How do you follow up on a groundbreaking revelation about your personal life, tons of publicity and the release of an almost universally acclaimed album? Why, with a crazy cinematic, NSFW music video, that’s how! Cue Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids.” Ol’ Frankie O downs a few shots of absinth, shoots up a bar and head out on the open road, tripping his balls off while riding a motorcycle in the middle of the desert—so unsafe! A word of warning: this video contains tits. As in female breasts. If you were expecting Ocean to delve into full on gayness, you’re in for a disappointment. “Pyramids” is a slow jam about a stripper named Cleopatra, a smooth, simmering, sex drenched R&B track with zero homoeroticism. Still, if the only reason you’re interested Ocean is his sexuality, you’re short changing one of this generation’s great emerging artists.
We’re not really sure why, but Leona Lewis has been off our radar for a while now. “Bleeding Love” was kind of an amazing song and it’s definitely still on our iPod. But it wasn’t until she released her latest single “Trouble” that we’d noticed her glaring absence in our life. The song has the same kind of melodramatic feel as Lewis’ earlier hit, but on “Trouble” the energy is keyed up significantly. And believe us, we’re not just into this song for the video staring Teen Wolf heartthrob Colton Haynes—though that certainly doesn’t hurt.
http://youtu.be/yn11G9Pezk0
We’re not exactly sure what people wear to go to space these days—do we even still send people to space?—but judging from Trust’s new video it would have to be something you can dance in. The clip for “Dressed for Space” is a trippy blur of flashing lights and vivid colors. It’s a hectic drug haze that perfectly matches the song. Toronto-based Trust straddles a thin line between moody, dark electro and pristine dance music. “Dressed for Space” skews a little more toward the later, but there’s still a sense of angst amid the crystalline flourishes and breakneck beat, and frontman Robert Alfons’ voice is just as compellingly creepy as ever.
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The Raveonettes’ brand of contemporary mid-century fuzz rock has always had a kind of cheerful aggression, but that’s completely absent from their new single. “The Enemy” is a gentler, reflective pop track, and that’s not surprising given that Sune Rose Wagner wrote much of this album on the piano. The noise pop elements are still there, as are the band’s signature harmonies, but you get the impression that Wagner’s in a gloomier mood. If “The Enemy” is a break-up ballad, it’s an extremely well crafted one that speaks to the sad relief of resignation, and it does so in the gentler tones of band’s signature sound. It’s a departure—a beautiful one that also manages to retain the essential language of The Raveonettes.