Strings and Vibes

Perfect (feat. Jessie Reyez) – Sam Smith

Will writes:

The song that began the playlist in a chilled, calm note to get you into a relaxation zone. I had this song on repeat for a while when I started making the playlist with Andrew. It really set the tone for some strings and vibes.

Keep Moving – Jungle

Andrew writes:

What an opener – Sam Smith has come such a long way – i love how he is now fully himself – no apologies no hiding and  using his voice and platform to tell the truth – certainly sets the stage.  What’s kinda tough about the track is how it ends – that orchestrated string finish into the violins that are setting up the next track – I was initially thinking of matching the vibe – maybe something out of Rihanna but I kept thinking about the transition and I knew a track where the string transition would work.  Also – Loving In Stereo is a brilliant album and Keep Moving one of my all time favorites

Overnight – Parcels

I love love love Sam Smith! It’s my first time hearing Keep Moving and it’s that type of song that will be stuck in my head the whole week. I love it. The vibe of the song has reminded me of this song called Overnight. Parcels have quite a good catalogue.

Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers) – Daft Punk

Love the Parcels track – and I tried – honestly I did try not to follow it up with Get Lucky – but sometimes – you know – the track just selects itself – it’s that nile Rodgers guitar that just blends the two tracks

Adventure of a Lifetime – Coldplay

Get lucky is amazing. I love the guitar. I also couldn’t help but add Coldplay for this one. The guitar is amazing there too 🙌🏾

Walking Away From Love – Steve Mason

I have a love / Meh relationship with ColdPlay – their first two albums are deep in my psyche – I changed my life at 30 and Parachutes was the soundtrack for the change – yet the band just kept getting bigger and bigger – for which I am in awe of – but the songs got simpler and more accessible and designed for massive stadium shows – again – I’m in awe of their talent but I found the tracks less interesting.

Now with that said – I hadn’t spent a lot of time with A Head Full of Dreams but Adventure of a Lifetime has such a good groove – and is bloody perfect out of Get Lucky – we’re certainly building an energy here – so I’m going keep the foot on the gas – changing the feel perhaps – bringing in more guitars and less of the electronic vibe but I love how the finger snaps transition out of Coldplay – and then the track just builds – see what you think

Tonight – Zonke

Coldplay has that change element in their songs and I’ll check out Parachutes , also please do check out Hymn for the Weekend.

I really love the song the guitar in the song, the snaps started perfect and yesssss! Let’s step on the gas! As I was listening to the this song, a certain song started to ring in my head. The song elements are different but the tempo and the rhythms are a bit similar. This one has more of soul.

Custodian – Piel

I loved the soulful groove from Zonke – the bass line had me immediately reaching for The Supreme’s classic “You Can’t Hurry Love” – which works really well but i wanted to “play” with this a little 😎  – I have my Spotify set to a 5 second cross fade, so I’m always thinking about the transition – not that it has to be perfect but that – when it works well, it makes me grin ;-p So – the out of Tonight really slowed down – those simple piano chords – the percussion and shaker fades out and there’s this silence after the last chord – soooooo – I was thinking – how do we keep the energy up but effect a smooth transition – 

I just came across Piel from making another list with Jan – a new curator about to join the community who’s an independent music publisher in LA and this is one of his clients – I’m in love with the underlying groove here – where Tonight blends soul into the groove – this blends more of an EDM vibe into the groove and I’m so here for it!

Little L – Jamiroquai

The song is really good, I like it a lot. One thing am really enjoying is to getting to listen to new songs and get to listen to artists I didn’t know about. This song is great 🔥

I tried to keep the songs on a similar tempo, therefore I have added a song by the band Jamiroquai which has that funk seasoning 🧂 in it!

Blackout – Breathe Carolina

I’ve always loved Jamiroquai – that whole bass line funk of the 90’s and of course JK was a brilliant front man – I have a crazy German friend Schirin who throws brilliant parties – she stuffs all her party lists with Jamiroquai track ;-p. I wanted to keep the energy up high so stole a track from one of her lists – grooving on the bass again ;-p

Starships – Nicki Minaj

So I went with the same energy from breathe Carolina. I almost added another song but this one wouldn’t let me rest so I just had to add it. Starships!

Hot Summer – Heffron Drive

Well hell yeah! – Starships are indeed meant to fly – I was tempted to continue the full on dance floor banger but again decided to tweak it – keep the energy right up there but toughen it up a little – can’t go wrong with guitars and a kick ass beat – also – this song ain’t wrong – the planet’s definitely heating up 😎

Cake By The Ocean – DNCE

Heffron Drive is a ball of energy, I loved the song and it just spurred me on to Cake by the ocean.

New Sensation – INXS

Cake by the Ocean is such a dope track – 1.4 billion views – a pure pop high energy dance classic – just brilliant writing – needed to keep the energy up a little while longer so went back into the decades and pulled an Aussie classic – used to love to dance to this!

Locked out of Heaven – Bruno Mars

New Sensation is a great vibe. I love the feel of the song. It made me think of one of my all time favorite tracks. It sort of takes the tempo up a bit from a New Sensation

Can’t Stand Losing You – The Police

Oh dude – this list is such a  journey – the flow – the chill start – building energy – little breaks – but always a vibe – the last 6 or 7 tracks – such energy – I’m kinda digging the transition out of Bruno into The Police ;-p. You’re up!

I Am (feat. Wyclef Jean) – Rock Mafia

You nailed the transition from Bruno to The Police, that was so cool. The end of the song has this Caribbean feel that I like, I just had to go with flow!

Fools In Love – Joe Jackson

Heh!  it’s like we’re getting to the end of the evening and beginning to sit and chill a bit – the more reggae driven beat of I Am allowing the slower groove of Fools In lLove but totally driven by the grooving bass line and the scratchy guitars – see what you think

Want You Back – Singing Melody

Had a little trouble coming up with the song that will ke the flow of the playlist. There is a famous song that was a hit and this is the cover of the song. I felt like the vibes were in sync with it

Karma Police – Easy Star All-Stars

dude!  that transition – dope!  So while I almost resisted – I just couldn’t – had to follow up the dub version of Want you Back with a similar version of Radiohead’s epic Karma Police!!  

Kill Bill – SZA

That’s a dope song! It made it easy for me to switch the vibe to some Kill Bill.

You Know I’m No Good – Amy Winehouse

How to follow up the SZA track – how about a classic groove, a similar story line and of course Amy’s incomparable vocals!

Playlist image by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash