TOP INDIE SONGS - WEEK 51

by Jess Grant
12/16/19

There are nine days and counting until Christmas, but don't think that I'm letting you off the hook JUST yet! The food, gifts, and decorations may be stacking up around us, but we've still got a whole bunch of new music to get through before we officially activate “holiday mode.” Ditch the carols for another week, then – unless they're from We Are: The Guard's Indie Christmas, of course! – as it's time to check out today's edition of Top Indie Songs, featuring Grimes, MGMT, Moses Sumney, and lots more!

P.S. Who's buying me this?!

-

GRIMES – 4ÆM

Just when I thought that I couldn't be more hyped for Cyberpunk 2077, Grimes goes ahead and announces that she's voicing a character in the Keanu Reeves-featuring video game. She's got a song in it, too – a high-energy ethereal-rock mosher called “4ÆM” that she recently debuted at The Game Awards. Check out her performance below!

 

MGMT – IN THE AFTERNOON

MGMT are back, baby! One year on from the release of Little Dark Age, the Connecticut duo return today with “In the Afternoon.” It's a darkly swooning cut that basically brings together the goth movement of the 80s with a warped splashing of LSD, with the lyrics seemingly alluding to the band's recent decision to go independent after over a decade.

 

MOSES SUMNEY – POLLY

Earlier this year, Moses Sumney made his comeback with one of the most statement-makingly ambitious songs of the year, “Virile.” Today, the 28-year-old is taking a quieter approach to things with the release of “Polly” – a beautifully challenging missive to a toxic relationship that hears Moses asking in the final verse: “Am I just your Friday dick?!”

 

ÁSGEIR – LAZY GIANTS

Iceland's Ásgeir continues to reveal a more challenging side to his sound on “Lazy Giants.” With acoustics intertwining with vintage synths flourishes, the follow-up to “Youth” is a solemn sonic meditation on late-stage capitalism and the economic collapse that surely awaits us, with an air of devastation and desolation filling the song's every aural crevice.

 

DOG ORCHESTRA – CAROL OF THE BELLS

Dog Orchestra take us into the dark of Christmas night on this cover of the “Carol of the Bells” – the most spooky noel of them all. We Are: The Guard's Indie Christmas is out now.

 

YUMI ZOUMA – RIGHT TRACK / WRONG MAN

Coinciding with the announcement that they recently signed to Polyvinyl, New Zealand's Yumi Zouma return today with “Right Track / Wrong Man.” It's a shimmering luxe-pop gem that'll make you want to stop everything that you're doing and just *dance*, with the band revealing that the lyrics are about “the confusion of living through your 20s.” Who relates?!

 

HEALTH & XIU XIU – DELICIOUS APE

Los Angeles noise conjurers HEALTH have collaborated with some awesome artists of late, with the trend continuing today with the release of the Xiu Xiu-featuring “DELICIOUS APE.” Clocking in at just under six minutes, it's an intensely haunting drone odyssey, with Jake Duzsik's shivering keen and Jamie Stewart's unhinged yelp sounding EPIC together.

 

PETER BJORN AND JOHN – IDIOSYNCRASY

Ahead of the release of Endless Dream next year, Peter Bjorn and John return today with “Idiosyncrasy.” It's a swaggering slice of blues-rock that, quite frankly, couldn't be further from the retro-pop insouciance of previous single “Rusty Nail,” with John Eriksson singing from the perspective of a kind of self-inflated rock star over a rumbling dive-bar bassline.

 

OKAY KAYA – ASEXUAL WELLBEING

Okay Kaya just keeps on getting weirder and weirder, and, honestly?! I'm HERE for it! The Norwegian act explores sex and desire in almost unflinching detail on “Asexual Wellbeing” – a disorientatingly strange banger that hears Kaya Wilkins crooning in the bouncy, elasticated chorus: “Sex with me is mediocre/But I can probably feel what you're feeling.”

 

IRIS – COTTON CANDY (RAHM REMIX)

Introducing Rahm, the mysterious producer and self-described “phonometrician” who's inviting us into his warped world of electronics with this remix of “cotton candy” by iris. With ticking percussion and Yeezus-style flared synths serving as a platform for the chopped-and-screwed vocables of iris, this remix is the definition of whole new listening experience.

-

Follow We Are: The Guard's Weekly Chart on Spotify for lots more! x

Photo by Cody Black on Unsplash

spotify

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.