11. “The Navigator” by Hurray For the Riff Raff
Now, in a triumphant song, Segarra asks, through the Navigator, who was “raised by the streets” where “will all my people live”, calls attention to the marginalized people threatened by gentrification, over the sounds of sometimes Puerto Rican bomba and salsa, other times son cubano, at all times resoundingly Latino music.
10. “3WW” by alt-J
9. “Slide” by Calvin Harris (ft. Frank Ocean)
8. “Cool Your Heart” by Dirty Projectors (ft. D∆WN)
Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth’s artistic and romantic split from his longtime girlfriend Amber Coffman oozed into a new, self-titled album. “Cool Your Heart,” written in collaboration with Solange, dares to ask how his ex-partner feels and “Is it loneliness? / Is there shining in your heart /But no gloss on your lips?” “Cool Your Heart,” described as a “cubist fantasia”, navigates through Longstreth’s shifting emotions in a duet with the experimental dance-R&B artist D∆WN. With hyper-cool drum beats and a sonic weirdness, Longstreth confesses that “Though I been trying hard not to fall / The feeling is tumbling in” as he realizes, mid-song, “it’s been feeling wrong / To start relying, making decisions based on another person.”
7. “Dangerous” by The xx
Nobody knew how or when, if ever, The xx would ever release another album. The xx, that one special band that would form an integral part of my nighttime playlists back in high school, formerly mellowed me over the soft nature of their melodies. The xx, in 2017, kicked off their newest in five years with a cutting edge and danceable beat in the form of “Dangerous.”
6. “Know” by SYD
In a bold move, most members of the neo-soul band The Internet paused their songwriting for their band to pursue their own solo projects. Lead singer Syd Bennett envisioned her solo album, FIN, as a “a side project, for sure.” SYD released sultry sex jam “Know,” a standout track for her album for its exquisite production, where she chants to her lover that their affair will be their “secret, don’t wanna get caught creeping,” because “Is it really cheating, who says we’re cheating?” While I condone Syd’s lyricism for this track for its topic of cheating on a partner, it is a masterful track that I get submerged in from the second I press play.
5. “Hot Thoughts” by Spoon
“Hot Thoughts” is a beat-heavy song from Spoon’s brand of funk-rock, except with producer Dave Fridmann’s twist of string arrangements and bells. “Hot Thoughts” explores how hot thoughts of whomever the singer is pining for are melting in his mind: “Could be your accent mixing with mine / You got me uptight, twisting inside /Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, babe.”
4. “Green Light” by Lorde
The intergalactic David Bowie, who once called Lorde “the future of music,” certainly called it. Lorde, who at the age of 17, turned the world on its head with Pure Heroine, resurfaced with single “Green Light” and a soon-to-be-released album, Melodrama. “Green Light,” a comeback track slash breakup jam invites listeners into a newly found openness in her lyricism, where she rehashes her anger at a lying ex because what he did makes her “wanna scream the truth”. Slashing at him with verses alternating between hoping those “great whites” bite him and calling him a “damn liar” transitions into a crescendo of uplifting house pianos as she hears “brand new sounds in my mind.” Love it, hate it, or feeling underwhelmed by Lorde’s sound, she savors the moment she’ll get a green light and overcomes this man.
3. “Futuro” by Café Tacvba
Café Tacvba, as they like to think of themselves, are no strangers to experimentation. Vocalist Quique Rangel comments that the song examines “the relationship between life and death and the perception of time” without traces of “solemnity or optimism.” The primarily folk song laced with electronica beats and vocals make for a fascinating song: “Es una cuestión de tiempo / tan breve este momento … / Tu mañana ya te fuiste, pero antes me dijiste, / “Que el futuro es hoy.”
2. “Rican Beach” by Hurray For The Riff Raff
The concept of Rican Beach entails a fictional beach where displaced people would wash up, after being stripped of their lands and rights: “And they stole our neighborhood / And they stole our streets / And they left us to die /On Rican beach” after firstly stealing “our language…our names…the things that brought us fame”. Segarra’s angle is “one of resistance, people of color claiming their space and their right to exist”; it is a call to fight.
1. “Chanel” by Frank Ocean
I could write sonnets about how much I adore “Chanel,” which Frank Ocean generously dropped out of the thinnest of air on March 11th. “Chanel”, which he played at the end of a Beats 1 Radio show he DJ’ed, explores the dualities he sees and understands. The duality of Ocean seeing “both sides like Chanel” references his bisexuality, tie in to his opening lines, “My guy pretty like a girl/ And he got fight stories to tell.” From the understated piano in the background, to his lyricism, to the supreme command of his voice as the center of this song, “Chanel” is three minutes and thirty seconds of bliss you’ll want to play over endlessly.
If you’re curious for 2017 has sounded like to me, via a playlist: