SOLANGE KNOWLES, omg the return of

yeah but the point is that beyoncé caused us trepidation with the sleigh bells rumours but then she gave us 4

Because she has a proper career to sustain.

Beyonce featured on this gem with a bloke from Coronation Street, so Solange wins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQxwgykVPQY

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Hy9W_mrY_Vk"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

okay that didn't work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9W_mrY_Vk&feature=plcp

awesome song

after this and "Everything Is Embarrassing" I kind of want Dev Hynes to write all of the pop songs. which is so weird.

This song is amazing!!!!!!!!

OMG I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THIS ALBUM

yeah fffv I'm having that same weird feeling... the vocals have a bit of an "everything is embarrassing" feel to it

This takes the good things about "Everything Is Embarrassing" and pushes them to 11 on the Made-for-Johnny-Fever scale.

80s pop is the most absolute boring musical choice one can make right now. if this had come out 5 years ago, I'd have loved it. as it stands, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

If the core of the track is solid, the production/arrangement is just gravy. There's a sizeable swamp out there of 80s-inspired pop, but a few things still manage to sound good and fresh. This is an example of that, imo.

I just bought the digital single and the b-side is p tight too.

bury the fucking 80s dead.

NEVER EVER

While I'm always in favor of pushing music forward, I have a hell of a nostalgia sweet tooth. When enough time passes, decades turn into genres. If prevailing pop (not POP) trends wish to dabble in the 80s genre at the current time, so be it. Just make the songs good.

Glad someone made this gif so I didn't have to

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb91lfxyhY1qjipi2o1_500.gif

the corpse of the 80s has DONE BEEN picked over. nice gif tho.

My problem isn't with people making retro-80s music my problem is with people making retro-80s music when retro-80s music is PLAYED THE FUCK OUT.

And all I'm saying is that we're at 80s high tide right now and soon we'll be at low tide. In the meantime, there's still some really great 80s-style music all over the place (and that's been the case pretty much for the last 10-12 years).

I get what you're saying, though. In the 80s, 80s music was new and THE FUTURE. Where's THE FUTURE now? Everyone from Solange to Jessie Ware to Vampire Weekend to whoever else is making a splash this week seems to be inspired by, if not repackaging completely, one or more 80s styles in their new output. A few years ago, it was the 60s (Duffy, Adele, Winehouse) and before that it was something else and some other time.

As much as I hate to give the 90s credit for ANYTHING, it was probably the last time that mainstream music was delivering something that was unlike what came before it (for better or worse).

The music universe is both so giant and so tiny at the same time now. The mainstream both encompasses all the fringes and blocks them out.

Eh, I'm talking out of my ass in the middle of the night, but I guess there's plenty of music out there right now that doesn't sound like anything that came before it, but instead of it being the most popular kind it's one of the most subverted.

my point has nothing to do with what periods of time people have been creative (all periods of time, DUH) or the 80s themselves and only the past 10-12 years you mentioned. Every interesting thing to be done with 80s revivalism had already been done by AT LEAST a couple years ago. The bones of the 80s are dry and there's the entirety of the 90s as fresh meat to pick at if you want to go retro, MOVE ON.

can't get with the sentiment that any aesthetic is dry or played out

but hey i love this, so

xp Why not? Trends shift all the time because existing styles become old hat and something new is needed to keep things fresh.

totally! yes! doesn't mean that there's not value in plumbing a style still

i'm a death metal fan so i'm pretty into the idea that an aesthetic can be refined infinitely

I'll see you at drum & bass night.

is it just me or does the beat on this sound like a pitch-shifted version of the one on matthew dear's "her fantasy"

Matthew Dear is exactly what I thought.

I really like Losing You. 80s or not, that loose groove/vibe is great.

This is an brilliant return, so excited for the album now. The video is kind of perfect too, I could watch her dancing like that all day.

i mean it's not THAT 80s. the vocals are produced that way & i guess if you wanted to get real generous you could say that the beat has some 80ish "world music" qualities to it but it's not overwhelming or anything.

btw solange looks so ridiculous in that video... everything looks perfect except when it comes time for her to be a presence.

there was a lot of music produced in the 80s

i guess dev did most if not all of this album? interesting

after this and "Everything Is Embarrassing" I kind of want Dev Hynes to write all of the pop songs. which is so weird.

― I don't even know wtf this band sounds like I'm just trollin (fffv), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 4:54 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^I came here to post EXACTLY this.

I have been listening to this all day and it just gets better SOLNAGE WE LOVE U

wow what a monster jam

Love the song. It doesn't scream too 80s to me because the groove sounds too loose. Most 80s music I listen to usually have a staccato, tight rhythm. (Examples of loose funky grooves of the 80s would be appreciated)

The video is pleasant and Solange's goofiness is cute.

that is p much otm, I don't hear this as 80's at all

well this was disappointing

it's not bad but dev hynes is such a rudimentary songwriter - this applies to the sky ferreira song too (which i like quite a bit) but he just...doesn't use very many notes? so many lines are just...the singer starts on a note and then just...hangs there on the same note droning on? with an awkward tempo that makes it all sound a bit eye test?

That's a bit of a Geir objection dude. (NB, not actually heard this).

(I fully believe he's a rudimentary songwriter though)

no it's not, i'm saying there's something very unsatisfying about the melodies he writes - like they're on the verge of being really hooky and then they just stop because he is a terrible songwriter

I cannot stop playing this song. Single of the year for me.

I've been caning this since yesterday but I agree with lex that it feels a bit underwritten - I'll be surprised if I'm still caning it in a week. Anyway, I think the bit I really love is around 2:53 in the vid when the vaguely Air France-y backing comes whooshing back in. <3 Solange's dancing too obviously.

not sure what I think of this (yet) but it doesn't scan as particularly 80s in the 00s-revivalist sense. The closest major 80s point of comparison I could come up with was Toto's "Africa"? But more uptempo?

At first blush the vocals and the music sound like they were written separately (and I get lex's point about the slightly leaden melodies) but this could still grow on me substantially.

The backing track on this is fantastic and if it were to appear on the Balearic revival thread it would not be out of place at all.

no it's not, i'm saying there's something very unsatisfying about the melodies he writes - like they're on the verge of being really hooky and then they just stop because he is a terrible songwriter

Having now listened to it I get where you're coming from on this. It's not that he doesn't use enough notes (which really would be a Geirish objection) it's that he doesn't have any understanding of how rhythm works within a melody, it's all fourth-notes, it doesn't fit what should be the meter of what she's singing. It's very Primary School Recorder Lesson Three, like something a child would write.

Unsurprising because he's from a generation of Brit indie songwriters who don't really 'get' how rhythm and melody work together.

the song is pretty simple... it's essentially one chorus and one verse repeated, and the bridge is just the chorus but elongated a bit. when i first heard it i thought it was weird because she sings the chorus first but it doesn't even sound like a chorus at first blush, it kinda threw me for a loop. but i think there's some strong, memorable melodies there and i like the idea of pretty basic songwriting being laid over this beat that has a lot of things going on. i think it really works, and solange has some great vocal runs in the final chorus.