By Spencer Davis. Been taking a bit of a break lately, but don’t worry—S&N isn’t going anywhere! And what better way to come back after a recharge than with a brand new S&N mix? Well, I say “brand new,” but as you’ll see with this batch of tunes, newness can be relative. Because while these songs all come from 2017 releases, you’ll notice an obvious theme: they make what’s new sound old again. Tapping into a vibe that’s distinctly 80s, these artists skirt that creative line between looking back and moving forward. And they prove it’s not so much a line as a spectrum.
Good art pulls you in multiple directions. And while this tension plays itself out within many songwriters on a broader level—how far am I willing to abandon the sound my fans expect in service of artistic exploration?—we’ve been seeing for a decade now that our music community at large is also at a crossroads of eras, in which so much of what we hear is a reinvention of the music of past decades. Is that progress or relapse? Is there still room for something truly new anymore, or have we reached the limits of musical possibility—an artistic equivalent to Fukuyama’s “end of history”? S&N Mix 27 doesn’t answer those questions, but it shows that in that space between remaining fixed in the present or rewinding through our nostalgia, there’s a lot of fun to be had.
Click here to download: S&N Mix 27: Remain/Rewind.
- Jay Som – Remain
- Los Colognes – Unspoken
- Maggie Rogers – Dog Years
- Slowdive – No Longer Making Time
- Ryan Adams – Shiver And Shake
- Tennis – My Emotions Are Blinding
- Rose Elinor Dougall – Dive
- Slowdive – Sugar For The Pill
- Ryan Adams – You Said
- Sylvan Esso – Rewind
Or listen on Spotify:
[Banner artwork courtesy of Rafael De Jongh]
Shadows & Noise 