Life is hard.
So, you need something to make it lighter, brighter and easier such as these five songs from artists who know we are living in pandemic hell but still no good reason why you can’t have some super upbeat, brilliantly danceable fun.
And fun you will have with songs that grab you by the short and curlies and demand you hit you own private COVID-safe dancefloor and forget everything is terrible …
… because when these gloriously good tracks are playing it is anything but.
A pandemic is generally not when people feel like dancing; in fact, in many places, due to virus transmissability you can’t dance at all.
But one listen to the heavily ’90s evocative beats of “Enough” by Manchester-based production duo Mark Richards & James Eliot known as Solardo, with vocals by British singer Rowetta, and you’ll be up and dancing in no time … in the comfort of your own home, of course.
As spirit lifting songs go, “Enough” is an incomparable gem.
Pulsing beats and an ever-escalating melody all come together with Rowetta’s emotionally resonant vocals, to deliver a scintillating piece of music which Out Now has described, rather rightly, as “successfully captur[ing] the essence of the illustrious 90s rave scene”.
“More Life” (feat. Tinie & L Devine) by Torren Foot
Not one to be left behind by the dancing in your loungeroom trend, Australian producer Torren Foot has teamed up with British artists Tinie and L Devine to create a track that sizzles with danceable energy.
Which is a good thing because life is so dark and depressing in many ways right now, and we’re so drained of any sense of get-up-and-go-ness that anything which peps us up is desperately needed.
This exuberantly upbeat song, which lives its lyrics with music that is effusively, spirit lifting upbeat, also comes with a very cool clip which shows one man finding his humdrum existence getting a much-needed shot of zing courtesy of a quite extraordinary energy drink.
It sends him off on a parkour-fueled dash into the rest of his now-energised life, and could just what we all need to do the same.
“Kill That Beat” by Kult Kyss
Another dancefloor banger this time from Melbourne-based Kult Kyss who deliver up in “Kill That Beat”, a song that is described by the duo as follows on Australia’s triple j unearthed site which champions new and emerging artists worth paying close attention to.
“Injecting listeners with a dose of euphoria and escapism, the new single provides much needed relief in the wake of 2020. Merging icy layered vocals with bouncing synths and organic percussion, ‘Kill That Beat’ encompasses the signature sound we’ve come to expect from vocalist Rromarin and producer Haxx.”
And, if you think this is the kind of track designed to take your mind off the horror show that is 2020 and now 2021, you’d be right.
“In the wake of such a challenging year we wanted to create a dose of something fun and cathartic; a track that makes you move, that frees the heart and mind. ‘Kill That Beat’ is tenacious, plucky, unwavering and upbeat. It is a song dedicated to perseverance and grit.”
It is the song for our times, a piece of fantastically escapist music that encourages you to lose yourself in something deliciously reality-ignoring dance and leave the doom and gloom for another day.
“Donuts” (feat. Yung Bae) by kenzie
She might have started out as a reality TV star on Dance Moms, but these days Kenzie Ziegler aka kenzie (all lowercase chill) is more knwon for her engaging style of pop.
Oh, and having almost 20 million followers on TikTok and 15 million on Instagram; but really, it’s the songs that are the thing, especially her fourth single via Arista Records, “Donuts” which comes with an easy-breezy air of kicked-out fun.
Featuring the talents of future funk producer Yung Bae (Dallas Cotton), “donuts”, which yes has garnered the 16-year-old endorsement for the artist from Dunkin Donuts, does have a point to it, besides an exhilarating funked-up laid back beat, which is all about the fickleness of the male sex when it comes to young love.
“‘It’s not based on any specific person,’ Ziegler admitted. ‘I feel like it’s just about boys that don’t really know what they want. I feel like boys and girls are really different. Girls fall super fast, and guys are sometimes players, and I feel like this song is just me being like, ‘What do you want?”” (Showboz Cheatsheet)
“Ice Cream” (feat. Nakamura Minami) by Anna Lunoe
Lordy, but this is a fun track!
Australian DJ, vocalist, songwriter and producer Anna Lunoe, now resident in Los Angeles, has teamed up with Japanese rapper Nakamura Minami for “Ice Cream” which is all kinds of technicolour, boppy, jaunty fun.
It comes, of course, with a vibrantly out there clip full of, what else, but dancing scoops of emoji-infused scoops of the cold stuff, proving that you can be ice cold and deliver a sizzling hot song which Purple Sneakers describes this way.
“Super sweet rave synths keep things uplifted while heaving, pounding drums ensure the track chugs along in ‘Ice Cream’. Minami’s vocals ring out over the fray while Lunoe remains firmly in control of the party, whipping the listener into a frenzied state with her relentless but inviting production delivering a jam-packed track with overflowing good vibes.”