TOP CHILL MUSIC - WEEK 8

Now that winter is starting to wind down and the first signs of spring are starting to appear throughout the Northern Hemisphere, it feels like a good time to hit the “refresh” button on life. Spring, after all, is a time for new beginnings, and what better place to start than with your own musical collections?! With the warm weekend fast-approaching, then, breathe new life into your playlists with today's edition of We Are: The Guard's Top Chill Songs, featuring Wet, Stanaj, SG Lewis, and plenty of others.

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TYZO BLOOM (FEAT. GIGI) – SUCKER

“Chill” doesn't necessarily have to equal “downbeat,” and nobody is proving that point more than Los Angeles-based producer Tyzo Bloom on his brand new single “SUCKER.” Fun and playful, with an oh-so-slightly cheeky side, this Gigi-featuring electro-pop bop is dedicated to those of you who are suckers for the bad things in life. You know who you are...

WET – OLD BONE

Those days when you wake up to new Wet music are always good days, and today is no exception. The New York outfit are transporting me to a place of breathtaking beauty with their latest single “Old Bone,” a rustic folk ballad that hears acoustic guitars branching out like brittle twigs beneath Kelly Zutrau's soul-soothing vocals. P.S. How cozy does Kelly's sweater look in this video?!

STANAJ – SUNFLOWER (POST MALONE & SWAE LEE COVER)

Okay, I admit, I didn't really care for “Sunflower” when it first came out, but it's all good as Stanaj is delivering a version of the song that I can finally get on board with. Listen as the Yonkers-based artist pours his everything into this stripped-back take on the Post Malone and Swae Lee track, with a watery electronic guitar providing a stage for Stanaj to unleash his American Idol-worthy vocal pyrotechnics.

MXMS – PARIS

We Are: The Guard's very own MXMS follow up last month's video for “Gravedigger” with the romantic “Paris” this February. The song hears the funeral-pop duo stepping out from the shadowy underground into the City of Lights, with lead singer Ariel Levitan floating through the cinematic, dreamy ballad with all the wide-eyed wonder of a Jean-Luc Godard character who's seeing the French capital for the first time.

RY X – BODY SUN

Look, I think that I've featured enough of his songs over the last three weeks for you to get the point now: RY X's new album Unfurl is endlessly, endlessly gorgeous, and each and every one of you needs to go and listen to it immediately. You can thank me later...

SG LEWIS – BLUE

There's nothing quite like watching the early morning sun rise over the city after a euphoric night out on the town with friends, and it's that exact feeling that SG Lewis is bottling up for us all to enjoy on “Blue.” Featured on the London producer's forthcoming album Dawn, it's a warmly heady piece of vocal-driven electronica, with every note vibrating with that sense of post-club bliss.

OMAR APOLLO – TROUBLE

Indiana's Omar Apollo makes music for gazing into the cosmos. Case in point: “Trouble,” a moony, melancholic dream of a song that hears Omar apologizing to a girl for coming on too strong, with lyrics that are sure to relate to the starry-eyed romantics among us: “It's just nice to meet you anyway/Didn't mean to scare you yesterday/Thought you wanted all that I could bring.”

BRUNO MAJOR – OLD FASHIONED

It's been two years since we last heard from Bruno Major, but the North London troubadour is back and sounding as timeless and enduring as ever on “Old Fashioned.” The first single since 2017's A Song for Every Moon is an overtly sensual love song that has the power to live on through the ages, with Bruno observing and revering his partner with “Wonderful Tonight”-esque detail and precision atop warmly enveloping chords.

ALWAYS NEVER – THIS AND YOU

Purveyors of bedroom bangers Always Never showcase their emotional sides on their latest single “This and You.” Listen as the Toronto R&B duo finally let their guards down on the gut-wrenching ballad, which is actually a reinvention of their 2016 song “Ultimatum,” with vocalist Patrick Kirschner igniting all of the feels as he sings of the collapse of a relationship with devastating conviction.

KEVIN GARRETT – FAITH YOU MIGHT

It's never easy coming to terms with the end of a relationship, but Kevin Garrett learns to let go with astounding elegance and grace on his latest tingle. “'Faith You Might' is about longing for something to last, but being aware that you're getting older and might not be on the same page with the object of your affection, no matter how much you want to be,” says Kevin of the tender ode to a dying love, which is taken from his forthcoming album Hoax.

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Photo by Sacha Styles on Unsplash

Jess Grant is a frustrated writer hailing from London, England. When she isn't tasked with disentangling her thoughts from her brain and putting them on paper, Jess can generally be found listening to The Beatles, or cooking vegetarian food.