Our final rummage in the forgotten musical corners of the 2010’s for the time being.
“I Belong in Your Arms” is a song by Brooklyn synth-pop aesthetes Chairlift. Their off-kilter approach to pop songwriting resonated throughout the music industry; dig through the roster of any major label at the start of this decade and you’d find a few acts who were trying to replicate Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly’s approach, albeit without the duo’s left-of-center weirdness. “I Belong in Your Arms” is the crown jewel of their strongest album, 2012’s Something. Polachek delivers lyrics as if she’s gasping for air, spitting stream-of-consciousness non-sequiturs (“Banana split/Honestly/You’re my remote controller”) amid drum machines and synths so perpetually ascendant that they touch the sun. What comes through is the giddy sensation of falling so deeply in love that nothing quite makes sense except a warm embrace. Giving so much of yourself to someone else is always a risky proposition, but for three and a half minutes, Chairlift make the act of devotion sound worth it.
“Christine“, also released under the title “Tilted“, is a song by Christine and the Queens. “Christine”, which is recorded in French, was released for download in October 2014 through Because Music as the third single from her debut studio album Chaleur Humaine (2014). It was, however, originally recorded in English titled “Cripple” in 2012, and a later English version was released as “Tilted” on 3 March 2015. It was named one of the ten best songs of 2015 by Time magazine. “Christine” was a number one hit on both of Belgium’s Ultratop charts and peaked at number 3 in France, while “Tilted” became a top 20 hit in Ireland and the United Kingdom. A music video to accompany the release of “Christine” was first released onto YouTube in December 2014. The minimal and largely blue and black visuals in the videos for “Christine” and the English version “Tilted” are identical, and feature Letissier and her dancers performing intricate dance routines on a platform.
“Pa’lante” is a song by based on a 1973 poem “Puerto Rican Obituary,” the Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri urged his people onward toward self-knowledge and self-love. Alynda Segarra, the singer-songwriter behind Hurray for the Riff Raff, used the poem as fuel for “Pa’lante,” the penultimate track from her band’s 2017 album, The Navigator. The record found Segarra staking a new claim to her Puerto Rican identity, after a lifetime of “finding most of my heroes in white men.” But this song didn’t find its ultimate purpose until later that year, when Hurricane Maria arrived. Since the storm hit, Segarra continuously tried to find her way back to her ravaged ancestral homeland in a way that would allow her to give without taking. She finally made it in December 2018. While there, playing “Pa’lante” for her people, she fully understood its time-warped origin. As she told Billboard: “It felt like I didn’t write the song—we wrote the song.”
“Laura” is a song by English recording artist Bat for Lashes for her third studio album The Haunted Man (2012). It was written by Natasha Khan and British songwriter Justin Parker. It received positive reactions from fans when Khan played it at a string of European festival dates. The song received its radio debut in July 2012 on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show as “Hottest Record in the World” and was made available as an instant download to people who pre-ordered the album on iTunes. The title character of “Laura” is a dreamer in crisis, a partied-out socialite left behind by the crowds.Only Natasha Khan remains by her side, and in her sweetest and deadliest ballad, she dedicates every ounce of her formidable self herself to propping up her lost friend.
“Bad Guy” (stylized in all lowercase) is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. It was released in March 2019, through Darkroom, as the fifth single from Eilish’s debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. Eilish co-wrote “Bad Guy” with her brother, Finneas O’Connell, with the latter producing it and the former providing additional production. In the song’s lyrics, Eilish taunts her lover for being a bad guy while suggesting that she is more resilient than he is. “Bad Guy” was a commercial success, reaching number one on the US Billboard; elsewhere, the song topped the charts in several other countries worldwide, and also peaked at number two in the UK. Bad Guy” has received several awards, including Record and Song of the Year at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
