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Before y'all start hurling tomatoes, I am well aware that I promised a CHROMAKOPIA review soon; it's well on its way, and I'm planning on a unique format for the occasion. For now though, I figured I would make a blog as a prelude to this week's show, live at 1 PM on Wednesday; since we're covering 2018, I figured it would be helpful to take a look at the hits that defined this year, in no particular order of course.
1: After The Storm (Feat. Tyler the Creator and Bootsy Collins) by Kali Uchis
Kali Uchis' unique blend of Contemporary Pop and more classic R&B influences collide in this funky, slow-and-steady single with catchy, uplifting lyrics, interjections from legendary Soul bassist Bootsy Collins, and polishing everything off with a fun, succinct verse from Tyler, the Creator before another chorus and a fade out, led by the calm, saccharine synths that change up the beat for the song's second half. "After the Storm" changes just enough to not be stagnant, but is also consistent enough to bury itself in your memory; it deserves its place in this year's multifaceted catalogue.
2: Sicko Mode by Travis Scott
If you knew any theater kids from 2018-2019, you probably heard "SICKO MODE," or "Mo Bamba" a couple times. Maybe I have nostalgia goggles on, but Astroworld is the type of project that other artists will struggle to outdo on both the musical and marketing fronts for quite some time, and "SICKO MODE" is the poster child of this undertaking. While the video could definitely stand out more, the way this song sounds was pretty unprecedented at the time; not much sounded like this, and basically everybody else at the same time was using heavily sampled beats instead of originals, a trend that "SICKO MODE" (and Astroworld as a whole) bucked to massive success.
3: King's Dead (Feat. Future, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar) by Jay Rock
Not only is this song an absolute banger, with a posse cut featuring 2 of the biggest names in 21st century Rap (and 2 of the more underrated names as well), it was also especially crafted for one of the best Marvel movies from the era on top of that. Whether it's the lyrical content, switching between boastful descriptions of wealth and burning social commentary, or the finely engineered beat that changes up and starts/stops at the exact right moments, "King's Dead" has the formula for a hit single locked down.
4: Sunflower (Feat Swae Lee) by Post Malone
It probably doesn't speak very well to my critical analysis that 2 of these songs are from movie soundtracks, but any Gen Z worth their salt knows that this song was positively massive for at least a solid handful of months after "Into the Spider-Verse" hit the big screen. It's hard to explain something as obvious as why this song went viral; just like "King's Dead" it has an intrinsic X factor, likely thanks to the perfect 50/50 ratio of both Post Malone and Swae Lee's vocals (whose different intonations blend together like the perfect bread & jam) and the simplistic, but also precise and earworm-inducing beat.
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