October Tunes

I know. I know. I’ve been absent. Severely absent. Pinky swear there’s a legitimate reason, but that’s a post for another day.

Today’s post is our monthly wrap-up of tunes I was rinsing during the last month. October produced some good music. There were some covers that slapped (Miley Cyrus I’m looking at you), some cinematic masterpieces (ahem, Shawn Mendes) and some great discoveries made.

So, if you’re keen to see what I was listening to during the month of October while I was anywhere but on my blog, keep reading.

Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle: These girls have a ridiculous amount of views on their latest music videos, and I can guarantee I’m at least a hundred of them. Especially this one. It’s gotten to the point where I know the live version with the choreography and the ad-libs better than I know the studio version. These two are so bloody ethereal and heavenly it’s hard to measure up to these ladies. So strong vocally and so effortless in their performance. I’m on a bit of a Chloe x Halle binge and I highly recommend.

Heart of Glass – Miley Cyrus: What much else could I add to the discourse surrounding this gift from God itself, that hasn’t already been said. Not a lot.

Last Time – Giveon, Snoh Aalegra: Giveon delivered once again, this time he brought my gal Snoh with him. This song is the definition of smooth and sultry and I’m all about it. Both of them deliver creamy vocals and their voices blend so perfectly together.

Poetic Justice – Kendrick Lamar, Drake: I blame the Savage x Fenty show for this one. You know the vid I’m talking about. Neon green hair Lance, dancing with two other male dancers in silk pyjama sets behind mesh fabric then the camera pans to our gal Cara Delevingne? That’s the one. That and this song has always been a tune.

Wonder – Shawn Mendes: I’ve spoken already about this song. You don’t need me to ramble again because ramble I will. Check out the blog post HERE.

Like You – Bow Wow, Ciara: Oh my lord this song. I heard it in a TikTok and just got violent flashbacks to singing it when I was a lil kiddy. Just the Ciara hook, the way it gets stuck in your head is a medical issue, but I don’t have that much of a problem with it.

YEAHNAH – Church & AP: Church & AP. Was obviously gonna mention them again at some point. If you haven’t heard me go on about this NZ duo before, check out my post on them HERE. This is such a track. It’s from their latest EP, At Thy Feet, and it’s arguably my favourite. The bass line, the drum, it’s got a very UK feel to it if that makes sense. Dera Meelan, the producer is phenomenal on this track and it’s done so well. Church, AP and Dera are trio to watch when they’re together.

Way Down – Ocean Alley: Another tune from Ocean Alley. I’m on a bit of a bender with these guys too. This goes back to their surf rock roots perfectly, complete with heavy drum beat and head nod-inducing guitar riff. Baden, the lead singer, also delivers one of my favourite vocal performances so far.

So Done – Alicia Keys, Khalid: My girl Alicia. I can’t help but think of my childhood and driving in the car, listening to her albums with my Dad. She’s such a staple piece of my youth, so when I saw she had an episode dedicated to her on Netflix’s Song Exploder, I was all over it. This isn’t the track the episode covered, but it’s from the same album, and I mean…Alicia Keys and Khalid? Bliss.

going out – ROLE MODEL: More ROLE MODEL. This guy is making waves and they just get bigger and bigger. Last month it was BLIND, and now we’ve got going out. It’s not an overly complicated song, but the lyrics are so well written and constructed, with a super catchy hook and it’s just a hit in my eyes.

Self Control – Frank Ocean: It’s that part of the post where I share the inevitable Frank Ocean song I found myself obsessed with during the month and for October it was good ole Self Control. It’s just that guitar man. I mean, we done been knowing Frank’s lyrics could break the stoniest of hearts and his voice is sent directly from angels, but the guitar on this track just gets me. I love this song. I could be mid hype and I wouldn’t be able to find it in myself to skip this song.

Kevin’s Heart – J. Cole: I think I love this song so much for it’s intro. It’s just beautiful. That said, J. Cole consistently delivers, and I’ve been going back to the KOD album over the last month and digging up some of the treasures on that record, this being one of them.

On My Mind – Diplo, SIDEPIECE: Complete change of pace and we have some DIPLO on the playlist. I added this to my before the uber comes a little while ago, and then I saw more than a few TikToks using this song and I just had to add it to my daily playlist because of how often I found it stuck in my head.

Not My Neighbour – Niko Walters: I found this song through a series on YouTube called Don’t Make It AUX, which is one of the vibiest playlist series I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of Jordan and Lance who I mentioned earlier, and they got Niko as well as Matui, the lead singer of SIX60, on their latest episode so I had to find out more about Niko. I genuinely spent the rest of the day on his Spotify, listening to his music while doing my work and getting on with it, but this song is by far my favourite. Highly recommend. Super groovy and chilled out, perfect for summer, which is on it’s way here in Australia.

Higher Place – Skip Marley, Bob Marley & The Wailers: Another song I discovered from the Don’t Make It AUX show, this time recommended by Matui Walters, who as I mentioned, is the lead singer of one of my favourite bands, SIX60. Skip Marley, Bob Marley’s grandson really puts such a modern and relevant spin on his grandfather’s tapes and recordings, even sampling some of Bob Marley’s speaking and writing in this track, hence the feature. This song is so good. There’s an incredible drop that is understated, yet hits so hard at the same time, and I’ve been rinsing this song all month.

