Here are some music videos I quite like and some words about them. It's a gimmick.
Here's some music I've been listening to recently.
Video with 4 notes
Mid Morning Music Video #357 - The Weeknd, live at Coachella
Watch this. You should, nay, you MUST, watch this. I imagine beng there live was kind of magical. One of those great, great moments where music is amazing and people are amazing and you fall deeper and deeper in love with every single note of music that The Weeknd has released so far. Those three free mixtapes from last year are all spectacular in their own ways.
Mid Morning Music #325 - ‘Shake It Out’ by Florence Welch [The Weeknd Remix]
I hate ‘Shake It Out’. Absolutely abhor it. On the flipside, I love pretty much everything The Weeknd has done this year, and this is no different. Basically, rip out the Epworth production (whilst we’re on the topic, rip out all of Epworth’s production, ever, actually, because I can’t remember when I heard him produce a song that really grabbed me in terms of production. It’s possible that the answer is never) and replace it all with enormous sexy drums, slinky synths, tender acoustic guitar and some whistling. Happy days indeed. Then take all the shit that Florence does with her voice in the chorus of the original out, with the whole ‘oooh, look at me, I have a powerful voice’ bollocks, and make it approximately 81.2% better in an instant. A thing of utter beauty, is this.
Mid Morning Music Video #295 - ‘The Zone’ by The Weeknd (feat. Drake)
The new The Weeknd mixtape, ‘Thursday’, (available here and completely free) is, I have come to the conclusion, completely and utterly fantastic. I think I might rate it slightly below ‘House Of Balloons’, the other free mixtape they released earlier this year (there’s another one due to drop later this year as well, called, rumour has it, ‘Echoes Of Silence’) in terms of favourites, although this is possibly because I’ve spent five months in the company of that, as opposed to the week that I’ve spent in the company of this one. This is probably the song that is the closest relative to ‘House Of Balloons’ on it, others diversify the sound slightly whilst maintaining the smoky Saturday morning hangover feel (or late night, post-night out filthy strip bar feel, I’m never sure which I would rather liken the music to, to be honest with you. It’s possibly a bit of both.), but this track could happily sit on the first mixtape. Drake raps about one night stands and fucking girlfriends, and I think about groupies as well, but generally I think this could be his best guest rap appearance in quite a while, he seems to have fallen into a sexual encounter, rather than been looking for one, and whilst his rap hints at breaking into a good ‘Marvin’s Room’-esque croon, it never quite gets there. Meanwhile, Tesfaye is a bit more worried about getting into his zone in the moment of sex (yeah, there’s a whole lot of sex going on on both these mixtapes, actually. Sadsexy, as Miles would say.), seemingly so he can imagine himself making love to someone else through his latest conquest. Yup, really. But it’s very amazing, this is, and both mixtapes. Well worth your time, if you enjoy this one here.
Mid Morning Music Video #244 - ‘Rolling Stone’ by The Weeknd
So, this has dropped. And it’s INCREDIBLE. Feedbacky noise gives way to picked acoustic guitar and vocals. And it’s amazing. Like, genuinely, hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-on-end amazing. If this is a taster of what is to come from the two forthcoming The Weeknd mixtapes this year (one in summer, on in autumn), they will likely lock out three of the top five places in my year end countdown with them and ‘House Of Baloons’. Amazing.
(Yes, as you ask, the only musical fucks I give are about R&B slow jams and strident pop stars right now.)
Mid Morning Music Video #232 - ‘Wicked Games’ by The Weeknd
Ladies and gentleman, I give you what is probably the best album I’ve heard so far this year, completely for free. ‘House Of Balloons’ is incredible, perfect for, Iunno, probably lazing in the sun in the park or something, and yet also perfect for the bump ‘n’ grind in a dirty underground club, and yet also perfect for just about everything. It’s fucking music, for sure. This is my favourite of favourites, but the whole thing is incredible, and hell, it’s free, so take a punt on it if this even only slightly tickles your fancies. I’m going to be sticking with this album for a long long time.
