Leo's Playlist Playground: Heavy Rotation
I'm Leo - I play bass in a bunch of loud bands, I like to BBQ, and I'm the Finance Manager at the Regina Folk Festival.
A small selection of songs from recently released albums that I’ve been playing pretty much non-stop for 8 months.
“Musa” - Witch Prophet
The lead single off of Witch Prophet’s 2020 Polaris Prize Short Listed DNA Activation feels like the perfect invitation to listen. Remarkably, when I’m not sure what I’m in the mood to listen to, I put on this album and it just fits perfectly every time. Lyric: Where do we go from here / When the whole world is falling / Through darkness
“Confessions” - Sudan Archives
Sudan Archives makes incredibly layered music that defies convention and lays across many genres. Built around the call and response of violin and voice, it sounds like confident growth. Exceptional production rounds out a tune that is, in my little opinion, a total bop. Lyric: I washed away my fears / and trusted my own ears
“Braids” - Anachnid
I love everything about this song: The smooth electro-pop vibe, the exact right amount of saxophone, the resistance of colonial violence at its core. I’ve listened to this song and the entire album an embarrassing amount throughout the pandemic. Lyric: Don’t let them cut your hair / and yes they might stop and stare
“It’s Okay” - The Pack A.D.
The Pack A.D. is one of my favourite bands, and this is a tune that highlights what they do best: massive unpretentious garage rock sound that makes you forget it’s coming from two people. It’s Okay places all of its elements right where my ears like them - Gimme that grungey garage rock any day of the week and I’ll return you one happy Leo. Lyric: Nothing wrong, just not on today / Not for me to decide anyway
“Describe” - Perfume Genius
Perfume Genius crafts devastatingly gorgeous collections of sounds that consistently pull me in two different directions. Describe is a meditation on emptiness, an attempt to remember - There is satisfaction, and there is hollowness. Flawless vocals sit atop a fuzzed out barrage of instrumentation, resolving in a haunting drone to refocus the mind. Lyric: His love, it felt like ribbons / an echo in the canyon