Only Time Makes It Human – King Princess: I remember a couple years ago when King Princess was always on my radar…now, not so much. I discovered this song by pure lucky – my phone refused to connect to the BlueTooth in my car, so it was the rare occasion where I chucked on the radio, and this was on. I instantly made a mental note to add it to my playlist when I got home because of how insanely catchy the hook is. I’m in love with this disco-pop genre and though I’d never think it, King Princess does it so effortlessly. Nails it.

Over Now – Calvin Harris, The Weeknd: We love Calvin Harris around here. We know this. Add in The Weeknd, who’s also riding this disco-pop wave making itself known in 2020, and you have a tune like this. I mean, dreamy synths, some smooth RnB style percussion, a slappy bass and Abel’s impeccable vocals, make this a killer track. So low-key and ambient, I love it.

positions – Ariana Grande: She really pulled through at the end of the month didn’t she? I’m so exciting for her upcoming album, probably more excited than I’ve ever been for anything she’s ever put out, and this single has a lot to do with it.

What were you listening to this month? Let me know in the comments!

x

Priya

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The Ones That Got Away

So a little while ago, I gushed about Spotify’s 2017 Wrapped feature they provided this year, that was making waves around social media. One of the best parts in my opinion, is the playlists it then provides you with, playlists that encapsulate your listening habits, down to a T. The ones I saved were my top picks of 2017, and my favourite…The Ones That Got Away.

This playlist gathers songs that match your listening habits, that somehow slipped under your radar. In my case, as Spotify had no issue telling me, I get real trigger happy with the skip button and tend to miss out on some honest bops until the third or fourth time I come across them. This playlist, compiled all those songs into one place. It was honestly Christmas come early. I earnestly devoured that list, so here are some of my personal favourites that I am very glad I listened to before the year came to a close.

 

May I Have This Dance – Francis and The Lights, Chance The Rapper
Honor – DJ Cassidy, Grace, Lil Yachty
Figures – Jessie Reyez
Senorita – Eden Prince
She Don’t Know Me – Mullally
Sleep Talking – Charlotte Lawrence
Make You Love Me – Jarreau Vandel, Zak Abel
48 – Moss Kena, Jay Prince
Said It All – Pink Slip, estef
Shelter – SACHI, NIKA
Light Up – salute, Liv Dawson
Just Dance – HONNE
Call Me Out – Sarah Close
Are You Sure – Kriss Kross Amsterdam, Conor Maynard

 

All these have made their way onto a bunch of my playlists, especially my summer and driving playlists. You’re sure to enjoy at least one them.

 

x

p.f

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Courtesy Of: My Cousin

I feel so bad. I haven’t been as active as I should have on here. I’ve been very slack with posting recently and was desperately trying to think of more music to post about when I remembered back in August when I was gathering music from my friends and family, there was another set of music favourites I had yet to share with you all. So to make up for my shocking absence, here is another Courtesy Of, brought to you by my cousin!

Gonna be real, only ever heard a few of these before reading her list.
Gonna be ever more real, I definitely have an essay to begin that’s due to tonight but here I am writing for you all. You’re welcome.

Head Home – Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird: First of all, what a name. Second of all. This is a beautiful song. I’m listening right now for the second time as I write this and it’s one of my favourites from this list. The guitar in this song is beautiful if you’re into that.

City of Stars – La La Land: Hopefully I’ve made by love for this song clear, and if not; I love this song. A lot. I was very glad to see this on her list when she texted it to me.

When You Love Someone – James TW: Gotta love me some good James TW, and I’m glad to see my cousin is enjoying one of his songs just as much. This song is probably one of my favourites, it’s a beautiful song lyrically and I always love James’ voice.

Autumn – Palo Nutuni: Couldn’t find this song on Spotify and I don’t recall hearing it before but it sounds so familiar. So, so familiar. It’s a beautiful song either way.

Saved – Khalid: Everyone’s loving themselves some Khalid hopefully, and I’m so here for it. His whole American Teen album is magical and this is a magical, real-shit song.

Falafel – Tom Misch: Tom Misch is definitely one of my favourite musicians ever. If you enjoyed one of my first posts about Zak Abel (linked), you’ll definitely vibe with Tom. This song features a bunch of smooth synths and a funky as heck guitar, as well as a bit of vocal percussion from Tom.

Loyalty – Kendrick Lamar ft Rihanna: I remember mentioning that DNA was probably my favourite song from the DAMN album, but I retract that. All I’ve been listening to recently is this song, it’s on my 365 playlist (linked) which I pump on my way to university so fair to say it’s a sick song. Glad to see my cousin enjoying this song just as much.

Free Smoke – Drake: I only listen to the Drake I can hear on the radio cos I’m not obsessed with the dude, but this song is ridiculous. The solo at the beginning is so amazing, probably my favourite part of the song.

