The Singles Jukebox

As is our tradition, we open 2018 with artists from the the BBC Sound Of 2018 list. Often by not liking them very much.

[Video][Website]
[4.56]

Crystal Leww: Superorganism is just template stoner music, with some very clear vocal work from Orono. I do like the little bit where the music drops out in the chorus, a little mixup to catch you off guard if you’re not listening hard enough.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: It’s funny. Everyone agreed that the whole Beck winning over Beyonce Grammy fiasco was some sort of terrible tragedy. Yet we continue to entertain the idea that indie producing weird Literal Mumble Rap that sounds like inept middle school projects with vapid pseudo-artistry a la “Loser” is charming because of their self-effacing ineptitude. I wonder if the clumsy edits, gratingly twee Hawaiian slide guitars or Ever So Clever murmur-gurgles are supposed to be charming to someone, instead of a bunch of conceited jokes that never take a moment to stop screeching “WINK WINK IT’S A JOKE” at the listener. Very funny indeed.
[0]

Alfred Soto: This eight-person collective assembled this burbling amalgam of MGMT and slow Outkast jams complete with irritating skip between the hook’s last two words. If there’s a point to the archness, send me an email.
[4]

Austin Brown: 90’s is back baby. It’s good again. wup-wahp-weep-woop-dee-doo-doo (squelchy funk used as pop melody rather than rhythm)
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: Good thing that grotesque exhumed commemorative KKK plush Jeff Sessions’ pot crackdown is a bust, because I don’t see a way to love this song without being high.
[5]

Julian Baldsing: This is the sound of not trying at all, but in a good way.
[7]

Julian Axelrod: There’s something inherently idyllic about Superorganism’s whole vibe, from their DIY collective spirit to the loopy, sun-kissed psychedelic bops like this one. They sound like emissaries from pop’s distant future, when the airwaves are more hospitable to apple crunches and Korean interludes. Despite their futurist approach, the absurd stream-of-consciousness lyrics land closer to “Loser”-era Beck, an odd reference point that doesn’t hold up well to repeat listens. But it fits the band’s earnest naivete, especially coming from a singer fresh out of high school. This song feels like riding around stoned and talking shit in your friend’s car in the thick of that aimless summer, with a big shiny future right there for you to ignore.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: A half-written chorus swallowed, spat out, regurgitated and repeated by a bunch of slackers. I am bewildered at this sounding like the present in 2018 to anyone, though I suppose not everyone was fortunate enough to have been conscious in the late 90s.
[4]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Sounds like the band took the line from the oft-sampled C’hantal track and tried to build a campfire singalong around it. This has the worst shades of mid-2000s indie quirk-pop, content with its music being a mere spattering of “idiosyncratic” sounds arranged in an otherwise straightforward pop song. There’s a sense that all eight members are oblivious to how flaccid this song is at its core; that the Korean lyrics are just another “wacky” element thrown in the mix convinces me that Superorganism are an extremely lazy group of songwriters.
[2]