MUSIC

READY TO POP | The Night Game, Whitney Road & More Offer Protest Songs

Also, Amos Lee and Drunken Logic Throw Their Hats in the Ring with Sometimes Angry but Always Insightful Protests

The Night Game

Now is not the time to stay silent.

Ready to Pop is relinquishing the role pop music so often plays in escapism and distraction. Instead, the latest lineup of tunes addresses the elephant in the room in the boiling socio-political environment. We don't have to say it; you already know. But the war is raging as hot as ever, and if we aren't careful, we'll be swallowed whole. Below, check out our latest obsessions, rated on a (slay) scale of "Super Chill" to "Shook" to "Wig Snatched."


The Night Game - "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

We are standing in the eye of a hurricane, but The Night Game isn't going to let the serene but momentary status make us unconcerned or unwilling to see what is looming outside our very small corner of the world. Instead, the electro-pop genius' updated version of this R.E.M. classic (a one-off separate from his just-released debut self-titled record) feels eerily relevant, and even though the lyrics "team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped" was imagined three decades ago, it's never been more cutting. The way lead singer Martin Johnson punches on "trump" can't be just a coincidence. In 2018, it stands for rebellion and protesting the severity and brutality of the world.

Slay Scale: Shook

Follow The Night Game on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram


Amos Lee - "Crooked"

Ok, so, maybe Amos Lee "popped" a long time ago. But his song "Crooked," off his new album My New Moon, taps into the urgency and unease rippling across this once-fair nation right now in this moment. We can't ignore it. "There's a crooked leader on a crooked stage," he observes. "But he seems to think he's standing tall..." As he makes not untrue statements about the leader of the free world, he comes closer to understanding his own place within such a terrible, eviscerating world. Is he crooked, too?

Slay Scale: Wig Snatched

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Drunken Logic - "Alone in America"

It's painfully obvious: We don't get to sit on the sidelines anymore. Since the swearing in of 45, this nation has boiled over with hate and bigotry the likes of which we haven't seen as clearly as right now. Indie-rock mind-bender Drunken Logic pulls no punches with a new song called "Alone in America," in which he sculpts a pounding and insightful story of one woman coming to realize her place in this tragic wasteland. The drums puncture the skin; his voice is frank but towering; and you may even reassess exactly what you are or are not doing to help.

Slay Scale: Shook

Follow Drunken Logic on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram


Whitney Road - "Kings Highway"

Folk band Whitney Road scrawls a tale of tragedy about a King and a Queen and the lies "that have all been sold." Fashioned in a fairy-tale style, there is a certain accessibility and care bound in the lyrics and harmony work. It's as ghostly as it is lilting, framing the tragedy as a narrator on a barren stage. The insight is packed in their rich poeticism, but the farcical characters and our inescapable reality come into a much clearer view.

Slay Scale: Super Chill

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Jason Scott is a freelance music journalist with bylines in B-Sides & Badlands, Billboard, PopCrush, Ladygunn, Greatist, AXS, Uproxx, Paste and many others. Follow him on Twitter.


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