Get It Together – Drake, Black Coffee, Jorja Smith: Again, haven’t heard this song. When I saw Jorja Smith my jaw dropped. Big love for that girl. This song is a funky song based on the beat, but her voice is so smooth is changes the feel so much. Definitely added to a couple of playlists too. Round of applause for my cousin on this one. It’s a good one.

Darling Street – Spit Syndicate ft Thelma Plum: I’ve heard of Spit Syndicate, but I’ve never looked into them too much. This is a cool song. A good summer song. Would recommend. I never got into Australian rap too much, but I really enjoyed this song.

 

Once again, apologies for the slack on my posts. Once I get these essays out of the way I’ll have all the time in the world to write and write and write for you all, share some more tunes. Until then, hopefully you enjoyed these songs, I know I found some new songs to add to some new playlists. Let me know what you think!

x

p.f

Importance Of The Hype

Everyone deserves a team of cheerleaders, following them around in their day to day life, cheering them on and hyping them up to get through the day, celebrating their successes and nursing their failures. We all deserve that. But unfortunately, not all of us have that. Not many of us do. Which is why the personal hype is so important.

Music plays a huge part in personal hype, which is why I create playlists very, very specifically. There are different types of hype, and I’ve created playlists on my Spotify (which by now, you really should have checked out…priyafrancis one word, you’re welcome), for each one. So for this post, I’m going to take you through all the playlists I’ve created, specifically for your personal hype.

 

 

The first one, was one of the original hype playlists I ever made. I called it sing into a hairbrush, because like I mentioned before, I’m very specific in the naming of my playlists. These are songs that are made to be sung along to. They’re for head-banging, singing around your room, blasting while you laze about the house or jamming to when your friends are over. I have to admit, I do indulge in the second option far more frequently. Close to every day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next playlist I made with the hype vibe intention was a playlist i called rage. Don’t be fooled, they aren’t angry songs, though most of them would fit into that category. This playlist was named in loving memory of one of my favourite TV shows, rage. It started late on a Friday night, and ran through to Saturday morning, just before all the cartoons came on. rage was broadcasted purely for music videos. Like MTV, but better. In my opinion. It’s run by a government broadcaster (don’t you love how I’m studying this at uni?? like go music students) so there are no ads, meaning more time for music vids. And there’s no set genre of music. While most of the music on MTV is centered around the charts, with other genres featuring and filling in spots, rage doesn’t have any feature or more prominent genres of music, so you literally get all music, which you will find in this playlist. It is one playlist of massive throwback songs that I continue to add to regularly. These songs were all played every Saturday morning in my house, all thanks to rage. Thank you rage. Eternally grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This playlist is a different type of hype. It’s the hype for your emotions. feel something is all your feelings. Sometimes, you want to listen to sad music. You want to get in touch with your emotions. Listen to your heart. You want to feel it all. So I’ve made a playlist solely for that. You’re welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s currently the middle of winter, but that hasn’t stopped me from adding to the summer to end all summers. This playlist is a key part of any successfully summer I guarantee. All good stuff, the summer hype you need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This playlist is fairly self explanatory. I can’t really describe the hype you feel when you go out of your way to listen to some amazing RnB music. But I experience this often so naturally I made my own rnb playlist to assist me when I’m searching for my soul in Kendrick, Kehlani, Miss Elliot, Chris or even Soulja Boy. While writing this? I’m listening to this playlist. Even when I was learning you all a thing about the Australian icon that is rage, I was listening to this playlist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know when you feel like sitting in a hazed, fogged up bar, with some whiskey, maybe clicking along to the jazz band playing on stage? You know when you feel like putting one hand on your heart and the other in the air and just like…howling? Or when you want to imagine you were a backing dancer in the detention scene in Hairspray were Tracy shows Seaweed her ‘smooth moves’? Or even in the background of a Jackson 5 music video? Or when you want to…jive dance, even though all you know about jiving is what you’ve seen all your older aunties and uncles dance? Yeah? smokey is the playlist for those specific hype moments.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure how safe this is, but sometimes you need to hype yourself while driving, you need to listen to specific music? This is the music that I find myself wanting to listen to. Be aware, that I’m also a serial singing driver, and I generally sing along to all the songs I drive to. That’s where i can’t drive yet comes in. It’s named so, because here in Australia, I don’t have the required hours to completely drive by myself, so until I reach my 120 hours of supervised driving, I’m driving with my mum or dad next to me at all times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is without a doubt, my favourite type of hype playlist. It’s also my most used, just because of how many of my friends play this playlist too. It’s called before the uber comes. It’s for the hour or two before you head out when you’re either getting ready or getting ready. If you know what I mean. I hope you know what I mean. Drinks are just really expensive at night clubs.

But these are songs meant to be sung with other people. Or into the end of a mascara wand. Or bobbed along to while a hair straightener has your head trapped.

Do be warned, there are a fair bit of RnB and hip hop songs on this playlist, just because that’s the general taste of most of my friends in these situations. But I know there’s at least five songs you’ll appreciate should you put this playlist to use!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But yeah, this is another one of my playlists that’s a bit different. I hope you guys liked it, let me know what you thought! Drop your Spotify usernames if you have one in the comments and I’ll follow you and have a snoop at your playlists :))

x

p.f