unbelievably catchy song about getting over a man who doesn't deserve you.

Henderson styled her look and guitar after the legendary Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose gospel and blues recordings were instrumental in shaping rock and roll. As one of the first guitarists to use distortion, she inspired many blues and rock players, and her voice and stage presence helped make her a star.

Seeing Lizzo's pristine, very 21st-century pop mixed with a tribute to one of the greatest rock and roll guitarists of all time gave scope and depth to the performance and helped make it the unforgettable showstopper that it was.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Headwww.youtube.com






Celisse Henderson - Stuck On You Blues | Sofar NYCwww.youtube.com


Lizzo, who took to the stage covered in head-to-toe Gucci and hit stratospheric notes from start to finish, also posted a heart-warming tribute to her journey.

Between Henderson's masterful guitar playing, Lizzo's unbelievable pipes and stage presence, and the dancers that lit up the stage, it was a performance to remember.

Lizzo's sets were highlights of Eddie Murphy's star-studded, highly acclaimed, and hilarious SNL episode, which also braided tributes to icons of the past (like Gumby, dammit) with very modern humor.

Eddie Murphy Monologue - SNLwww.youtube.com

MUSIC

Mark Ronson's "Late Night Feelings" Is Soulless Pop

Despite its technical perfection, Ronson's album feels soulless in parts.

Mark Ronson called his new album a collection of "sad bangers," and as promised, Late Night Feelings is full of upbeat tracks about heartbreak.

It features an impressive array of musicians, but even the undeniable talent of each singer and Ronson's proven skill—he's fresh from the success of "Uptown Funk" and "Shallow"—can't save the album from its own soullessness.

Late Night Feelings is plagued by issues that taint many producers' similar albums: It feels like each singer popped into the studio, learned the song, recorded it, and left. In this way, it sacrifices each artist's originality in its effort to package them into Ronson's vision. There isn't the cathartic blood-letting that comes from a cohesive album by a single artist or group. Ronson's album is technically perfect, but often, it's not alive.

One of the greatest missed opportunities comes on the three-song set by YEBBA, the extraordinary Arkansas gospel singer who rose to fame after her mind-blowing Sofar Sounds performance. Like Sia on the unfortunate L.S.D. album from a few months ago, YEBBA's raw vocal talent and singular emotiveness can't shine through her producer's zealousness; instead, she's held back by a straitjacket of beats and unnatural vocal lines. Overall, though a great deal of today's best music involves unexpected convergences of very different genres, Ronson's funk infusions don't always mesh with the styles of his featured artists. It's hard to know where some of these songs are supposed to be played—outside of department store aisles.

In particular, these issues plague "Late Night Feelings" by Lykki Li and "Find U Again" by Camila Cabello. "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" by Miley Cyrus and "True Blue" by Angel Olsen are stronger, though they still feel overly processed and a bit insubstantial. None of the tracks on the album are without redeeming qualities: The mesh of orchestral elements and glossy, noirish synths are often elegant and refined. Perhaps it's simply the knowledge that Ronson could have done so much better that makes some of these songs feel stale.

The album finds its footing as it goes on. "Why Hide" featuring Diana Gordon takes a piano motif that's oddly evocative of "Somebody To Lean On" and actually gives Gordon's ethereal vocals their due. Gordon's voice is better suited to the track than some of the other singers', or maybe the track is better suited to her style. Either way, the sultry and cohesive tune allows her emotion to shine through and leaves enough space for its lyrics to simmer and resonate.

"2 AM" by Lykki Li is the best track on the album. Melodic, dreamy, and radiant, listening to the song feels like floating under the surface of a swimming pool for a moment, completely escaping the reality of the world above. Its sultry beat, wrenching lyrics, and comfortingly familiar chord progression make it feel like a classic, perfect for late night smokes or long drives spent watching the sky turn from orange to purple to black.

Mark Ronson - 2 AM (Audio) ft. Lykke Liwww.youtube.com

The final track, "Spinning," processes Ilsey's vocals a la Imogen Heap in "Hide and Seek" and places them over a windy synthesizer and a magnetic rhythm. It's beautiful enough to stop the world for a moment. If only all the songs had room to breathe emotion into Late Night Feelings and what it could have been.

MUSIC

Rock/Hip-Hop Hybrid Oxymorrons Bring Stadium-Level Electricity to Rough Trade

The infectiously energetic bunch discuss sound waves, vulnerability, and stratospheric ambition from Rough Trade's green room.

Onstage and in person, Oxymorrons are uncontainable. Even just sitting and talking, they emit crackling energy that translates seamlessly to the Rough Trade stage.

Combining thunderous beats with electric guitars and virtuosic bass lines, layering emotive lyrics against infectious refrains, theirs is a stadium-ready brand of hip-hop-rock fusion that manages to sound totally unique.

Oxymorrons "See Stars" [ Offical Music Video]www.youtube.com

The project of Queens-based brothers KI and Deee, who have been making music together almost their entire lives, Oxymorrons is a hybrid of genres, visions, and emotions, bound up into one super-charged entity. The band has been blending hard rock with hard hip-hop long before Kevin Abstract and his peers rose to the top of the charts. Oxymorrons' come-up has been a long one, but they're finally breaking through to the mainstream.

