By: Kavit Sumud

Welcome to a new weekly feature on The Sights and Sounds, the Sunday Spotlight. Each week, I’ll collect 8-12 tracks that you might have missed and put them in a shiny, new Soundcloud feature called Sets. You can listen to the set as a whole or vulture individual tracks to favorite to make your own Soundcloud library swagger. Additionally, you can send us tips on songs that you think deserve a spotlight and we’ll try to include two of them in the list with a shoutout to the sender.

Our second installment of Sunday Spotlights finds us aching, yearning for unrequited love and staring at the wall in a love-struck stasis (in and out of the bedroom)—all soundtracked by the past two week’s best new releases. It features tracks submitted by readers and songs curated by yours truly.

(1) Bastille ft. Ella cover/mashup The xx’s “Angels” with TLC’s “No Scrubs” and lace it with perfectly placed lines from ‘Psycho’. If you didn’t think anyone could get any more mileage out of ‘No Scrubs’ you’d be mistaken– oh, you are greatly mistaken. Check out that awesome track and download for free their mixtape ”Other People’s Heartache pt.2″ at their Soundcloud.

(2) Next up, LA based artists Chance My Brother infuse the list with some delectable, romantic neo-soul on “Not Even A Cloud (Cover Your Sunshine)” while (3) Brenmar splices Rihanna‘s “Loveee Song” into something listenable. Oh, I only partially kid, but non-Rihanna fans like myself will love the erotic turmoil of this track.

(4) Flume enlists female vocalist George Maple on the uncharacteristically downtempo “Bring You Down”—and the closest comparison to the track I can think of would be Germany Germany’s Symmetry (feat. Jessica Morgan). Poignant and perfect usage of their guest singer, both those tracks. (5) British rapper, SeePM, brings “Can’t Win” which finds us wrestling with the David Lynchian struggles of striving for your dreams–all in some tight verses of Kendrick Lamar caliber. At least for me, that struggle for personal achievement and romance in your late 20s are mutually exclusive goals, which is where (6) Ra Ra Riot’s “When I Dream” and (7) STRFCKR‘s “Leave it All Behind” come in. The former track is about that heartbreakingly, awkward moment when you stare at the person in your bed at night and realize, “Oh, I don’t really want you here”; and the latter is about leaving all of that behind you.

(8)RAC‘s Remix of MNDR’s “Feed Me Diamonds” proves the Collective has got their groove back after releasing a few lacklustre original singles this year (sorry, guys, I love you, but they just didn’t have the bite this track does!) (9) Chrome Sparks almost makes my robot heart feel something in his orgasmic future pop remix of Gemini’s “Robots”.

The next four tracks almost act as a tag team wrestling duo, with (10) hugsnotdrugs’ remix of Crystal Castle‘s Pale Flesh, (11) The Neighbourhood’s “A Little Death lusting for touch to make them feel human again, and (12) Digit’s “Love is Only Affection” and (13) Toucan’s “Warrior” riding to the rescue and teaching us to reticently appreciate the presence of others.

Lastly, (14) Deptford Goth’s “Union” is my favorite track of the month hands down and it perfectly encapsulates the conflicting desires found in our Spotlights this week. It’s about that moment of rebirth of struggle where secluding inside one’s self gives way to reconnection, love, and re-partnering with the human race. It’s just stunning.

That’s all for this week. A few people sent me the Emperor Remix of Mikky Ekko’s “Pull me Down” and though I really wanted to like that song, the chorus is just insufferably pedestrian. I appreciate all your tips (though none of you wanted to be named this week) and if you’d like to send songs to be featured here, message me over on my Soundcloud (Discord.Being).

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