Playlist “Medusa”: U2 sing about Zelensky, Zemfira teaches the motherland to love
Due to the departure of Western music labels from Russia, Meduza stopped keeping playlists on streaming services. For now, they are only available on our website and app. Some videos cannot be watched in Russia without a VPN.
U2 «Walk On (Ukraine)»
Joking musical wisdom says: “New songs are written by the one who has bad old ones.” This is well remembered by the members of U2, who have been in a creative crisis for more than a decade, but are still considered by inertia to be the main Irish rock band on the planet. The next megalomaniac attraction of Bono and the company to pump money out of the wallets of devoted fans was called “Songs of Surrender” – the musicians decided to re-record 40 favorite and iconic songs from their catalog in more suitable (as they believe) pop arrangements for the 21st century – as if would be light and acoustic, but in fact absolutely frail and lifeless.
In some opuses, the authors allowed themselves not only to completely kill and betray the youthful energy of the originals, but also to edit and change the original meaning of what was written. Thus, the composition “Walk On”, composed in 2000 for the album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”, has now acquired a subtitle in honor of Ukraine. Previously, it was dedicated to the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy of Myanmar and a Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent 15 years under house arrest. Throughout the zero years, Bono at every U2 concert demanded her release (in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was released, in 2016 she headed the government of Myanmar, in 2021 she was again imprisoned after a military coup).
New lines are now being sung on “Walk On”: “If a comedian comes on stage and no one is laughing, and he dances on his own grave for the sake of a photograph – this is not a curtain, this is the greatest of all acts.” This substitution, which has become a dedication to Vladimir Zelensky, is rather touching and noble. After all, new times bring new challenges. But in general, “Songs of Surrender” is, as stated, a complete creative capitulation. It seems that the very name of the album is formed into the abbreviation SOS for a reason.
Listen to the full album “Songs of Surrender”: all platforms
Naadya “Strong”
Nadezhda Gritskevich prepared her third – as usual excellent – disc for six long years, as the singer herself says, “with breaks for the birth of a child, covid and other joys and sorrows of life.” Their echo is now no-no, but it is manifested or conjectured by the listener: “It’s cold. In the twilight of this country / Friends die, enemies triumph” (“almost”), “Either I or he, I don’t need to know about good and evil / For this I was born so that blood would flow on the earth” (“Legion”). But still, this is primarily the manifesto of a modern woman: independent and wayward, proud, sometimes lonely, but infinitely strong, although maybe not today.
Listen to the album “Solutions” in full: all platforms
Yves Tumor «Heaven Surrounds Us Like a Hood»
Possessed androgyne plays guitarsitting on an apple core. Infernal Gulliver, pacified by warlike midgets and pierced in the chest with a nail. The foolish outcast fashionista whom dug out of the grave and plunge into the hole. Sean Bowie, known as Yves Tumor, builds visual hell around his new album like David Lynch.
As for music, Bowie, who chose psychedelic rock and the slogan “I only want to write hits” as his study, methodically hones his skills and raises the degree of his own greatness with each subsequent work. The current record with the cumbersome title “Praise the Lord Who Chews But Doesn’t Eat (Or Just Hot Between Worlds)” is undeniably and instantly suitable for any top of the best albums of the year.
Listen to Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) in its entirety: all platforms
Zemfira “PODNHA”
Public opinion perceived the angry and caustic refrain “We will teach you to love your motherland bitch” as Zemfira’s answer to the Ministry of Justice, which declared her a “foreign agent” (bots in social networks scribbling about “betrayal” as a blueprint are not taken into account). But even if this is so, the “foreign agency” and anger (which, admittedly, the singer is very to face) seem to be only a background to the overwhelming pain and sincere sadness for the “sick thinned” homeland. Separately, it is worth noting the video sequence in the form of a Tetris of people in the original track and a table littered with weapons, grenades and cartridges in British remix Archive. Thank you for the truth, the pride, the courage!
Palindrome “Grow Up”
Lviv rapper Stepan Burban embarks on a disturbingly soulful rock, reflecting on how difficult and unwilling it is to grow up alone. “Many have songs about mom. This is not the first one for me, but, in my opinion, among others, this one is quite light. After listening, I advise you to hug your mothers, if possible, verbally, even on the phone, ”advises Palindrome.
100 gecs «Dumbest girl alive»
The triumph of hyperpop in a single album. The sign and advantage of modernity is that in it, unlike the same 1990s that today’s youth prays for, there are no vile or shameful genres – all music is equally good, all of it mixes with charming ease in a single melting pot and pleases hearing. In less than half an hour, 100 gecs will entertain you with nu-metal, ska, synth-punk, mumble-rock, chiptune and about a dozen more genres that are chaotic and illogical, but always melodically replace each other even for one short song. But still, no matter how hard they try to present hyperpop as the future of music, it is all sewn from multi-colored patches of the past.
Listen to the full album “10,000 gecs”: all platforms
Fever Ray «Even It Out»
Karin Dreyer is one of Sweden’s strangest and most revered singers, former vocalist of the important electronic duo The Knife, and a non-binary person who prefers to be addressed in the plural. Dreyer’s solo records under the pseudonym Fever Ray are constant favorites for the music press, but are not always easy for an unprepared layman. The new album “Radical Romantics” will also stun the listener more than once. For example, with such a wild track, in fact, a direct threat to the one who bullied the singer’s daughter at school. In the video, a small horror film, the plans for revenge are literally reproduced: they dig a grave for the offender and urinate on it. Industrial nervy to the whole action is added by recognized masters Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails.
Listen to the album “Radical Romantics” in full: all platforms
Sleaford Mods «Force 10 From Navarone»
Any record of the UK’s current “working class heroes” is tomboyish (ok, they’re not so young anymore, but still fervent middle-aged men) post-punk rap, and it’s always exactly what you’d expect from that kind of stylistic definition. On the UK Grim album, the duo from Nottingham habitually fires politicians, the consumer society and other injustices of the modern world. But Sleaford Mods are always ready to diversify the landscape, for example, duets with a well-deserved veteran Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction or Florence Shaw from the newfangled Dry Cleaning. The latter is a true kindred spirit to them.
Listen to the album “UK Grim” in full: all platforms
Royshne Murphy “CooCool”
The gorgeous Roycene Murphy is back on the dance floor with DJ Koze, for whom she already sang in 2018 on the trendy LP Knock Knock. The new single has a delightfully wacky cover, an excellent sunny groove and a frivolous cooing refrain calling to hug your inner child. Super hit request.
Miley Cyrus “River”
“Endless Summer Vacation” – the eighth solo work of Miley Cyrus, according to the canons of show business, should become a big pop album of the new season, in which, to be honest, except for the hit «Flowers», nothing special to listen to. Already as the second single, only a simple dance track with ordinary sexual hints is offered. Still, eternal summer is always boring.
Listen to the album «Endless Summer Vacation» in its entirety: all platforms
