Is This EP of The Year?: Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3 by Tkay Maidza EP Review

Australian rapper and singer, Tkay Maidza, just released the final installment for her amazing Last Year Was Weird EP trilogy. As this is the final EP for the series, Tkay made sure to end off the trilogy with her best work yet. With the help from producer Dan Farber, Tkay Maidza takes us on a fun and pretty journey through the flower territory.

The first track off the EP, “Eden”, does a great job at not only setting the stage for the listener, but also transporting them into Tkay Maidza’s world. The flower territory if you will. The song title and lyrics refer to the Garden of Eden from the Bible. The Garden of Eden is a beautiful flower-filled paradise. In the lyrics, Tkay raps about how she is in a blessed position. She has garnered a lot of success and she doesn’t see herself stopping anytime soon. I love how the instrumental gives off a heavenly feel to the song. The song starts off with some lushes strings. It is very dreamy and atmospheric. I love how the instrumental slowly start building up during her verse then explodes with some cool trap production once she sings the chorus. The following track, “Onto Me”, has this amazing earworm chorus. It is sticky like honey. In this track, Tkay Maidza and UMI raps about two different scenarios. Tkay is in a rocky relationship with a guy. Although things aren’t perfect, she is willing to try and work it out with him. UMI does the opposite. Instead of giving the guy who wants her back another chance, she tells him to move on. I think having these two different perspectives on one track was a very creative idea. The beat is amazing. The plucky guitar and scattered minimal production are fantastic.

“So Cold” is a summery dance track. The production here is so groovy. You know this is a great dance track when it is able to make my fat ass move. It is almost impossible not to dance to this song. On this track, she raps about how the guy she was with ended up being soulless. After she learns this, Tkay drops him quickly. I love the different flow switch up during her verse. Once again the chorus is very catchy. Stylistically, “Syrup” is a total 180. The second single to this EP consists of minimal yet hard-hitting production. I love how drowning and overwhelming the production is. Tkay is absolutely rapping her ass off all over his beat. Her lyrics are braggadocious. The chorus is pretty clever. She even dropped the quotable of the year with this line, “I go hard, I’m a boner”. Spoken like a true poet. 

The next track, “Kim”, is not only another single, but it is another massive banger. Hard Tkay is thriving on this one. Her performance is absolutely wild. Especially with this hard-hitting, kind of industrial beat. The chaotic “bitch, I’m Kim” shouting is insane. Tkay’s verse is fire. I just love how confident she is. The same can be said about Yung Baby Tate’s performance. Her verse was very charismatic. I’m loving the Kim Possible references throughout the entire track. This track is absolutely amazing. “High Beams” is a nice transition point from hard to soft Tkay. This track is a lot calmer. It started with some angelic vocals. With that said, Tkay’s rapping is still vicious. There’s a lot going on within the production. There are these haunting vocals prevalent throughout the track. This is an amazing track that helps transition into the next track.

“Cashmere” is the third, and my favorite, single released before the EP. I love how dreamy and pretty the production is. Tkay’s vocals are delicate. She comes across as very vulnerable. She is talking about how she has been hurt so many times throughout this relationship that she is in. She knows that she can’t handle being treated poorly any longer, so she ends up leaving him. The outro to this song is one of my favorite moments on the EP. She really sounds relieved during this portion of the song. “Breathe” is a grand and emotional way to end off the EP. First of all, I love the call back from ”Eden”. During the intro, we hear vocal snippets of Tkay saying “Breathe”. This is the exact same way the final track starts off. Also similar to “Eden”, “Breathe” has a gorgeous and grand instrumental. The beat drop on this track really hits hard. It gives such an emotional impact that matches perfectly with Tkay’s lyrics. Tkay talks about how no one really believed in her. Although she did become successful, she did make regretful decisions on the way. In the end, Tkay is reminiscing about the good times and she doesn’t want to leave. She just wants to stay.

You can tell from the beginning this EP trilogy means a lot to Tkay. You can tell this is the case when you listen to the grand intro, the impressive performances, and the emotional last bow on the final track. Tkay Maidza and Dan Farber put a lot of love and energy into this project. Seeing how passionate they were on this EP, I can’t wait to see what they would do on a full-fledged album together. The sky’s the limit for these two.

