Music

TRENDING: 9 must-listen songs for the week of July 25

by Chris Budd

I love making these playlists. Honestly, is there a better way to spend a Friday morning?

As part of my new weekly column on AUX, I take a look at key songs charting on one of my favourite music destinations, the Hype Machine. An aggregation of RSS feeds from over 800 international music blogs, the Hype Machine is a great tool to find out what songs music bloggers are loving at any one moment. Catch up on what happened this week and pass it along. Here’s the trending playlist for the week of July 25th—and read our assessments below the player.

1) “Inside Out” by Spoon

This is the top song on the charts right now, which is kind of expected when Spoon releases new material. After teasing us with “Rent I Pay” and “Do You” over the last couple of weeks, the band put up a trippy video for “Inside Out” this week, featuring a standout vocal performance from Britt Daniel. Look for this track off their alubm They Want My Soul, out August 5th.

2) “New Dorp, New York” (feat. Ezra Koenig) by SBTRKT

Ten percent of the songs I put into these playlists I hear for the first time while actually making the playlist. These are my hunch guesses, spur of the moment choices. Can you go wrong if you have a collaboration between UK producer SBTRKT and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig? Well, maybe, but not this time. Take a listen to this radio rip from Annie Mac’s radio show on BBC Radio 1.

3) “Runaway” by Electric Youth

Toronto’s electronic pop duo Electric Youth (producer Austin Garrick and vocalist Bronwyn Griffin) are set to release their debut album Innerworld on September 30th with Last Gang Records in Canada. It’s hard to say if I’ll become as addicted to “Runaway” as I did for their Drive soundtracked “A Real Hero,” but I’ve got all summer to find out.

4) “One Time” by J M R

I’ve been posting a lot of tracks on Indie Music Filter from the Red Brick Songs songwriting retreat, where the Toronto-based music publisher set up their artists (ON AN ON, Psychic Twin, Los Encantados, Andy Shauf, STACEY, Library Voices, In-Flight Safety, Cuff The Duke) to create co-writes in Northern Ontario. The result was The Red Album, and JMR’s collaboration with Ryne Estwing of ON AN ON (“One Time”) makes the cut.

5) “Chimes” by Hudson Mohawke

Scottish electronic music producer/DJ Hudson Mohawke shook up the blogs this week by dropping the highly anticipated title track to his forthcoming EP Chimes via Warp Records. You also might have heard the track when wondering “what’s that song in the new Apple MacBook Air commerical?”

6) “L.A.F” by Broods

We’re looking again to New Zealand, wondering what could be in the water to keep surprising us with new talent these days. Broods are siblings Caleb and Georgia who enlisted “Royals” co-writer Joel Little to help on their debut album. “L.A.F.” (which, according to vocalist Georgia Nott, is an acronym for “Loose as fuck”) is a great introduction to a band you should know about.

7) “Adult Diversion” by Alvvays

This track though has staying power! Eight months old and still everywhere on music blogs. This Toronto band are flying high with their debut release on Polyvinyl.

8) “Skydive” by Astronauts

Another newbie. Astronauts is former Dark Captain Dan Carney and “Skydive” is the debut single from this UK artist. For fans of Sea Wolf, Badly Drawn Boy.

9) “Holloway (Hey, Love)” by Wilcat! Wildcat!

I saved this epic track for last. Los Angeles indie pop trio Wildcat! Wildcat! are set to release their debut album on Downtown Records (co-produced with M83‘s  Morgan Kibby). Fall in love with “Holloway (Hey, Love)”.