Skip to main content

THE BEST SUMMER SONGS OF 2016 AS CHOSEN BY EYEWEAR

THIS POET LOVES GOOD MUSIC

2016 has been more bad news than beach....

But in the midst of the worst times, popular culture, at least these past 100 years or so, in league with profit-oriented impulses, has managed to precision tool craft, emotion, structure, style, skill and pathos into a heady mix of song, dance, film, that has often seemed to surpass the moment, and ease some of the pangs and traumas.  No one in WW2, for instance, would begrudge the singers who gave the homes, bomb shelters and troop tents some measure of gladness in the dark. War is good for the entertainment business, as is economic struggle, and trouble in general.  The darker it gets, the better the songs. As if in keeping with that general idea, 2016 appears to be a masterclass in top flight popular music. Here are the 8 tracks - some top 40, others decidedly indie - that most got us dancing, toe tapping, or swooning, on the sunny sad and sifting days of this most challenging of recent years.  IN NO ORDER - IT IS ALL GOOD.

1. PILLOW TALK - ZAYN

If The Brill building boys had been writing today they would have nodded sagely at the excellence of this tune. The lyrics, clever, complex, and witty, attach to a passionate, romantic, grand song worthy of a 1950s Broadway Musical.  One of the greatest pop songs about lovemaking, and love, ever produced.

2. FLOWER OF SEX - MERCHANDISE

4AD has a way with talent spotting. Merchandise - sort of on the radar as indie pin-ups - combine the white t-shirts, lanky bodies, and short 30s-era haircuts, one associates with American Joy Division tribute bands. This song is simply the best pastiche of The Smiths, The Cure, Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Church and Joy DivisIon, ever assayed. It is sort of The Waste Land of 80s indie homage.  Canny, sexy, exquisite, and smart, it haunts beyond its antecedents, and opens new ways to be alternative now, belatedly.


3. SPIT IT OUT - SLAVES
There are few more rancid, angry, ugly new punk groups in the UK than Slaves, and their new single, involving someone purportedly sucking on a bitter sweet, is as good an anthem for Brexit Britain as any.


4. KISSING THE SCREEN - NITE JEWEL
Icy 80s synths a la Human League, married to a quirky pop sensibility the equal of Sia's leads to a video and song both funny, sad, and unexpectedly potent and poignant... one gets the feeling this peaen to FaceTime and other digital obsessions is going to be emblematic.


5. SLEDGEHAMMER - RIHANNA
Not since Tina Turner made a Mad Max theme song a major moment of the 80s, has a movie song been so resoundingly grand.  This makes Bond themes seem wan and lacklustre. A real showstopper, and deeply moving in a sentimental way.


6. CHEAP THRILLS - SIA

Well, here she is, herself - Sia - that genius of pop hits for our time. Working with Sean Paul was a clever move, they play off each other so well. "Worth more than diamond more than gold" is unpexpectedly moving. Combining Lady Gaga and Abba, this becomes a classic celebration of dancing, and love.  Both, in fact, which money cannot buy...

7. CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Continuing the disco-era celebration of summery dancing madness, here comes a track and video so upbeat and cheery it makes Fruit Loops seem colourless. A classic of its simply fun and clean-cut kind. Euphoric bliss. The Jackson 5 should maybe sue?


8. WARPAINT - NEW SONG
As if combining the dreampop indie nous of their earlier work, with the NYC influenced work of upbeat 80s New Wave (think Talking Heads) this is one of their best, and most, yes, danceable songs.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CLIVE WILMER'S THOM GUNN SELECTED POEMS IS A MUST-READ

THAT HANDSOME MAN  A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought.  Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".