Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

Mick Jenkins barely edges out of a track by local rockers Fairy Bones on our September singles playlist by artfully incorporating the dying words of a Black man whose death is at the heart of many Black Lives Matter protests, Eric Garner. Other highlights of our monthly countdown range from Nick Cave coming to terms with the death of his son to the Pretenders trying out a new sound and several local releases, including Harper and the Moths, Paper Foxes and Citrus Cloud.

1. Mick Jenkins feat. BADBADNOTGOOD, “Drowning”

This song has such an instantly engaging sense of atmosphere, an ominous descending bass riff riding a haunting percussion loop that sounds like someone clanking on a tin cup topped by deeply soulful vocals, which set the tone with “We gon’ need some drugs for the situation.” And that situation is tied to the Black Lives Matter movement, Jenkins’ vocal slipping into a trembling falsetto to plead “I can’t breathe,” the very words a dying Eric Garner repeated 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk during his arrest in New York. Like Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” “Drowning” is to 2016 what Sly & the Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me N*****, Whitey” was to 1969 or Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” was to 1988 – a postcard from the frontlines in a nation at war with itself. And much like all those records I mentioned, it sounds amazing in the process.

2. Fairy Bones, “8 Ball”

These local heroes have followed the promise of “Dramabot” with a raucous new single produced, like their previous effort, by Bob Hoag. The approach is all forward momentum, a throbbing bass and drum groove topped by a soaring guitar lick that reaches out and grabs you by the throat before Chelsey Louise has even made it the mike. And she instantly matches her bandmates’ intensity, setting the scene with “I can meditate all day but I still wanna kill myself / You guys really don’t understand what alone means.” And it only gets better when they hit those sudden stops and starts – like classic rockabilly played by punks – to underscore her vocal on “I got these New Age problems but they don’t exist / You can tell me I’m in trouble but I must insist the 8 Ball f—king lied to you.”

3. Isaiah Rashad, “4r Da Squaw”

There’s a melancholy undercurrent to the old-school soul vibe as Rashad, who records for Top Dawg Entertainment like Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, puts the struggles of life in perspective with “If I can pay my bills, I’m good.” So why the melancholy undercurrent? He gets to that, if cryptically, in lyrics that address the need to overcome his struggles with substance abuse for the sake of his child.

4. Wovenhand, “Golden Blossom”

This is the second track 16 Horsepower frontman David Eugene Edwards has released from “Star Treatment,” his latest release with his new project, following 2014’s “Refractory Obdurate.” And it serves as a stunning reminder that “majestic” and “alt-country” are not mutually exclusive terms. In an interview with Consequence of Sound, Edwards explained, “It is the love song, pure and unabashed. Crashing into the rock.” And rock it does, at times suggesting a more psychedelic strain of the post-“Tommy” Who.

5. Action Bronson, “Descendant of the Stars”

He may be hip-hop’s most endearing kook, which comes through loud and clear on this piano-driven track, produced by the brilliant-as-ever Alchemist, on which he sets the tone with a half-winked boast of “As a descendant of the stars, it’s only right that I become one.” I could tell you what he claims to have been doing when he did an interview with GQ, but it may be best to let him share that little detail. This is actually the theme song to his Viceland show, “Traveling the Stars.” But it sounds more like the soundtrack to a film that parodies Walt Disney and Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” in the same inebriated breath.

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6. Nick Cave, “Jesus Alone”

This is the lead track on “Skeleton Tree,” Cave’s latest album with the Bad Seeds and the first thing he's done since the death of his son, who fell from a cliff in Brighton earlier this year. In the trailer to a documentary on the making of the album, Cave wonders aloud, "What happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that you just change? You change from the known person to an unknown person? So that when you look at yourself in the mirror, you recognize the person that you were, but the person inside the skin is a different person?” And the song itself is every bit as devastating as that quote suggests, returning to a melancholy plea – “With my voice, I am calling you.” People throw the word gutted around on social media every time a celebrity dies. But this is what it sounds like when a person knows how gutted really feels.

7. AlunaGeorge, “Mediator”

This is the second track from “I Remember” to make our monthly singles spotlight. And where “Mean What I Mean” was clearly custom-made for moving bodies on the dance floor, “Mediator” moves in like a quiet storm, a richly orchestrated ballad that runs its keyboards through a wah-wah pedal as Aluna Francis pours her most seductive vocal into a song about finding yourself in the middle of another couple’s problems. “You know that I'll stick up for you,” she sings. “But taking sides is a foolish game / ‘Cause in the end they won't remove the pain / And I'm trying to give you the truth.” It’s the kind of record it would be easy to imagine Sade having done, and there’s no reason to believe that Sade would have done it any better.

