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The Mic Recommends...

With this week's releases beginning to pop into our October and Halloween playlists, our writers decide their eligibility to soundtrack this crunchy-leaf season.


Fuck About It - Waterparks & blackbear

I’ll admit that when I saw the blackbear feature I was a little bit concerned, to say the least. He seems to pop up everywhere, featuring on any track he can fit a verse onto, and it does start to become a bit… annoying and repetitive. But I tried to go into things with an open mind, since Waterparks are one of my favourite bands. I’ve really enjoyed the previous singles for this upcoming album cycle, SELF-SABOTAGE and FUNERAL GREY, and this track has a slightly darker, angstier tone than these songs in terms of instrumentation, with the highlight being Awsten Knight’s vocals on the chorus. I stand by the fact that the blackbear feature doesn’t really add anything to the track at all, but it wasn’t as offensive as it could have been, I guess. Or maybe Waterparks’ music is just so good that it can even make a blackbear feature sound alright. Gemma Cockrell


I'm In Love With You – The 1975

With The 1975’s new single successfully being the embodiment of falling in love, Healy’s mix of reminiscent guitar chords and repetitive chorus was a clear choice of a single for the band's new album Being Funny in a Foreign Language. With its perfected pop sound and 80s influence, The 1975 use the acoustic guitar to provide this song with a light, vibrant and infectious sound straying from their usual slower use of acoustic guitars in their previous works like Be My Mistake and I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes). With production by Jack Antinoff, the mix of Healy’s unique vocals and all the instruments are perfectly in balance with the signature catchy hook sure to get stuck in listeners' ears. Not my favourite single but a close second, this song is being presented to fans as a sequel to the band’s previous single A Change Of Heart off their second studio album and my personal favourite I Like It When You Sleep… with the music video highlighting this through the mirrored mime character. Not only does this show the band’s progression but also Healy’s personal and emotional progression in terms of his romantic relationships. A delight to listen to and a real highlight with its sarcastic and witty bridge as Healy calls himself a muppet. This song allows The 1975 to do what they do best and reinvent themselves whilst still defining the nostalgic and prominent sound that identifies their music. With this being a follow-up release to the previous single Part of the Band it is no doubt The 1975 are back and at their very best. Olivia Hannant



Girl – Men I Trust

Men I Trust’s new single Girl is a beautiful and melancholic taste of a new sound for the Canadian trio. The single incorporates the rather simple addition of the violin to this dreamy track to create something ballad-like, differing from their older music from 2015 onwards which sounds more upbeat and mainstream ‘indie’. In the cyclical musical structure of this track, starting and ending with the gentle display of guitar whose motion is felt through the track, the effect becomes something of the fantastical, completely encompassing the listener in an intentional trance. We have seen this change in Men I Trust’s traditional musical style recently, firstly within Billie Toppy welcoming a more bass-heavy and darker melody. Girl perfectly parallels Billie Toppy. This time, they provide a whimsical duet with a softer melody and tempo. The lyrical excellence of Men I Trust is very much appreciated within Girl, the second half of the track being in French (a typically beautiful language) not only adds to the tenderness of the song, but to the majority of listeners magnifies the dream-like ecstasy it nudges us into by submerging us in foreign lyricism. The contrast between the English and French also is very intentional; the English speaks of a longing to be free yet the French laments that this freedom is impossible and “doesn’t matter anymore”. What appears to be a simply romantic song upon first listen becomes something more flavoursome in exploring the French half, having notes of pessimism and hopelessness. Ergo, like the ballad, it completes its form by containing this tragedy of misery. Men I Trust have indulged us with a simple hopeless romance; in its simplicity, it is elevated by the seduction of the guitar and violin to a haze certain to hypnotise the listener and showcases their new explorative discography which we will hopefully see within future works. Faith Hussain


October Passed Me By – girl in red

October is for girl in red. October is the month she has claimed all along, and her new song October Passed Me By only proves her ownership over my headphones while these leaves turn brown. First of all, I love it! Her style seems to be evolving into something more upbeat and poppy, with her intro sounding as if it has Billie Eilish’s influence. A catchy, soothing and charming song with an echoing piano and soft guitar, obviously accompanied by some beautiful lyrics that allude to earlier songs from her discography working together to create a truly lovely comeback track. With earlier music being released in 2018, and her album “if i could make it go quiet” blessing our ears last year, the return of girl in red is, as far as I am aware, welcomed with open arms. I really loved the references to previous lyrics, with “we fell in love in October” being my favourite song of hers, and the ever-loving lyrics referring to romance, as her discography takes us on a journey through an exploration of love. The newest addition proves once again the talent, but also the tentative thought that is put into her music; the lyrics pulled on my heartstrings, as they always do, and I am waiting patiently (or not so) for more. Bethany Coldwell



 

Edited by Roxann Yus


Cover image courtesy of girl in red via Facebook.


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