Photo: Press
Primal Scream ft. Sky Ferreira - 'Where The Light Gets In'
"Best surprise for me was how well their vocals work together. Favourite bits are the call and response bit between Sky and Bobbie with the 'possesion, obsession/ ecstatic, deception...' lyrics and the guitar solo at 2.32. And Sky Ferreira's absurdly hypnotic pout / hooded eye combo when she sings into the camera."
PJ Harvey - 'The Wheel'
"Songs like this need to exist, particularly now. If only there were more folks out there capable of pulling them off like PJ Harvey can. In the words of the top YouTube commenter: 'Absolutely fucking awesome. I want to be PJ when I grow up'."
Polica - 'Wedding'
"Another well dealt political song. Both the video and the song have this balance that is pretty enviable, being thematically quite heavy but breezily delivered. The video is beautiful and brilliant. The song itself is a relentless jam. I didn't question any of it."
Cat's Eyes - 'Chameleon Queen'
"This guy really doesn't care about someone any more, the laziness of his delivery driving the point right home. It's lo fi and crunchy in a late 60s kind of way but what makes it more interesting than that is that the whole thing sounds like it's been written over a variation of Bach - Air on a G string. The effect is that he triumphantly doesn't give a shit. I found it empowering."
Coldplay - 'Hymn For The Weekend'
"As the video for this has made a bunch of people pissed off I’m going to assume there are enough opinions about it out there already and just focus on the song. In a bleak situation of pop reductionism, this hymn for the weekend communicates its intended purpose with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But it's so straight forward and easy to sing, that I don't mind. The most important part of the melody doesn’t even have lyrics! (bonus) And Beyoncé’s there, doing backing vocals, which surprised me because it's Beyoncé. This is a fine pop song that made me feel safe."
Shark Dentist - 'Stranger'
"Opening lyrics of this speak to me a lot - 'I wish you were a stranger, because things would be less strange'. I'm currently in a 'situation' with someone, I've been looking for a song for it, and now I have one. The video also speaks to me. I liked and subscribed."
Rihanna - 'Work'
"I love Rihanna. Always have, always will. And this song is no exception. Don't know the words to it? Don't matter, neither does she, it's not important. There is genius in its melodic simplicity. The first thing I thought when I listened to it was that it owes everything to Young Thug."
Icarus ft. Aurora - 'Home'
"When I can't sleep, when I can't be arsed to wait for the night bus, when I have nothing better to do at 3 am, this song will be on repeat in my ears, soundtracking my frequent night time walks. I really like Icarus, I really like Aurora and I really like this song. Hat trick."
Josef Salvat's debut album, Night Swim, is out on 19 February via Columbia Records.
He will embark on a 21 date European tour in support of it. Including the five UK shows below:
March 5 Electric Circus Edinburgh, UK
March 6 Manchester Gorilla Manchester, UK
March 8 Heaven London, UK
March 10 Thelka Bristol, UK
March 11 O2 Academy 3 Birmingham, UK
March 12 Haunt Brighton, UK
Discover more about Salvat on his website
