PLAYLIST: "Pleasure"
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/playlist/tfp-pleased/pl.u-d2b0M0VuMKo9vg
^ Link to this playlist via Apple Music
This week’s playlist is titled “Pleased” and it has a pretty low-key mix of many genres. I hope you enjoy it. A little all over the place, “Pleased” has a more laid back and emotional then the last playlist. I’ll have another one for you shortly.
Disclosure opens the playlist with one of their new singles titled “Where Angels Fear to Tread”. It’s a funky dance song with a vocal sample I love. It reminds me of an old barber shop quartet or something. The beat is bouncy and upbeat. I am greatly looking forward to Disclosure’s next full-length release.
Kali Uchis has two songs on this week’s playlist, “Your Teeth in My Neck” and “Feel Like a Fool”. Kali Uchis has quickly become one of the most promising new voices in female r&b. Her album, Isolation, is full of very good songs, and her Columbian heritage influences her sound. “Your Teeth in My Neck” is a well-structured and fresh sounding song, while “Feel Like a Fool” has a vintage-feel that is reminiscent of Amy Winehouse.
Travis Scott is also front and center on this playlist, featuring five songs from the Houston rappers latest album, Astroworld. I found the album a bit monotonous when listened to in one sitting, but I also noticed that individual songs were all quite good. I recently watched a “Deconstructed” video on YouTube featuring the beat from “R.I.P. SCREW”. The video highlighted Mike Dean’s involvement with the synths, and they are a fantastic part of the song. Since the Black Panther soundtrack, I’ve been a sucker for a good Swae Lee feature, and “R.I.P. SCREW” has a wonderful one.
Drake appears a few times on the playlist too. I love his rhyme scheme on the verses to “That’s How You Feel”. He loops the last word from each bar to the start of the next bar in a loose and creative way. For example, at the end of his second verse he raps, “Up to no good, I shoulda seen the signs / Signing me up to do your dirty work / Working to try and get you off my mind”.
Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell stunt their way through space on “Neon Guts”, an overlooked track from Uzi’s Luv Is Rage 2. I especially like the bar “higher then Elon Musk” especially in the recent days as Musk and his wild ways have been all over the news. The two rappers make a dynamic duo and their chemistry works very well on this song.
I also included some classic rock songs that I’ve been listening to lately. I included Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm”, The Beatle’s “Blackbird”, and Gil-Scot Heron’s “Pieces of a Man”. I never fully understand what Bob Dylan is talking about, but I do really love this song as it is full of great imagery and backed by very nice guitars. “Blackbird” is one of my favourite songs by The Beatles. I love how they recorded a bird and put it on the song, and I thought it would be a nice song to close the playlist off with. “Pieces of a Man” is a tough song, full of grim realities faced by people in the early 1970’s. To me it is one of Heron’s best vocal performances as he lets his voice sail over his tragic words. You can hear the pain in his voice and it seems like the song hit close to home for the artist.
YG and Quavo’s “SLAY” appears on this playlist, one of the few songs to carry over from last weeks playlist. DJ Mustard’s production really sends this song to the rafters, it’s a home run. I think Mustard’s forays into the EDM world has really helped him improve and differentiate his sound. This song has a classic trap-ballad drum pattern, but the high-hats are wild and there’s a whirling, back-and-forth synth that plays throughout that is crazy infectious. Quavo kills his feature verse, talking about how he’s hanging with the homeboys and that, even though there is no Ice Cube, it is Friday.