8. Vince Staples feat. A$AP Rocky, “Prima Donna”

The title track to Staples’ new EP is here by virtue of a 10-minute video, although it’s easier to hear the song for what it is if you just listen to the album version, where the track is free to play from start to finish in under four minutes, including a reflective outro. The rhymes flow freely here over a slow-burning groove as Staples weighs in on his life and legend while making his way through references to Wavves and Leonardo Da Vinci, asking that you call him King Latifah. A$AP Rocky has just one line -- “once you get addicted to it.” But he says it 15 times, enough to all but guarantee that you will get addicted to it. Getting back to that video, though, you should probably watch it. It’s a wild ride with Nabil directing, mixing in snippets of every song on the EP.

9. Pretenders, “Holy Commotion!”

Any song that stirs up as much hatred in the YouTube comments as this new Pretenders single must be doing something right. Take the following comment, which earned nine thumbs up: “Well I guess we can thank Dan Auerbach for destroying one of the great rock bands. This isn't the Pretenders, this is Dan Auerbach with Chrissie Hynde doing the vocals. My music collection contains all of The Pretenders albums, but I won't be buying this one thanks to Dan Auerbach's influence.” I also guess we can thank Auerbach because is the most adventurous AND most contagious thing I’ve heard from Chrissie Hynde in ages, legacy be damned. It sounds more like the sort of thing Blondie would do. Or maybe what Sleigh Bells would do if they wanted to sound like Blondie. Either way, it’s quirky pop perfection with sort of girl-group echoes that should speak to anyone who came on board with Chrissie back when New Wave didn’t need the word “revival” tagged on at the end.

10. Harper and the Moths, “Lose My Touch”

Is anyone in Phoenix writing better hits than Harper and the Moths? The hooks on “Lose My Touch” are undeniable, driven by a killer disco bass groove that all but dares you not to hit the dancefloor, and topped by horns from Danny Torgersen and Chris Hoskins of Captain Squeegee fame. The Bob Hoag production is flawless, bringing just the right amount of ‘80s sheen to the proceedings without overdoing it. It feels like it’s some great lost soundtrack single from the early ‘80s, and it leaves me wishing they had gone on right before Nile Rodgers and Chic when Duran Duran played Glendale.

11. Mild High Club, "Kokopelli"

The members of Mild High Club definitely live up to the promise of their name on "Kokopelli," a sleepy blend of richly textured chamber-pop and cocktail jazz as Money Mark might have played it that somehow erupts in a skronking fuzz-guitar attack without shaking the listener from the dream state it's established by the time the fuzz kicks in. Alex Brettin, their visionary leader, says, "The kokopelli is a deity revered in several southwest Native American cultures. It represents the god of fertility and embodies the spirit of music and trickery. He’s the sage." The song is sung from the kokopelli's perspective, setting the scene a sighing delivery of "I'm the kokopelli in the cave/ When I'm in the mood I like to play / Bend a couple rules and misbehave / Welcome to my twisted cabaret." It's here by virtue of a very trippy animated video.

12. Mr. T Experience, “Cinthya (With a Y)”

I remain fully convinced that if any veteran of the Berkeley pop-punk scene deserved to graduate from Lookout! Records to the top of Billboard’s album charts, it was Dr. Frank and the Mr. T Experience. And they’ve still got it on this first taste of their first release in 12 years, an album called “King Dork Approximately” that shares a title with (Dr.) Frank Portman’s second young adult novel (a sequel to “King Dork,” which in turn started life as an MTX song). Got that? Good. The point is, this is classic Mr. T, a song as funny as it is contagious, with Dr. Frank taking a stand on behalf of those who choose to spell their name a little different than the rest. Take the opening verse, in which he memorably sets the scene with “Jenni with an I / Lysa with a Y / Gwladys with a W / K-Y-double-M doesn’t bother them / So why should it bother you?” It’s all ridiculously catchy backed with candy-coated harmonies. You’ll be learning extremely unusual spellings just so you can sing along. Also, spoiler alert? The album as a whole, available digitally Tuesday, Oct. 4, is a welcome return to everything they’ve always done so well. (Also, I have Googled Gwladys, and that is an actual spelling that exists).

