Mondays are shit. We all know this. You know what’s not shit? Music. In the spirit of these two universal truths we, here at The Arcade, bring you Music Monday; every Monday I’ll be picking four tunes from all over the world that might have slipped under your radar, in the hopes that they can make your Monday a little more tolerable.
Orla Gartland – Roots
Starting close to home, Orla Gartland, Ireland’s first genuine YouTube success story, recently released her newest single, Roots. Orla shows off her innate pop sensibility like never before with this tune, throwing some seriously snappy pop production in alongside her trademark acoustic picking and warm, folky-in-a-good-way vocal style. The result is a lot of fun to listen to.
Chvrches – The Mother We Share
Maybe you’ve heard of Chvrches lately. The scottish trio have been turning heads all over the world since the release of their debut E.P, Recover, earlier in the year. The lead single from their eagerly awaited album, The Bones of What You Believe, is this tasty little number, The Mother We Share, and while it’s been floating around the net for a few months now, it’s only recently begun to really pick up steam. Packed with incredibly catchy pop hooks, produced with all the sheen of contemporary electronica with both feet planted firmly in the 80s new wave sound they’ve taken it upon themselves to resurrect, The Mother We Share is as good a place as any to start, or continue, your inevitable conversion to Chvrches.
Scandal – Kagen no Tsuki
Scandal have always been an anomaly in J-Rock circles. Firstly, they actually are all girls as opposed to just looking like girls (some male members of Japanese bands have a penchant for cross dressing rather convincingly; a curious J-Rock trend which appears to have died down a little in the last few years) and while it would be easy to dismiss them for capitalizing on the fact that literally every one of them could stop traffic, the ladies have proved themselves more than capable of rocking seriously fucking hard.
Their latest album, Standard, sees them moving away from american-blues-rock and into the disparate worlds of j-pop, britpop and even doo-wop. Kagen no Tsuki certainly doesn’t start off like any J-rock tune you’ll be used to hearing, but I don’t think anyone will be sufficiently prepared for the Motown inflected chorus that it all leads to. The string arrangements sound like something lifted straight from a Drifters record and while it’s likely to leave many a J-rock enthusiast scratching their heads, it’s got a charm and warmth that will likely have them, and you, humming it for days.
Lady Gaga – Aura
Are you a little unsure as to how Miley Cyrus suddenly became pop music’s hottest property? Allow me to illuminate the situation. Miley is being pushed at you left, right and center in all her twerking, tongue-lashing glory because in about a month’s time she will be completely irrelevant. On November 8th, the undisputed Queen of contemporary pop, Lady Gaga, will unleash her long-in-the-making third studio album, Artpop, and from what little has been released and leaked it’s sounding like a god-damn game changer. Aura is the latest cut to find its way into the world and if its spoken word sections, stuttering distorted bass and thunderous percussive hits are anything to go by, Artpop could very well be a genre-defining, sanity-deprived, miley-smashing masterpiece.
