Rae Sremmurd — Weekly Finds

Today is one of those Fridays that already feels like a Saturday that feels like a Sunday. You know? Perhaps it was me gorging on Japanese BBQ and all the shots of sake last night for my dear friend's birthday. Eh. I'm feeling an exceptionally poppy mood for my music selections this week, so please prepare for five sweet tracks to shuffle through the weekend.

As always, I hope these songs inspire you to check out more music by these artists, or lead to introducing you to another artist you’ve never heard before!

Remember: if you like what you hear, spread the cheer. Tell your friends about these artists and share the love.

You can contact me by replying directly to the newsletter that is mailed to your inbox every Friday, via my Twitter account, or using the contact page on the cmd+f website.

P.S. If you would like to have this letter sent to your email every Friday, please head over to this link right here to subscribe to never miss a weekly roundup!

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“Rubber Bands” - Nines feat. RAY BLK and Skrapz | Rising London rapper NINES just dropped his album Crop Circle today, and the album is stacked with slick features. My favorite and perhaps the most pop accessible of the bunch is "Rubber Bands," layered over a sinister sampling of Zapp's 1985 hit "Computer Love." The star of the tune is the hook sung by Ray BLK. Listen here

“Alright” - CYN | I'm lighting some candles for CYN to reach the right audience, because this girl is destined to make some waves. the Detroit native has spent the last seven years hustling her way into Katy Perry's circle, and finally landed support from KPez's A&R and signed to her label... meaning CYN is literally breathing the same air as some of the greatest contemporary pop songwriters of the last decade. Now she's touring with pop's favorite Scandinavian wunderkind Sigrid. "Alright" is an ode to all the kids in high school berated for being daydreamers and chastised for "wasting their time" yet made it through their teens unscathed and turned out, well, alright. Listen here

“Too Late” - Nimmo | Dark pop duo Nimmo make music for feelings. That sounds vague, but music is the language of the heart, and nothing heals better than dancing the pain away. Opening with strings before bursting into a relentless thump and piano stabs, the song opens with the lyrics "Can I feel the air resting in your lungs tonight? / You've never known me less, but I keep you short of breath at night." Like, damn. You feel that? I well and truly felt that. Listen here

“GIRLS X BOYS” - alice | This week Peter Robinson, more commonly known as The Voice of Popjustice, was going on about how pop music needs to bring a god damn proper chorus back to pop music. And middle eights!! The landscape of pure pop has been left barren and littered with "drops" and lyricless choruses. "GIRLS X BOYS" is a big single for the freshly signed British singer (Virgin EMI UK, Captiol US). Think the dizzy bass line of Tove Lo's "Cool Girl" -- the only complaint I might make for this song is it's missing at least 45 seconds off it. "GIRLS X BOYS" lacks a clear, distinctive middle eight (which could easily be slipped into that missing 45 seconds!!!), the single is brimming with so much potential that I'm excited to see more of alice over the coming months. I'm banking on seeing her take on a Dua Lipa-esque career trajectory over the next 18 months if her A&R can plug her in with the right people. Listen here

“The Wave” - LION BABE feat. Leikeli47 | Gaaaah daaaamn! LION BABE always pulls through with a dose of sunshine. I'm positively drunk on these grooves. Listen here

New Music Friday Selects

Kicking off the selects with a new music source alert. My friend Sam helped launch a brand new online music site called BANSHEE ZINE. The site aims to highlight music opinions by women and non-binary folks. Please check it out! Read here
After a string of commercially successful but critically lukewarm/disliked singles, Liam Payne has finally stepped up to take on a summer jam con sabor. Featuring Colombian hit maker J Balvin, “Familiar” is by far Liam's best solo effort yet. I've been patiently waiting for Liam to fulfill his destiny as the Latin Keith Urban. Once an all Spanish version of "Familiar" drops, it's over for you bitches Listen here
Kanye West is back on Twitter acting like he's the new Foucault, and allegedly we are getting a new Kanye x Kid Cudi album during Gemini Szn. Whoop whoop.
Janelle Monae! A gift on earth! Has yet another single. “I Like That” is a sensuous, slinky jam Listen here
Scandinavian nymph demi-goddess AURORA returns with her vast, ethereal single "Queendom." BRB, galloping my way to the island of the Amazons Listen here
The Gays™ are creaming over Anita Granita's comeback single “No Tears Left to Cry.” Homegirl lowered her ponytail for this one because she means business. Listen here
Surprisingly, my favorite single release of the week is Khalid's “OTW” feat 6LACK and Ty Dolla $ign Listen here
“Hands On Me” BURNS feat Maluma and Rae Sremmurd is top tier summer dancefloor jammery Listen here
cmd+f alumnus Matthew Young released a new single, “Fix Me Up” Listen here
Leon Bridges has gifted us with a new single, “Beyond” Listen here
It's always nice to see some of my favorite artists that were formative to my music tastes during my teenage years are still going strong. Listen to Tokyo Police Club's new single, "New Blues" Listen here

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A(lmost a)ll of the tracks I have shared in this week’s letter are archived into a single playlist on Spotify for you to follow here.