13. Paper Foxes, “Strawberry Lashes”

The title track to Paper Foxes’ new EP sets the tone with Patro Gaston’s willfully robotic post-punk synth hook, which is soon offset by jagged guitar, their alternating rhythms arriving at what Buzzcocks would have called a different kind of tension. Then, CJ Jacobsen steps to the mike and demands: “Yes, yes, you, you, what do you want from me? / Acting like you don’t see.” And when the chorus hits? Like any number of the greatest post-punk singles I can think of at the moment, the sound suggests a mood that’s worlds more romantic than the lyrics (“It’s you / It’s you / Look into the past / I’m through / I’m through / I'll never look back at you”). The bitterness in Jacobsen’s vocal is both palpable and cathartic when he sings, “Don’t look now, dear/ It doesn’t matter what I say / You’re the one that went away / OK / Hey hey, you you / How do you like it there? / Raining all goddamn year.” I don’t know if the person he’s calling “dear” went away to Seattle or London, but that line leaves scars regardless. And the noisy guitars as the songs hits its climax only add to the catharsis.

14. Kanye West, “Fade”

This is the one with the really steamy science-fiction video he premiered at the MTV Video Music Awards at the end of that weird yet lengthy tangent that failed to deliver the water-cooler moment we’ve come to expect when Kanye goes off script. But this is here because that video has drawn attention to one of the more inspired bits of music-making on “The Life of Pablo,” from that scene-setting sample of the vocal to “(I Know) I’m Losing You” to that rubbery bass groove he sampled and improved upon from "Mystery of Love" by Fingers Inc. There’s not much rapping going on, but this song doesn’t need it. Not with hooks as good as these.

15. Mannequin P---y, "Romantic"

It's only so romantic, coming it at the topic from the "Love Hurts" school of romance with raging, distorted guitars to underscore the heartache when Marisa Dabice switches gears from a vulnerable whisper of "I get along with everyone I meet / I'm so sweet" to an even more vulnerable scream of "I'm in hell." It's all very '90s alternative rock in its use of post-PIxies dynamics and that definitely brings out the cathartic essence of the lyrics.

16. Whitney, "Polly"

I don't remember what song I was checking out on YouTube when it segued into this majestic slice of deeply soulful chamber pop, but if I did, I'd send that song a "Thank You" note. This track's melodic sensibilities are undeniable, from the singer's sweet falsetto to a sax break that channels the best of the '70s yacht-rock aesthetic. And the lyrics are no less brilliant, from "I’ve seen the kind of dirt that took my baby from me" to "How cheap were the nights you used to keep me warm?" It's all so wounded. In the best way possible.

17. Bon Iver, "33 'GOD'"

Justin Vernon's bittersweet falsetto is in full effect here, with an Auto-Tuned or vocoderized backing vocal assuming the role of a futuristic Greek chorus as Vernon makes his way through cryptic lyrics that convey more raw emotion than actual meaning. Is "33 'GOD'" a reference to the age at which most Bible scholars would agree that Jesus Christ was put to death? It sure does feel that way. But Vernon offsets the spiritual musings with lines as grounded in the here and now as "I'd be happy as hell if you stayed for tea."

18. Miike Snow, "My Trigger"

I haven't done the research, but I'd have to think very few singles released in 2016 have announced their arrival with a lyric as attention-grabbing as "I saw you licking a dollar bill." Of course, that wouldn't matter half as much if this piano-driven electro-pop jam had failed to follow through with a song as contagious as "My Trigger." It's a love song to a stripper, very possibly inspired by the fact that singer Andrew Wyatt used to date a stripper. It would be wrong to view it as a blow-by-blow account. As Wyatt explained in an interview with Notion Magazine, "The funny thing is the song ‘My Trigger’ is about going on this kind of lost weekend with a stripper. But I didn’t do that. That’s the difference – ‘My Trigger’ is totally fictional, drawing on probably past experience."

19. Rihanna, "Sex With Me" (Tinashe rermix)

This steamy reinvention of an "Anti" bonus track takes a perfectly hot Rihanna song and turns up the heat to 11. "Bubblegum, ballet and yoga," Tinashe promises, "And a few other tricks I'm tryin' to show you." And that's just the musical foreplay on a track that more than likely hits its climax with an incredibly sultry delivery of the lyric, "I'm about to make your face a chair."

20. Citrus Clouds, “Imagination”

This song serves as the title track, opening number and lead single for these Phoenix rockers’ forthcoming release. And it’s easy enough to hear what made them put so much stock in this bittersweet tribute to Erick Pineda’s own creative urges, which filters ‘80s New Wave of the sort that would inevitably turn up on a John Hughes soundtrack through a haunting dream-pop haze. Pineda goes from missing the good old days with no bills to pay, when he could better indulge his imagination, to singing, “And then in my old age / When I'm bound to my bed and stuck in my head / I'll be Imagination.”