Best Tracks of the Week 11/13/19

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This is our weekly best new tracks article. We cover mostly brand new songs but also some gems from the last few weeks. Follow our playlist if you want to follow on Spotify or if you hate my writing and just want the music:

‘Burning Accidents’ – Kate Davis

This snuck up behind me in public and put its dirty hands over my eyes and asked me to guess who it was, and I, a little pissed off, guessed it was an old work acquaintance or person I had one class with in high school who had no business touching my face. I was wrong, it ended up being an AWESOME and totally original album that I instantly fell in love with. It’s sad girl music (something UndercoverSadGirl would listen to) but with almost a bit of a pop punk flavor to it, like if you sprinkled some Wavves onto a sad girl music cake. Anyways this instantly became one of my favorite albums of the year and I highly recommend.

‘スイート Sweet’ – SebastiAn, Loota

Allow me to translate that Japanese for you since I happen to speak Japanese, it says… Sweet. Sui-to to be exact. You’re welcome. This whole album from the veteran French producer was awesome, some serious grooves and paint peeling synths.

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SebastiAn
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Loota

‘Sunrise’ – Alice Ivy, Cadence Weapon

It’s the kind of song you could put on loop and you’d never realize you;d been listening for an hour straight, a dreamy jam from Australian Alive Ivy and Canadian Cadence Weapon.

‘Sad Day’ – FKA Twigs

I already wrote a whole post about the album here: https://indiepong.com/2019/11/13/fka-twigs-album-so-good-might-literally-be-an-alien/

But TLDR it’s one of the best albums of the decade and a true accomplishment in every way, so if you can’t tell I liked it a lot. It somehow meets in the middle of harsh and beautifully raw/emotional, and we are here for it.

My two other favorites on the album are Home With You and Cellophane, which are both also tracks that sound like they couldn’t have possibly come from this planet. I love.

‘I Used To’ – imbi the girl, SUPEREGO

Alrighty roo well this one actually came out a few months ago, but I heard it and fell in love with it immediately and had to include. Yeah, like I’m going to listen to a song on repeat all week and not include it because of a fEw MoNtHs. Get over yourself. Plus, the album is coming out very soon and the people of Indie Pong nEeD 2 kNoW!

I am beside myself excited for this album —–ALERT! LIVE EDIT——– This album actually literally just came out 5 hours ago in Australia, but I can’t listen yet because it’s not out until tomorrow in America. Here is the link, let’s check it out together! Teamwork!

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‘DICTATOR’ – REI AMI

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This is badass. Rei Ami is badass. Not here to mess around. And then all of the sudden it’s warm and comforting. Really like this one from the Korean-American new force on the scene.

‘Fox’ – Dogleg

Dude this song goes so hard. Michigan band, I’m guessing extremely underrated because I can’t find much on them online. Can’t wait for more.

Also, I had never heard this but I guess a dogleg is something bends like a dogleg, not necessarily the literal leg of a dog. Does it matter? Well the next time you’re at autozone and one of your friends asks you to ‘hand them the dogleg’ do you want to look like a dumbass? That’s what I thought.

‘Another Day’ – #1 Dads

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How’d you like that Dogleg->#1 Dads transition, you like? Nice, thanks. This song is mad chill, like when you just had a crazy time camping with your friends (marshmallows, speakers, dance marathon, lots of coffee to stay awake for the dance marathon, pillow fight, etc.) and you need a chill song to put on repeat a few times on your drive back to reflect on the crazy night you just had. P.S. I don’t really go camping.

‘Back To Love’ – Vanessa Amorosi

Oh yeah, power ballad time. This is like the opposite of the above camping scenario, in this scenario you just quit your job and used credit cards to piece together the funds to buy a red Corvette convertible and you stand up while your best friend who also just did that (but it’s a little different, because she had been planning on leaving her job for a while and had been saving money for the occasion so didn’t have to get any credit cards) and you stand up and let your hair blow in the wind and scream as loud as you can because sometimes you have to just do something crazy.

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Re-enactment of above scenario in blue car

Banger.

‘Honeybird’ – Andras

Banger from Australian producer Andras. P.S. All of the last three artists are Australian. I guess all I listen to is Australian music. So be it, the Australians are making the best music! Album comes out in January 2020.

