If I’m being honest, I’ve always preferred music that features real instruments as opposed to synthesized beats, but even still, there is an artistry involved in making an electronic sound appealing to a wide audience. The production quality, layering and experimentation that goes into working with electronic tracks is truly mind-boggling when it comes to modern music. While I’ll probably never be the biggest fan of E.D.M. or its various sub-genres, I can respect the ingenuity of the craft and the influence it has had. That being said, for people like me who aren’t entirely sold on electronic music, here are a few light electronica tracks that might change your mind.
- “Out Of My System” by Youngr
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Youngr, also known as Dario Darnell, is an electronic and pop musician. His self-produced debut single, “Out Of My System” put him on the map as it received over 50 million streams on Spotify post-release. Since then, he has sold out tours in Europe and America and has performed at over 50 festivals including The Meadows & Arts Music Festival, Ultra Music Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival. He started attracting attention through his live performances of bootlegs of songs by other artists, the most prominent being his rendition of “Sweet Disposition” by Temper Trap which received over 15 million views within two weeks. All of his live bootlegging was done in one take. Most recently, Youngr has signed with the label Armanda Records and has released a new single titled “Nightcrawling.” Fans of Youngr should expect a full-length album to appear in 2020.
“Out Of My System” not only depicts what it’s like to struggle on your way to success, but it also defies the typical elements of its genre as Youngr actually plays and records with his instruments, using layering techniques, looping and synthesizers to create a unique electronic sound. The song begins with Youngr listing the typical linear progression that is expected of one’s life including falling in love, getting a job, saving up and even going the route of “[staying] at [his] mum’s house” in order to get himself financially stable. He wants to set himself up for success by going through the basic motions and creating fail-safes to fall back on. He believes that in order to make his dreams actualized, he just has to “play a little harder” and eventually he’ll be able to “Do Burning Man in Nevada” (an annual music festival). He knows that the road to a full-time career in music won’t be easy, but he’s willing to put in the work and he wants to embrace both the serious and the fun sides to the star lifestyle by “[working] on [his] chat up lines” and soaking in the “beach and the sunshine.” He opens up about going broke trying to support his career as he would “max out [his] Visa” and have to borrow money from family to keep supporting himself. Youngr’s song is equal parts carefree pop anthem and serious nose-to-the-grindstone self-talk.
- “Trampoline” by SHAED
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D.C. based electro-pop band SHAED broke through the music scene in 2018 with their single “Trampoline” which took off after being chosen for Apple’s latest Macbook campaign. The band consists of members Chelsea Lee (lead vocalist), Max Ernst and Spencer Ernst (multi-instrumentalists). While their music style is grounded in electro-pop, they also pull heavy influence from 80s R&B. The Ernst siblings first became interested in music in middle school when they joined a rock band called Upslide. In high school, they decided to take a pop direction and formed a duo called Trust Fall, later meeting Chelsea Lee in 2006. While they wrote songs together throughout high school, it wasn’t until 2016 that they all formed SHAED, a band named after a fictional cloak woven from shadows. As of 2019, their latest release is a two-song E.P. titled ISOU/Thunder.
“Trampoline” was a song inspired by an old home video of Max and Spencer as young boys jumping on a trampoline, from there, the song was adapted into a metaphor about what it is like to experience something almost dreamlike and then have it take an unexpected turn into darkness. They describe the initial feeling of elation as akin to “flippin’ in the air” and reference the feeling of floating without landing. However, this suspension is broken when the “sky erupts” and “flames alight the trees,” hinting at how quickly things can fall out of one’s control. Though there is a feeling of helplessness, there is also a comparison to the all-consuming feeling of being in love, which has the same ups and downs that are represented here by the motion of the trampoline and the contrast between dream and nightmare. The song accounts for the “crushin’ weight of paradise,” in that something can be beautiful, but once attained, it can be much more painful and burdensome than one had initially expected.
- “Capsize” by FRENSHIP feat. Emily Warren
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James Sunderland and Brett Hite make up electro-pop duo FRENSHIP. The two met and became friends when working together at a Lululemon clothing store. They found that they were both fans of each other’s music which resulted in their collaboration and the eventual creation of their duo, FRENSHIP. Their first single, “Knives” was produced with the help of Norwegian producer Matoma and was released on Soundcloud in 2015. It was not until the release of “Capsize” in 2016 that the duo received real recognition, having the song chart in multiple countries. On May 17th of 2019, FRENSHIP released their debut album, Vacation.
While the story behind FRENSHIP’s “Capsize” may seem confusing at first, the song is a result of lyrics written individually by Sunderland, Hite and Warren all about their perspectives on what it feels like to have gone through a jarring breakup. Each verse is infused with a unique view of a bad situation. The first verse begins with the shock and discomfort of a breakup as the narrator claims they are “Up at night” and “awake ‘cause it haunts [them].” Even though they are trying to move on, they can’t help but reflect on how they’ve changed since they ended their relationship with the other person and wonder if things would have turned out differently if they met them again now. As we get to the chorus, the song becomes a conversation between two people in which one asks the other how they are doing, and the other person responds by saying that they are “fine,” but the imagery, including that of “tears” “capsiz[ing]” and sinking to the “bottom”, paint a very different picture. Through their voices, FRENSHIP and Emily Warren were able to work together to create a believable story about someone who isn’t quite sure how to handle everything that they’ve lost.
