Monday 25 April 2016

Tunes I'm currently loving // 2016 // Volume 4

1. Sigala feat John Newman & Nile Rodgers - Give Me Your Love
2. The Strumbellas - Spirits
3. K3 - 10.000 Luchtballonnen
4. KOLAJ - The Touch
5. All Saints - This Is A War
6. ROMANS feat Rejjie Snow - Prisoner
7. Greta Salome - Hear Them Calling
8. Francesca Michielin - No Degree Of Separation
9. Zoe - Loin D'ici
10. Florence Welch - When In Disgrace With Fortune And Men's Eyes
11. Douwe Bob - Slow Down
12. Tom Odell - Magnetised
13. Lauren Aquilina - Kicks
14. Little Mix feat Sean Paul - Hair
15. Justs - Heartbeat
16. Margaret - Cool Me Down
17. gnash feat olivia o'brien - i hate u i love u
18. Galantis - No Money
19. GFriend - Rough
20. BB Diamond - Feeling

Many of the songs I'm currently loving at the moment are the same as those on last month's list, so instead of retreading those again, here are 20 tracks I'm loving that are newer or still rising in my affections. 

UK dance act Sigala has struck gold with three UK top five hits in a row and his fourth single will hopefully be another major hit. Give Me Your Love, which features John Newman and Nile Rodgers is an uplifiting sun drenched summer anthem in waiting with a great chord progression.



Canadian indie group The Strumbellas have been charting in their home country for a few weeks now with the melodic Spirits, which sounds like a happier Lumineers record. If UK radio take to this I could easily see it being a huge future hit. Dutch/Belgian girlband K3 have had a recent member refresh and continue to unleash modern schlager gems...10.000 Luchtballonnen is a joyously cheesy turn of the century pop anthem with a melody that recalls Nik Kershaw's The Riddle. The UK takes itself far too seriously these days to listen to music like this anymore but thank god for mainland Europe still lapping this stuff up.


LA-based blog friendly pop act KOLAJ have just released The Touch, an excellent song that starts off mellow and folky and ends up as a full blown club banger. Following on from the sublime One Strike, the second single from the fantastic new All Saints album is This Is A War, which could well have been the follow up to Black Coffee it sounds so 2000-esque. Another killer chorus, stellar harmonies and top quality production make this song yet another reason why the group's comeback is so welcome.


Other great pop songs here include a handful of Eurovision entries that continue to grow on me including Iceland's Greta Salome with the dramatic and folky Hear Them Calling, Austria's Zoe with the charming French pop anthem Loin D'ici, Latvia's Justs with the cool and atmospheric Heartbeats, Douwe Bob from The Netherlands with the country pop strummer Slow Down and Italy's Francesca Michielin with the classy ballad No Degree Of Separation. Also here is Poland's Margaret with the Zara Larsson-esque Cool Me Down, which was in the running for Eurovision but madly not chosen by Poland.


Non-Eurovision pop includes Hair, the latest single from Little Mix, now featuring additional contribution from Sean Paul, who seems to be popping up everywhere again at the moment. Essex-based singer BB Diamond is already showing potential with the brilliant piano house pop of Feeling while South Korean girlband Gfriend's Rough is a string laden K-Pop belter.


Otherwise unmentioned are the current Australian #1, the ballad duet i hate u i love u by gnash (his lower case styling, not mine!), Tom Odell's excellent new single Magnetised, Lauren Aquilina's Taylor/Carly-esque Kicks and Florence Welch's When In Disgrace With Fortune And Men's Eyes, a medieval sounding beauty taken from Rufus Wainwright's latest project, a tribute to Shakespeare. Swedish dance act Galantis return with the catchy No Money while underrated British singer/songwriter ROMANS' collaboration with Irish rapper Rejjie Snow is almost a modern day garage anthem which features excellent vocals, an earworm of a chorus and top draw production. In the hands of Sam Smith the track would be a major hit, so hopefully ROMANS will get his chance too some day soon.