Popdust talked to Oxymorrons about the grind to the top, being simultaneously vulnerable and ambitious, and how in the end, we're all made of the same energy.

Congrats on all your recent successes. It seems like you guys have had a crazy upswing.

DEEE: It's been cooking. Between touring, new management, and the festivals we've booked right now, the upswing has been crazy. Everything we've worked for for a long time is culminating, so it's kind of like, "oh shit, let's ride the wave."

ADAM NOVEMBER: I got lucky and came for the good part.

What was the not-so-good part?

MATTY MAYZ: There were a lot of ups and downs.

KI: Empty rooms. Sometimes you gotta share a sandwich. A lot of sandwiches.

D: To be somewhat serious, it's a grind. We built this shit on our own. There was no one investing in us. It's been a push and pull, but it's all culminating now, so it's worth it. Before, it was like, what the fuck are we doing?

MM: The light at the end of the tunnel helps.

D: We've figured out our sound. Now, it's cool to blend genres and break rules, but we've always been doing that. We've been misunderstood for so long. The labels would tell us—you guys are great, but where are we going to put you? They wanted to put us in a box, but one of our rules is to be unapologetically ourselves. Now, sound is catching up and being more accepting to a black fucking rock band, to tell you the truth.

KI: We had to wait for our time. And it's beautiful.

D: I think it was the cosmos, and us working really hard for a long time. Labels told us we were too black for rock, and too rock for hip hop. We were dealing for that back and forth for so long that we thought no one was ever going to get it. But now people are getting it, and we're feeling good as a band, and we're gonna keep shooting for the stars.

Over the past few years, mixing genres has become so prevalent, so some of your early work is almost prophetic. What made you start blending rock and hip hop?

D: We grew up listening to all different types of music, and our rule was—if it feels good and sounds good, then it's good. Sonics are sonics; it's all just sound, just vibrations. You can put vibrations in a box and you can put a name on them, but if people feel it, they just feel it. The reason you call something rock is because someone classified it that way. But really, it's just sound.

KI: We grew up with so many different genres of music, so we were like, why settle for one? That's why we called the band Oxymorrons in the first place. It's about marrying different things together.


You've said before that you have a bunch of different influences.

D: I'm a huge fan of Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, and Billy Joel. Queen is my favorite band, but then I'll turn around and listen to Kanye and Kid Cudi. It's across the board. Right now I'm listening to Cool Schoolchildren and before that, it was Bless the Fall and Lil Wayne's album.

KI: I listen to elevator music and Korean pop music; I listen to anything. Big Bang is my favorite Korean band. So we take all of that stuff and put it in. Music is music.

Do you [KI and Deee] feel like growing up in Queens influenced your music?

D: Subconsciously, it did. Queens is the most diverse borough. Growing up there and having foreign parents keeps your palate open. We never put ourselves in a box, though we easily could have. Where we grew up in south Queens, we were the only kids listening to rock; everybody else was listening to hip hop. There wasn't a name for what we were doing.

KI: Queens changes every four or five blocks. That's the beauty of it.

You can kind of hear that in your music's texture. So was there a moment you realized this band was going to work?

KI: It was always bigger than us. Touring just opened things up. We were able to connect with people in a really cool way.

D: When people told us they're inspired by us, we were like—if we can inspire ten people, we can inspire ten thousand.

MM: We didn't realize how wide the spectrum was for people who care about what we were doing.

D: We bring people together, people who would never be in the same room. You'll see a dude who just listens to straight hip hop, standing right next to a dude who listens to nothing but metal, and they're enjoying it together. It's kind of like, shit, we are the world.

Oxymorrons- Brunch (Official Music Video)youtu.be

You've got some amazing support from people in the industry, too.

D: Sway [Calloway]'s been a supporter from damn near day one. Lupe [Fiasco] took us on his first tour; a lot of people connected the dots and helped us a lot along the way.

KI: Those people who came up and gave us a dollar—everyone who helped us, even a little—they're as much of celebrities as anyone who helped us in the industry.

D: Remember when we used to be in one hotel room? We toured the entire country in an SUV.

MM: Sixty-nine trips with me sitting Indian style.

KI: My legs…

Your music toes the line between vulnerability and these huge ambitions and energy. Was that an intentional contrast?

KI: That's just who we are. I want to be vulnerable and I want to be real; but at the same time, we're not gonna hold back on showing our light. We don't want our fans to hold back on showing their light; either. We're all doing this together. We're all on this globe together.

D: There's no reason to minimize yourself for someone else's comfort. Just because I'm shining doesn't mean you can't shine next to me. Even in a business this competitive, we're all in the same space; there doesn't have to be war. We just want to be authentically ourselves. We are vulnerable; we go through things.

KI: Everyone's trying to hide themselves by keeping it cool, but being yourself and showing that side is the cool.

Often they're viewed as mutually exclusive—toughness and emotional vulnerability.

