I don't know about you, but I'm feeling '22

Tyla - To Last
There are lots of notable qualities about amapiano, but among them I am always particularly struck by how techno-like in their construction even the most pop-minded productions can be: you can hear it in the length and spareness of the intros and outros, and the frequent sense that, left to their own devices, the grooves would simply clang along forever (the former qualities facilitate, and the latter is exacerbated by, amapiano tracks’ capacity to be mixed in with other, very similar grooves so as to create a vibe of an endless and unchanging present). “To Last” exploits the additive nature of amapiano arrangements - which typically control the levels of tension and intensity by adding and subtracting elements to or from a basic groove. In Tyla’s hands, this allows “To Last” to shift from mournful reflection to… what? My best stab is that the song’s instrumental passages, structured around a booming and rippling logdrum bassline archetypal for the genre, together with ratatat snares and odd sound effects, imply the inevitable and dark outcomes of Tyla’s ex-lovers actions - loneliness, lovelessness, regret and possibly social ostracism or even untimely death - so that Tyla herself doesn’t have to. Her vocal, gentle and regretful, quietly observes her lover’s demise, but there is no vindication here, and no victories - only consequences.

Mr JazziQ ft. F3 Dipapa, Lemaza & Boontle RSA - Jaiva
It’s no criticism (not of the music, at least) to say that my engagement with amapiano mostly treats the music as largely interchangeable. That’s partly on me, of course, but it also reflects many qualities of the music itself, in particular its deliberately narrow band of intensity, that seemingly inexhaustible capacity to bubble but never boil over. Anyway, interchangeability is a frequent and perhaps even crucial quality of most emergent dancefloor sounds; it does, however, pose challenges when engaging in an exercise such as this where the task is to identify something specifically special about a particular tune. It would be easier to focus on another outlier or genre fusion like “To Last”, and I could more readily have tackled something like Tiwi Savage and Zinoleesky’s excellent “Jaiye Foreign”, or the Virgo Deep remix of Amaarae’s “Sad Girls Love Money”. But I chose “Jaiva” because it’s one of the amapiano tunes I loved from 2022 that I felt really exemplified the music’s appeal for me. In particular, the relentlessness of its rhythmic attack: it feels like every component of the song is designed to service to the groove - the way the hand percussion seems to skip over the surface of the arrangement like a stone across a lake, the near-drone of the chanted vocals and in particular the way the percussive bass ripples of the log drums seem to cut in and around the vocals, pausing to flatulently fill out the spaces in the arrangement where they can. The call and response feel of the vocals (and frequent heavy breathing, like one or more of the vocalists have just completed a footrace) mirrors the arrangement, which feels like an elaborate dance between competing elements, each balanced between understanding their place within the grander scheme and striving desperately in a last-ditch bid for your attention.

i caught onto "gotta move on" rly late in the year, good song

Thanks Tim for your thoughtful write up on "Looking for Somebody." As you know, some of the points you've made were argued about in the 1975 thread (kicked off here for those interested in reading). I had not caught the subtle change in lyrics (which Healy loves to do, generally), and these types of examples, along with the undeniable melody and construction allow me to appreciate the art despite my reservations and general discomfort with the subject. It is undoubtedly a great song.

At the live show I attended, they opened with it and the crowd went unsurprisingly wild. Healy used his guitar as a gun to "snipe" his fans while they danced in excitement. I found it all humorously macabre, and in your words, "slightly crazed." Having sat with it, I do agree that's much of the point, I just don't find it particularly clever or endearing.

Most troubling to me are Healy's public statements about the subject matter, which seem far less profound or interesting than your commentary.

I keep reading this as I feel like I’m 22 and I’m very happy for you.

@ indexed for me the thing is the objections you bring to it arent to the subject matter but to the tone in which the subject matter is addressed , in a song that is specifically about how tone manipulates us.

I do agree at least that Healy does not describe what the song is doing very well - but we wouldn’t forgive a song for falling short of its writer’s objectives, so I’m not inclined to dampen my appreciation when the opposite occurs.

(The thread title is a homage to Swift’s “22” btw)

I didn't get around to writing up the techno-heavy end of my 2022 playlist (at or near the final stretch), but I assembled another playlist of percussive recent (mostly 2023) techno here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6oSmqQJQLnhkRGolYg99s1

Tim you are spoiling us!

Awesome

Was stoked for the achterna write up tho x