THE 10 TOP CHILL SONGS YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE THIS WEEK

by Jess Grant
6/5/20

We're living through a traumatic moment in history. It's more important than ever that we take time out to recharge our brains during this period. It's our minds, after all, that are our greatest weapons. It's our minds, after all, that'll allow us to peacefully win this fight. On that note, feel free to strengthen your mental defenses today with help from the latest dose of We Are: The Guard's Top Chill Songs. Featuring boylife, Kygo & Haux, No Rome, and more, this playlist has something for everyone.

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BOYLIFE – DIO

This is completely, utterly luscious. Los Angeles crooner boylife is making it three out of three with his latest single “dio.” With his dream-inducing croon getting caught up in a soft, sensual whirlpool of sparse percussion and impassioned, Prince-esque guitars, “dio” – which follows up boylife's previous offerings “peas” and “bummy!” – legitimately sounds like an R&B classic in the making. Watch this space.

 

KYGO & HAUX – ONLY US

We Are: The Guard regulars Kygo and Haux come together for the chillingly gorgeous “Only Us.” Featured on Kygo's recent album Golden Hour – home to the previously featured “I'll Wait,” “Freedom,” and “Lose Somebody”  –  “Only Us” hears Haux lending his quivering falsetto to the Norwegian producer's signature tropical-house sound, resulting in a hauntingly beautiful elegy that surges in all the right places.

 

NO ROME (FEAT. BEABADOOBEE & JAY SOM) – HURRY HOME

It's time to crawl inside of your feels with help from this star-studded collaboration from No Rome. Listen as Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez teams up with fellow Dirty Hit signee beabadoobee and Walnut Creek's Jay Som for “Hurry Home.” Written about a couple trying to save their dying relationship, it serves as a heart-tearingly gorgeous acoustic bedroom lament, before transmuting into a swirling night sky of horns and electronic beats.

 

TOM MISCH & YUSSEF DAYES – WHAT KINDA MUSIC (JORDAN RAKEI REMIX)

If you didn't think “What Kinda Music” – the debut single from British jazzmasters Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes – could get any groovier, well, think again. Jordan Rakei is sending the song into an entirely different orbit on this remix. With the New Zealand native adding a fresh set of house-like beats – plus a soulful, spacey intermission verse to boot – this is the stuff remix dreams are totally made of.

 

BRUNO MAJOR – FIGMENT OF MY MIND

Every time I listen to Bruno Major, I feel like I'm transcending to a place of unmatched beauty. It's Bruno himself doing the ascending, however, on the “Figment of My Mind” – a soft, string-swept lullaby the British poet reveals was inspired by an intensely profound spiritual encounter he had with a female deity. To Let a Good Thing Die is out now.

 

SAM TOMPKINS – GOOGLE LUV

Sam Tompkins is delivering a love song with an insidious twist on “google luv.” Written from the depths of quarantine in his native Britain, it's a tenderhearted declaration of affection that appears relatively innocent on the surface. Dig a little deeper, however, and a darker narrative surrounding online stalking and obsession starts to emerge, with Sam delivering the punch line in the track's softly sung chorus: “I know that the world, it can be brutal/'Cause I found out about you on Google.”

 

KELSEY LU – MORNING DEW

Kelsey Lu is a master of pastoral, folk-tinged beauty, with the classically trained cellist once again painting the most idyllic of scenes on “Morning Dew.” “Winds are picking up/The cold has come around a bit/Into the cracks of old/Wooden cottages within,” coos Kelsey on the song – a rustic fingerpicked reverie that hears Kelsey meditating on the relationship between love, passion, and Mother Nature.

 

JADU HEART – WALK THE LINE

Purveyors of psychedelic wonder Jadu Heart are revealing a more blissful side to their sound on “Walk the Line.” The latest single to be unveiled from the British grunge outfit's forthcoming album Hyper Romance is an ode to growing older and the life lessons learned along the way, with acoustic guitars swaying alongside Diva Jeffrey and Alex Headford as they sing of finding comfort in the shifting sands of time.

 

IVYTIDE – UNDONE

Introducing Ivytide, the Canadian outfit who are inviting us into their silky smooth world of R&B on their latest single “Undone.” “It's about how two people can sometimes find solitude in companionship, especially when there's a physical distance between them,” write the rising sextet of the quarantine anthem in the making, with frontman Nathan Gagné's falsetto melting like honey over a sensual caress of guitars. Tune in and drop out.

 

KYAN – LIKE SUMMER

As much as we pride ourselves on having our finger on the pulse here at We Are: The Guard, every once in a while, a song inevitably goes under our radar. Case in point “Like Summer.” Originally released in 2018, this glowing soul nirvana is the most perfect start to the sunny season, with Kyan sounding radiant as he sings of his journey to enlightenment.

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Photo by Donovan Valdivia on Unsplash

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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.