- “No Sleep (feat. Bonn)” by Martin Garrix
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Dutch D.J. Martin Garrix is best known for his singles “In the Name of Love,” “Animals” and “Scared to be Lonely.” He was born in Amstelveen in the Netherlands and learned to play guitar at the early age of eight. Garrix was inspired to pursue a career in D.J.ing after seeing Dutch D.J. Tiësto perform at the Athens Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2004. In 2013, Garrix graduated from a production school in Utrecht called Herman Brood Academy. After Garrix started his career as a D.J., it was his inspiration, Tiësto, that discovered him. Since he began D.J.ing, he has now performed at several big-name festivals such as Coachella, Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival. In 2014, he was the youngest ever D.J. to headline Ultra Music Festival. As of 2019, he has released a new single titled “These Are The Times.”
“No Sleep” is a fun track about carefree summer nights where drinking, partying and new friendships have you feeling happy and invincible. On these nights, the narrator seems to “come alive” because they are all “[running] the night with strangers.” These strangers turn to familiar faces as they continue to enjoy each other’s company and forget about their problems. They equate this all to “dreaming” and therefore they need “no sleep” because they are already getting everything they need. The narrative seems to shift to something more romantic as the speaker asks for another person to “say [they’ll] never leave” and that when they wake at night, they “see [them] through [their] lucid eyes.” Whatever the speaker feels is missing in their life, they seem to get it from the people they surround themselves with when they should be sleeping.
- “Bailar” by Finesse and BNMP (feat. Girl Ultra)
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Under the collaboration between Finesse Records and BNMP, the album El Dorado was released, featuring several breakout Latin music artists. Finesse was founded in 2012 and is now a well-respected record label within the Latin music scene. BNMP is a Latin music group consisting of members Cruz Cafuné, ELLEGA.S, Chocolock and Indigo Jams. They formed in 2015 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain and disbanded in January of 2018. The acronym stands for Broke Niños Make Pesos (essentially Broke Boys Make Money). As a group, they released two albums before disbanding titled Pa’l Cocheand Pal Techo.
“Bailar” is an energetic, dancey song about wanting to be noticed. The lyrics essentially call out a third party for observing the speaker dance and asks them to join her. The girl wants this boy to come closer to her and make a move, letting him know that she’s interested and that she’s not “out of [his] league.” The speaker then transfers to the male perspective as he lets the girl know he likes what he sees on the dance floor. This upbeat track is both sensual and provocative as each side is going back and forth trying to raise the stakes and is ultimately leveling up the mutual attraction.
- “Best of Me” by JOHN.k
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JOHN.k is a pop/soul musician that is greatly influenced by the sounds of jazz music, which he fell in love with due to his grandfather, John Poulson. He takes care to come across as genuine and honest in his songs, both lyrically and rhythmically. He has also been influenced by the R&B genre, infusing his songs with a more melodic and soulful edge that gives them depth and style. Having grown up in the deep south, it is important for JOHN.k to branch out with his sound and be as inventive as possible.
“Best of Me” is about two people who are separated and who fate brings back together again. At the age of sixteen, the two had a young love that didn’t last because the girl moved away to another city and the speaker never thought they would see each other again. However, he says, “Now we’re sitting in the dark, I won’t fight this feeling.” He’s been given a second chance at lost love and all of the chemistry is still there. This time, he wants to make it work. Now that this person is back in his life, he feels like he can finally open up again. He tells her, “I don’t wanna lie no more. I don’t wanna hide no more,” because he wants to be vulnerable. He’s going to let her get the “best of” him because he knows that she’s someone he can trust completely.
- “When We Were Young” by Lost Kings and Norma Jean Martine
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Los Angeles-based D.J. duo, Robert Abisi and Nick Shanholtz, come together to form Lost Kings. The duo gained popularity after having remixed songs by many popular artists including Rihanna, Tori Kelly, Imagine Dragons and Halsey. Abisi comes from Boston while Shanholtz grew up in Baltimore. They ended up meeting through a mutual friend and began working on music together in 2014 on Abisi’s 25th birthday. Their name was inspired by their feeling of disorientation when they first moved to Los Angeles to begin their music career. They first started to be recognized after releasing a remix of Disclosure’s song “Latch.” For this track, Lost Kings collaborated with American singer and songwriter Norma Jean Martine. Martine has songwriting credits on several hit songs including one she co-wrote with Italian singer Giorgia titled “Quando Una Stella Muore” which became a top-ten hit on Italian charts.
This song begs for the nostalgia and simplicity of an earlier time, wanting to revert oneself to their childhood self. This concept is one that is easy to relate to as we all feel that escaping the stresses and difficulties of adult life is sometimes necessary. The song opens with the speaker believing that the life he is currently leading is a dream that he can just wake up from. He then asks to “go back when we were young and didn’t care if we messed up.” He wants to be able to enjoy his life without all of the problems and guilt that comes with making major life decisions. In the second verse, the speaker takes it back to the days of childhood whimsy and imagination as he likens “paper crowns” to those of “silver and gold” and “arms” to “feathers and hollow bones” that form wings. Back then, he could be whatever he wanted to be without restriction, but now he feels trapped by the constraints of reality.
Though many people still prefer artists to play instruments on stage and seek to hear more classic sounds, there is no denying that electronic aid to beats and instrumentals is here to stay. So should we embrace this new multi-modal experience or should we go back to the basics?