The best songs of the week
Follow the Nialler9 New Music playlist on Spotify. This week’s additions include new songs from Bibio, Tourist, David August, Kaytranada, Shura, Kelly Lee Owens and more.
Hit the last page for the Soundcloud playlist.
1.
Empress Of
Woman Is A Word
A strong offcut from the recent album from the electronic pop musician.
Empress Of’s debut album Me was one of the best of last year, as it explored personal modern issues with a danceable backbeat. Her latest song, also recorded during those sessions is no different.
‘Woman Is A Word’ follows in the a recent line of feminist-leaning songs from Anna Wise and Everything Shook, exploring the place of a woman in the world. Rodriguez concludes “I’m only a struggle if I get in your way / you made the road one way / I’m only a woman if a woman is a word.”
“Sometimes as a songwriter and a human, I feel very restricted by words. One word can have so much social implication, standard, limitation, qualification that it doesn’t give a person their own opportunity to really choose their identity. I wrote ‘Woman Is A Word’ at a time when i felt like the word ‘woman’ put me in a box of things I was capable to do, things that defined me that didn’t necessarily define me.”
2.
Cassius feat Cat Power and Mike D
‘Action’
A laid-back sunshine groove.
Four years on from the death of MCA, it’s clear, as it should be that the Beastie Boys are done releasing music under the name.
In 2013, the remaining Beasties Mike D and Adrock appeared in a Yoko Ono video but there’s been very little else on offer.
On Friday, French band Cassius changed that with the appearance of a new song ‘Action’ featuring Mike D and singer Cat Power on the hook. It’s a rolling percussive dance track that has the hallmarks of a laid-back sunshine groove.