AN: The balance between confidence and doubt is definitely something that all people deal with. We try not to hide that.

D: Let it out; it's all good. We have an open-door policy with each other. We tell each other about all our emotions no matter what. If someone's pissed off, we say it; if we love you, we say that too. We hug each other. It's weird to not be real. We're a family. We're manifesting one of the largest things you can ever try and manifest as a person—we're breathing life into a dream, this thing that didn't use to exist, that started as an arbitrary concept. Now we're all sitting here, talking about some shit that was created in a basement.

KI: Thank you for caring.

D: Sometimes even mid-show I'll just gaze into the crowd like, "Holy shit, why do you even like us, why are you all here?" It's so crazy. I'm actually self-conscious, whereas Deee's the one who's like, I'm fucking divine, I'm the greatest.

It's so powerful to sing out something that you wrote in a moment of vulnerability and hear it sung back in crowds.

D: And to have people say, hey I felt like that too.[That's] something I don't take for granted at all.

AN: In terms of the coolness factor between an audience and the artist—we need each other to survive. I don't know where that coolness comes from. I might be onstage, but we can only do this together. Only together can we relate and feel something.

So what's next?

D: We're finishing a project; I can't put out any dates, but in late June, there will be a lot more content. There are things I can't say, but there's a lot going on, and this is our year.

You seem to have a very loving communion together as a band that probably translates to the stage, and I think a lot of people will connect with that.

D: If you took us out of here and put us in a bar, it's the same. We act exactly the same no matter where you place us. It's easy; when I'm onstage, I do what I do in front of the mirror at home.

Anything you want to add?

D: Live long and prosper. We're all one energy. We might be living in this space, but it's absolutely all one energy.

KI: More shows coming up, more festivals...be there.



Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


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MUSIC

Swimming Bell’s Cosmic Debut Creates Worlds Through Sound

The Brooklyn newcomer's first album feels like the start of something that could last a long time.

Sometimes stillness can generate more revelations than any amount of frantic movement. Swimming Bell, fronted by Brooklyn's Katie Schottland, is proof of this; a project born of stagnancy, it seems poised to become something much larger.

Schottland's musical career began when a broken foot forced her to slow down, giving her the time she needed to learn guitar. She puts this skill to good use on her debut album, Wild Sight, which features full-bodied playing and a musical inventiveness that sets her apart from her many indie-folk contemporaries.

Wild Sight is a collection of unhurried songs that each travel far, reaching cosmic heights through softly psychedelic instrumental arrangements. The album feels made for driving home from the beach, for windy festival stages, for nights spent watching candles melt on screened-in porches. It's the sort of album that you can play over and over again, gathering new shards of wisdom or following different sonic paths.

One standout track is "1988," which layers Schottland's soft, strong vocals over light strumming and flickering arpeggiation. "Inside your language, I heard who you are," she sings, a line containing the kind of nuance and abstraction that characterizes the bulk of the lyrics on Wild Sight. "I was born inside your arms," she sings a variation on the themes of creation, love, and becoming.

'1988' by Swimming Bellwww.youtube.com


Swimming Bell - 1988 | Sofar NYCwww.youtube.com

Schottland is adept at spinning everyday experiences and tools into much vaster entities. One of her greatest strengths is her use of vocal harmony; over and over again at different points, waves of vocal lines gather together to form oceanic choirs. "Quietly Calling" is a great example of this, building up from nothing to hypnotic patchworks of sound. But she's strong on her own, too, with songs like "Left Hand Path" and "Love Liked You" guided forward by the lead vocal, steadfast amidst flustered peals of electric guitar.

The album is full of changes, both in terms of its musical shifts from sparseness to abundance as well as the genres it draws from. Songs like "Love Liked You" blend folk, country, and Americana, and the album traverses a wide variety of other styles; for example, "We'd Find" plants itself firmly in the dream-pop realm. "She'd won some battles, she lost the fight. It's you," Schottland sings, as the song takes its cloudy, ethereal journey into the abandon of all-encompassing love. But the album never grows pessimistic, never gets too lost in the ether. Instead, despite its wavering, abstract lyrics, it feels charged with an internal life force that makes each song feel present, homegrown in California sunlight, with deep roots in the solid ground.

Though it rests on strong foundations, Wild Sight is constantly in motion. Schottland is an expert at transitions, at shaping the peaks and valleys of her songs. "Got Thing" builds to a vibrant climax, then doubles back to a space of restraint at the moment it reaches its height. Sometimes these contrasts can feel chaotic, just as the lyrics can grow knotty. "You got your messy hair and crooked teeth. You don't look like your name, but you're a wild sight to leave. You're my moonshine," she sings on "For Brinsley." At times the album resembles this anonymous lover—songs like "Wolf" unravel into cycles of dissonance and shimmering, cluttered synths.

The album feels like an artist testing her wings, oscillating between restraint and release, gathering droplets from whatever collective river of the mind holds its ageless melodies. Swimming Bell is still coming into her own—sometimes her music seems like it's trying to be something else—but when it relaxes into what it truly is, it becomes a force of abundance, sounding like the sort of thing that could last a very long time.


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


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