We’re trying something slightly different in Songs of the Week, still spotlighting the greatest new tunes while also analyzing notable tracks that we don’t quite love. Find our new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, we survey the week in music with new tracks from Disclosure, Eminem, and more.
Get Out the Sunscreen with Disclosure, Romy, and Fred again..
The warmth of the sun, the vivid green grass, hundreds of urbanites exalting in fresh air — we’ve made it to summer, and this week, dance music has heeded the call.
Okay, maybe it’s more than just summer. Primavera Sound is currently going down in Barcelona, and as we know with Coachella and Glastonbury, a lot of artists gear up a special release to preview their performances. Both Disclosure and Romy have had their respective new songs — “She’s Gone, Dance On” and “Always Forever” — in their live shows for a while now, and both are set to play major sets at Primavera this weekend. So, it makes sense that they’ve decided to drop these great new tracks this week (of all weeks).
But it does help that the giddiness that comes with warming weather matches perfectly with dance music. Disclosure’s new track in particular feels revelatory: At a breakneck pace and with a harmony-laden, chipmunk’d soul sample, “She’s Gone, Dance On” is a hyperactive beast. The song combines some of the more eclectic stylings that Disclosure have been employing of late (the chopped-up vocals especially) with the classic percussive edge from their 10-year old debut Settle.
It’s fascinating to consider the duo’s evolution as dance music has altered over the years. Disclosure have been at the right place in the right time twice now. Their initial breakout brought overwhelmingly thorough pop sensibilities to the club, all at a time when EDM drops were getting atrociously big and the pop songwriting was getting lackluster. But now, there’s less of a demand for the type of pop-centered craftsmanship than 10 years ago — drops are out, the groove is king, and samples are very, very important. Disclosure have grown with these changes, and “She’s Gone, Dance On” indicates their mastery of the form.
Romy, meanwhile, continues her victory lap with the nostalgic “Always Forever,” which samples Donna Lewis’ 1996 banger “I Love You Always Forever.” Like the majority of her exuberant 2023 LP Mid Air, Romy reprises the Euro-trance vibe for a cathartic, kaleidoscopic turn. It also feels heavily in line with the consuming adoration found in Mid Air — love not as an action, but as a state of being.
Funnily enough, “Always Forever” was co-produced by regular Romy collaborator and current captain of dance music, Fred again.., who himself dropped “places to be” with CHIKA and Anderson. Paak this week. Though Fred (surprisingly) isn’t at Primavera Sound this weekend, he is about to headline Bonnaroo in a couple weeks, so there’s definitely a festival-ready air to “places to be.” Still, while Fred again.. can create magical hooks out of scraps, “places to be” is a little overstuffed; the beat drives, but CHIKA and Paak sound lost in the mix, and the track ends up fizzling out midway through.
Out of everyone though, no one seems to be having more fun that Charli XCX right now — who is playing Primavera Sound on Saturday night, and has treated fans to a special remix of “360” featuring the Swedish stalwarts Robyn and Yung Lean. Her album Brat is dropping next week, and once again, it feels like Charli XCX has combined the past and the future to create something totally alien, living in its own dimension. It’s Charli’s world, and we’re living in it.
— Paolo Ragusa
Associate Editor