Subscribe to that playlist, share it with friends, or take some inspiration from the ever growing list to compile some of your own.

If you’re interested in listening to what I’m rinsing this month, you can follow my April 2018 playlist here. There I will dump a hodgepodge of new and old songs that fit my mood and the trends of the month. Having a personal monthly playlist makes a year in review so easy. Share your playlists with me!

See you next week!

On January 27, 2017, the very first cmd+f newsletter was sent out to 12 very wonderful friends via Tinyletter. I initially started it as a new means to share music with friends in a central, organized forum, and as an easy place to document all of the new music I was consuming. It also turned into something I looked forward to writing every week after spending a year of writing empty news bites, elbowing my way through an arms race of publishing passionless content.

Throughout this past year, I trialed a mini radio show through Anchor.FM, and expanded the newsletter into a full on website. I found meaning in this project through the cmd+vent advent calendar in December: understanding ways music brings joy into our lives.

(Nearly) one year later, this project is still kicking. I’m so pleased to have finally established an outlet that aims to highlight the pure joy I take out of my devotion for discovering new music. The act of sharing new music and simply discussing music brings me so much personal fulfillment. The act of putting together cmd+f’s weekly letter alone is deeply satisfying to me. I’ve been vaguely hinting on expanding cmd+f over the past few months, and that next step is a Mighty Big Leap. When the time does come, I hope you’ll take that jump with me.

For now, happy birthday cmd+f!!

So, I’ve rebranded the BONUS section to the freshly titled New Music Friday Selects. It’s more fitting, as a bulk of the bonus content highlights contain the most anticipated releases of the week, surprise releases, and the occasional status update of a new release by a cmd+f alum!

Before you hit that section up, it’s time to check out five smashing tunes by emerging artists!

Remember: if you like what you hear, spread the cheer.

You can contact me by replying directly to the newsletter that is mailed to your inbox every Friday, via my Twitter account, or using the contact page on the cmd+f website.

P.S. If you would like to have this letter sent to your email every Friday, please head over to this link right here to subscribe to never miss a weekly roundup!

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“A Foreign Affair” - Client Liaison feat. Tina Arena | Opening this week’s batch of fantastic finds with a gloriously campy 80s-injected pop bop by Australia’s Client Liaison. “A Foreign Affair” is a major, major tune that has been HIDDEN FROM THE UNIVERSE. Australia is generally a wash because it’s covered in spiders and snakes the size of school buses – that’s beside the point! Client Liaison have also included pop icon Tina Arena (who I learnt about via my faaaavorite pop music podcast duo Dan and Andy of Popchops) on this blisteringly good chorus. To those who are unfamiliar with Tina Arena, she’s absolutely massive - like, on par with who Celine Dion is to Canada. For as essential as Tina’s pop career has been in Australia and France, I’m surprised I’ve only just stumbled upon this track in the last couple weeks. I’m not sure if it’s been a particularly successful single in Australia, but it deserves to be heard and played at FULL VOLUME. Listen here

“Here Lies” - Jorge Elbrecht feat. Tamryn | Less than one second into “Here Lies,” and you’re suckerpunched straight in the chest by the force of fourteen thousand sounds booming out of the speakers all at once. The jolt of sound rolls open and outward through the song, graciously unfolding layers of a steady synth loop disrupted by a crunchy, disjointed rumble of sirens, police dispatch comms, and machine guns. “Here Lies” is so busy battling through the thousands of layers of sounds battling to bubble through the surface of the song, it’s impossible to decipher what to prioritize listening to first - the sonics or the lyrics? Are the lyrics even important? It wavers between sounding hopeful and the soundtrack to getting decked in the face by an axe murderer. Listen here

“Arms of Pleonexia” - Cabbage | My fav scuzzy post-punk bros Cabbage announced their debut album Nihilistic Glamour Shots is dropping at the end of March! Cabbage have never been one to hold back on making political statements in their lyrics. Their new single “Arms of Pleonexia” is a hot take on the UK’s bloody history of arms deals that have supplied mass destruction in war torn countries around the world. After recently watching the TV mini series The Last Post, this history of disturbing the peace in the Middle East is rather fresh on my mind. “How long til we take responsibility?” the chorus coos. “Arms of Pleonexia” is the most punk drag I’ve heard in at least a decade. Read those greedy government jerks for filth. Listen here

