“Bound,” - The Ponderosa Twins Plus One: A soulful track from the 1970s, which is sampled on one of my favorite Kanye West tracks off of Yeezus, I love the laidback drum rhythm, soulful vocal harmonies by the group, and glitzy instrumentation. I definitely need to get into more of this group’s music, as they remind me a lot of the Jackson 5.
“Sanguine Paradise,” - Lil Uzi Vert: I like a lot of Uzi’s music, but sometime he’ll just release a track that makes you go, “WTF?,” An example of that is that horrible “Chop Suey,” cover he did. Still this track is an example of him shining, and him doing what he does best, which is his auto-tuned bragging over a hard hitting piano trap beat. He’s highly inconsistent, in my view, but I want to hear more tracks like this one. It’s a shame it didn’t make it to his album, Eternal Atake. Tracks like “Sanguine Paradise,” “Myron,” “Xo Tour Life,” are bangers, and he knows how to make hits. The instrumental on this song is amazing.
“3005,” - Scars on Broadway: Scars on Broadway, is the band of System of a Down guitarist, Daron Malakian. He plays guitar and sings the lead vocals, I like the alternative rock sound, which is much different than the sound he has with System of a Down. John Dolmayan, the System of a Down drummer, also plays drums on this album. I like the illustrative line in the chorus of “resurrection junkies,” and that amazing guitar solo from Malakian.
“Blow Me Away,” - Breaking Benjamin: A banger from the soundtrack of the video game, Halo 2, I first heard this song as a kid when I watched a fan-made animated YouTube video. It was Mario fighting Sonic the Hedgehog, so it was definitely something that kid Ben watched at the time. I got curious if the video was still up on YouTube, and I found it again like 15 years later, and looked for the song, and sure enough, it was listed in the video information. I don’t really listen to Breaking Benjamin, but I love this song, with its heavily distorted guitars and thrashing drums, and lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley has impressive vocal range.
“Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix),” - Lana Del Rey & Cedric Gervais: An amazing remix of one of my favorite Lana Del Rey songs, this remix was what first introduced me to Lana’s music, as it was on the radio a lot when I was 13 years old. I love the heavy synth bass and that synth drop in the chorus. Hearing Lana’s voice over the electronic production is something that doesn’t seem like it would work, but it somehow does and sounds great in the process.