2022 Poll Highlights (I) (Patreon)

We’re four days (of twelve) into the 2022 Peoples Pop Poll qualifiers and I thought I’d do a brief playlist and post with some of my highlights. I’ve left off my own nominations, which are doing fine even if everyone hates Charli XCX for nicking September’s song. I’ve also left off other things from the top group - if all goes to plan I’ll tell you why I like “As It Was” eventually.

So the emphasis here is on unknown pleasures and new discoveries - 4 per day for the first 4 days.

FLO MILLI - “Conceited”: This one faked me out with its intro and its main hook, which suggest the rest is going to be fairly standard post-Cardi B stuff (the hook is a very close neighbour to “Bartier Cardi”) in a style I’m more than a little over by now. But then Milli starts rapping and she’s fantastic - flexible, funny, like a more immediate or commercially minded Tierra Whack maybe. Just a delight hearing her darting and jabbing around the beat.

BODEGA - “Thrown”: My rock literacy these days really is super low, which means the indie rock/post-punk tracks that jump out at me feel almost random. Everything in “Thrown” - the barked vocals, the yelped backing, the melody (lol), the beat - is pointing in the same teeth-clenched direction, which actually helps snippets of lyric (“I was targeted by new age ads”, “None of these fears are here by chance”) bubble up out of the stream of neurotic yapping and snag on your brain.

JAIRUS SHARIF - “Water & Tools”: Much respect and love to the people who nominate jazz in the year end polls, especially the gnarlier, skronkier end of it. Doubt I’d ever hear it otherwise. This is bleak stuff, Sharif’s tenor sax yowling over a forlorn wasteland of demi-beats, making the title read like a survival checklist for the post-collapse future.

JUNGLEPUSSY - “Foreign Exchange”: One of a couple of tracks on here I knew already but it’s just too good to leave off - a dissection of a failed relationship and its attendant bullshit. Hypnotic in its disappointment, marinated in contempt: “Are you typing about Protect the Black woman / Don't have a clue just clout / No kudos thumbs down / Cool post tho” Absolutely one of my favourite rappers, deserves to be way better known.

GORGON CITY ft FLIRTA D - “Sidewindah”: One of those acts which seem to have been kicking around for years without doing very much of note, but this is satisfyingly direct, bouncy bassline house carried along by Flirta D’s chopped up toasting. Reminds my ageing brain of Groove Armada’s “Superstylin’”, a similar ‘dance perennials come good’ moment.

JANE INC - “2120”: Gorgeous punch-the-air stadium pop whose charms don’t really need elaboration - the crisp vocal line, the gloriously greasy Wendy & Lisa guitar, the way it keeps sounding like it’s going to turn into “Obsession” by Animotion.

ALDOUS HARDING - “Tick Tock”: All about the skin-up late night in 1973 vibe, here. Haven’t noticed the words yet. Goes a bit Beck nearer the end but I’ll forgive it.

TIGERBALM - “Tokyo Business”: Languid Tom Tom Club style stroller elevated by a strong turn on the mic by Joy Tyson which drags it out of its cosy groove a bit. Its not doing anything very new but it’s doing the old things very well.

HAAI ft JON HOPKINS - “Baby, We’re Ascending”: Brain-tickling euphoria, new age bollocks, or a bit of both? Probably a bit of both. I love this kind of thing, obviously - pie-eyed trancey house is the perfect escapist music, especially at this time of year.

NOGA EREZ ft MISSY ELLIOTT - “Nails”: Wasn’t familiar with Israeli rapper/pop star Noga Erez, was very familiar with her guest star though, and was happily surprised that “Nails” gets the best out of Missy with a slamming “Lipgloss” type minimal beat and a theme both women can have fun with. Hard as.

FELICITA ft YOUNGQUEENZ - “Beast”: Another big, minimal, quasi-industrial beat making room for Felicita (or YoungQueens) to holler, yelp, and generally melt down like a kind of hyperpop Little Richard. Fabulously messy.

MAKAYA MCCRAVEN - “In These Times”: More jazz - this time as lush and empathic as the Jairus Sharif track was forbidding. It’s getting a warmer reception from voters too, which doesn’t entirely surprise me, it’s a sorrowful track in some ways but very wallow-able - I’m just glad to see something like this in the poll really.

LIL YACHTY - “Poland”: Hypnotic 83 second vignette that’s somewhere between a skit, a song, an earworm and a meme. I love that the short-song/tiktok era is throwing up micro-events like this.

PHELIMUNCASI - “I Don’t Feel My Legs”: By the standards of Nyege Nyege Tapes “I Can’t Feel My Legs” is a big pop move - it doesn’t sound like a crocodile eating a toolbox! It’s got a chorus! It’s got hooks! In fact it’s all hooks! But it’s also got the constant babble and chatter in the background destabilising those hooks, making it sound like the beat’s having to fight its way through a street party that’s also a cocktail party.

DAWN RICHARD & SPENCER ZAHN - “Umber”: I need more time to absorb this, really, but it’s great initially. Dawn Richard’s genre-bending R&B has often felt a bit overstuffed to me, too many ideas and layers to let the hooks actually breathe. Handing over the music to ambient/jazz composer Spencer Zahn works really well, bringing out the spontaneous, raw-creativity feel in Richard’s voice and words.

JANIE - “La Macarena”: I truly think some of the tracks here could only have come out in the last couple of years, and reject the idea that there’s nothing new in pop. However this is not the case for “La Macarena”, absolute Franco-pop comfort food. Any random dip in the French new releases playlists will happen upon a similar madeleine but that doesn’t make “La Macarena” any less delightful a way to finish this list.

See you in a few days with my Days 5-8 high points, and thanks to everyone who nominated these!