“Freaking Out” - Yehan Jehan | Imagine: Hall & Oates shared an edible then recorded “Private Eyes” and I’m pretty sure you’d end up with something that sounded very close to Yehan Jehan’s “Freaking Out.” It rests on a low key funky vibe that borders on sounding more careless about enduring heartbreak than complete numbness. The lush harmonies woven through the chorus will stick to your eardrums like white on rice. Listen here

“I’m In Love Without You” - FINNEAS | This song hands down brings the DRAMA. While I’m unsure of FINNEAS’s sun sign, I feel a kindred spirit to this Scorpio-dense bath of groveling for a lover you might not even HAVE to move on from. 12/10 CAN RELATE. The song opens with (no joke) twenty layers of ghostly harmonies echoing “I’m in love without you….please don’t still love me….but you still find a way inside my dreams.” The song chops up the last lyric into a dense, electronic synth line FINNEAS sings over throughout the rest of the song. It’s...fucking genius. It sounds entirely genreless/its very own brand of forward thinking pop, and I am obsessed with it the more I listen to it (pro-tip: it loops perfectly when you have it on repeat). Song aside, the most shocking fact I learnt about FINNEAS is he is the brother and co-songwriter to pop darling Billie Eillish (who’s been doing very well for herself since she featured on cmd+f last March!). I’m excited to hear what other tunes FINNEAS has hiding up his sleeve this year. Listen here

New Music Friday Selects

The powerpop tune of the month, Liam Payne and Rita Ora’s “For You” for the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, now has a lush music video. Liam Payne’s involvement on the track has only furthered my Rita Ora stanning, and for that I’m beyond grateful. She looks absolutely stunning in a scarlet gown, swaddled in a bed of roses, while Liam is donning a velvet evening jacket like he’s a baby Enrique Iglesias. This also marks the first music video my man’s reciprocated direct intimacy with another mujer, and honestly, kick up that sex appeal a few notches, please. Watch here
Talented vocalist and global superstar who keeps testing my patience, Stefani Germanotta, commonly known as Lady Gaga, has dropped a stripped version of her song “Joanne” - it’s beautiful, but I am STARVED for a massive pop tune. Listen here, I guess
Migos’ Culture II is here and-there-is-a-Drake-co-lab-bor-ray-shun (raay-shun) [skrr skrrr] Listen here
James Blake has surprise dropped a new, dope single, “If the Car Beside You Moves Ahead” Listen here
Foaming at the mouth ‘cuz The Vaccines have dropped another banger, “Nightclub” Listen here
If you’re looking for an atmospheric instrumental music, one of my favorite composers, Nils Frahm, has a new album out called All Melody Listen here
Franz Ferdinand have gone full-on 1983, whence disco meets the goths, and I’m INTO IT. “Lazy Boy” is a choooon Listen here
The Cassie of the 20-teens, Jhene Aiko, has whispered her way thru yet another single. Swae Lee knows how to write a damn hook, but this Rae Sremmurd drop throughout “Sativa” isn’t meant to be anything other than a very, super chill ass song. The video on the other hand is pretty freakin’ wild. Watch here
What’s more refreshing that hearing Jack White jam the fuck out? Listen to his new tune “Corporation” Listen here
Techno legend DJ Koze has returned with new material for the first time in nearly 5 years with his Seeing Aliens EP. It’s a bit more pop and accessible than other cuts in his archives, but it’s a glorious peak into his forthcoming 16-track full length LP, Knock Knock (out May 4) Listen here
The legendary CRAIG freakin’ DAVID has a brand spankin’ new album stacked with jams. Standout track off The Time Is Now would be “Brand New” Listen here
Color me shocked, but the new Django Django album Marble Skies is actually a rather fun listen. Must hear for fans of Temples, Jagwar Ma, Yeasayer, and (the now defunct [R.I.P.]) Wild Beasts Listen here

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A(lmost a)ll of the tracks I have shared in this week’s letter are archived into a single playlist on Spotify for you to follow here.

Subscribe to that playlist, share it with friends, or take some inspiration from the ever growing list to compile some of your own.

If you’re interested in listening to what I’m rinsing this month, you can follow my January 2018 playlist here. There I will dump a hodgepodge of new and old songs that fit my mood and the trends of the month. Having a personal monthly playlist makes a year in review so easy. Share your playlists with me!

See you next week!