#Oblivion wait let me try that again series

A Tribe Called Quest: вЂњThe Space ProgramвЂќ (2016)ДЄ Tribe Called Quest have never been conscious or woke in the way that so many of the best-intentioned rappers are. Like the spell of love and the threat it could end, вЂњXOвЂќ deftly balances joy and sorrow itвЂ™s a cautionary tale of beautiful things that sometimes head to untimely endings. But carnivals themselves are a form of trickery: youthful joy on the surface, covering a shadowy underbelly. In the video, BeyoncГ© is at a carnival, flashing us one gorgeous smile after another. (Turns out she had a sinus infection during the recording.) Meanwhile, BeyoncГ©вЂ™s voice is raw, almost growling, a sound we have never heard from her before. On the surface, the slow-building track is an airy breather after the erotic, liberatory journey of the rest of BeyoncГ©вЂ™s self-titled 2013 album the synth drops, and so does the snare drum, creating a soundscape that draws from rock, reggae, and EDM. It begins with a clip of the crew of the Challenger realizing the malfunction on their spaceship, giving the love story that follows an undercurrent of mortality. вЂњXOвЂќ is about more than the saccharine simplicity of dreamy hugs and kisses. This is FrankвЂ™s gift, the ability to build worlds of meaning and emotion into a song that has the casual grace of a freestyle. Beneath it all, thereвЂ™s a romantic ripple, too, as a relationship that seemed casual and disposable is revealed, almost shyly, to mean something more. Listen closely, and вЂњChanelвЂќ also reveals itself to be a meditation on masculinity, one that alternately embraces it, subverts it, and points out its absurdity. ItвЂ™s all about Frank and the places his words can take you: a heated swimming pool in the hills, a Tokyo back alley, the first-class lounge at the Delta terminal. The piano chords are simple and translucent the beat ambles casually. There isnвЂ™t much to it in terms of melody or structure. вЂњChanelвЂќ is the first and best of them, capturing an artist in total command of his faculties as a singer, writer, and rapper.

#Oblivion wait let me try that again series

Listen: J Balvin / Willy William, вЂњMi Gente (Remix)вЂќ ДЄfter releasing Blonde in 2016, Frank Ocean spent the next year trickling out a series of singles that built upon that albumвЂ™s fluid confidence. It remains a testament to pop musicвЂ™s ability to push back against growing neo-nationalist fervor-there was no border, no wall, that could keep people from coming together and loving this song. Aided on the remix by BeyoncГ©, who audaciously tackles Spanish and ups the diva ante, вЂњMi GenteвЂќ became the first all-Spanish song to reach the top of SpotifyвЂ™s Global Top 50 chart. His lines like вЂњel mundo nos quiereвЂќ (вЂњthe world wants usвЂќ) transform the song into a universal call to the dancefloor, an embrace of solidarity and unification at a time of enormous worldwide polarization. No wonder вЂњMi GenteвЂќ was such a global, cross-culture sensation.Д«alvin worked with William to reinvent the source material, adding Spanish lyrics, chants, and ferocious Latin percussion. Much of what makes Colombian singer J BalvinвЂ™s вЂњMi GenteвЂќ sizzle-that audacious drumbeat, that insistent five-note vocal melody-is lifted from Mauritian-French singer Willy WilliamвЂ™s 2017 track вЂњVoodoo Song,вЂќ which itself reinterprets a sample from the Indian composer Akassh. J Balvin / Willy William: вЂњMi Gente (Remix)вЂќ (2017) But his actual relationship to such sources could be hard to read: Was Maus poking fun at musicвЂ™s power to manufacture an emotional response, like when we find ourselves crying in the middle of a commercial, or celebrating its potential to offer us a fleeting moment of ecstasy, a glimpse of a world that is better than our own? Arriving at the end of 2011вЂ™s We Must Be the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves with the cathartic finality of perfectly curated exit music, this song-with its glittering harpsichord arpeggios, briskly pulsing bass, and grandiose allusions to borderless love-is the closest Maus has ever come to being a true believer. Like many of his lo-fi pop contemporaries in the early вЂ™10s, reclusive Midwesterner John Maus pushed underground music forward by looking backward-rejecting digital studio techniques in favor of old drum machines and wonky synths, excavating the dramatic excesses of вЂ™80s stadium pop and sentimental radio jingles as though they held clues to some hard-to-pinpoint generational subconscious.