“(Wilson has previously released LPs under solo and shared aliases including Art Wilson, Wilson Tanner and Andras & Oscar.)” – https://www.factmag.com/2019/11/13/andras-joyful-beats-in-space/

Thus concludes another week of Australia Pong I mean Indie Pong, don’t forget to follow our playlist for automatic updates each week my friends!

Continue reading Best Tracks of the Week 11/13/19

Best Tracks of the Week 11/6/19

This is our weekly best new tracks article. We cover mostly brand new songs but also some gems from the last few weeks. Follow our playlist if you want to follow on Spotify or if you hate my writing and just want the music:

84 Palms – Ackerman

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Ackerman! I’ve been waiting for a long time for the EP from this Psychadelic Rock/Trip-pop Brooklyn band, and it finally dropped this week and did not disappoint. The only critique I have of this song is it has to be the hardest song to sing along to of all time. I did a little research, and asked my family and friends to listen to me covering this song and tell me if I’m using my head voice or falsetto. Haven’t gotten any responses yet, pretty sure something is wrong with my phone. There’s something about if you use too much data on Spotify it can mess with your signal. Keep you all posted.

Stainless – The Game/Anderson .Paak

You could have The Game rap over the sound of my broken dryer and I’d still be down. That’s a legend right there. I was watching this the other day so just for shits and gigs (timestamped to The Game):

Did you think Game was bout to stand around and take your shit Ashton? Hell no. He’s from Compton, wear the wrong colors be cautious and one phone call would have your body dumped in Marcy Ashton, think he gives a fuck about your concrete? Hell to the naw.

But I digress. Anderson Paak is as smooth as ever with an I can’t believe it’s not butter ass smooth ass hook that’s got me vibing like I’m popping bottles flying private to Cannes (when really I’m flying Spirit to Spokane to visit my grandparents).

Страшно – Shortparis

It has come to my attention that this song was actually released as a single late last year which slipped under the radar seeing as, you know, I don’t speak Russian. But I’m leaving it, because I’m a man of integrity and able to stand up to my own mistakes.

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Shortparis was formed in Saint Petersburg, which if you didn’t know like I did without having to look it up on Wikipedia is the second biggest city in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

Threat – Charly Bliss

In the sharpest transition in Indie Pong history, next comes the 90’s nostalgia power pop absolute JAM from four piece Brooklyn band Charly Bliss that feels like it came straight out of a 90s teen movie in the scene where we see the three popular girls for the first time as they strut down the halls of their brightly colored high school wearing sequined everything and one of them is eating a lollipop, an then our protagonist says something like “Samantha Dean is all that and a bag of chips” and her best friend who is the rational one says out loud “barf”. Right guys? Am I right?

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Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

This is what a perfect pop song sounds like.

And as a bonus, check out the live performance which is pretty amazing:

CRYBABY :*( – Dijon

When was the last time you had a good cry? I’ll tell you one of the most cathartic cries I ever had was watching The Color Purple on a plane, hot damn. Yes please I would like a glass of water.

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This song is sweet, it’s got some Blood Orange/Frank/TV On The Radio vibes and I’m here for it. This song feels like experiencing the moment of a breakup and then all of the self-growth on the journey to getting over it up to the moment of finally getting there. Love a good jam that not only slaps but is incredibly substantive and emotional as well.

New York Holiday – Josh Rouse

Merry Christmas y’all. Thought we could use these tis’ the season Christmas vibes to break up this hard hitting playlist of Russian electronic and power pop songs. Thanks to Josh Rouse for spreading holiday cheer from Nashville by way of Spain as we slide into the holiday season headfirst.

The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse by Josh Rouse

Shaking – Hazel English

The Australians are showing up all at once over these last few years like that scene in Endgame where all the Avengers come back:

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Out of the woodwork, and they are absolutely killing it. Mallrat, Jessica Mauboy, Hatchie, Jack River, etc. they are seriously shaping pop music. Australian born Hazel English is no exception, the kind of song you can listen to first thing in the morning to pump you up or right before you go you go to bed to mellow you out. Love it and can’t wait for the album.

No Other Fault – ZLUTZ

TRASHPUNK ELECTRONICA BAND FROM THE UK is how they explained it, couldn’t have said it better myself. Sometimes you just need some techno to close out the week. This is just awesome, fist pump your heart out.

P.S. I understand that there was a shortage of electro girl pop this week which is an Indie Pong staple but don’t fret, we’re on the hunt:

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