By Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor
Tunesday is up and rolling again to bring you some fresh tunes for the start of the new semester. Check out the best songs of January so far in this dynamic list featuring Bad Bunny, Ethel Cain and no — you’re not tripping — Mac Miller.
“NUEVAYoL” by Bad Bunny (Jan. 5)
Bad Bunny’s first track is one of many hits in his new album “DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS” released at the beginning of the month. The song leads with a strong intro of an old-timey salsa tune sampled from El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico’s 1975 song “Un Verano en Nueva York.” The track soon transitions into the recognizable pace, drums and bass typical of the Puerto Rican artist.
If you need a banger to bump in your earbuds at the start of the semester, search no further than this catchy, clever new Bad Bunny release.
“Amber Waves” by Ethel Cain (Jan. 8)
This soothing track is my favorite off Ethel Cain’s Jan. 8 album, “Perverts.” If you don’t like dark and brooding, I can’t say I’d recommend listening to the rest of these songs, but I found “Amber Waves” to be a sweet solution to the heaviness of the majority of Cain’s latest music.
T his track is a whopping 11 minutes and 32 seconds of eerie, echoey guitar and Cain’s fragile, harmonic vocals. Here, the term “amber waves” doesn’t seem to refer so much to rolling hills of golden grain as sung in “America the Beautiful,” but more so embodies the feeling of being engulfed in the tawny ooze of the fossilized resin. What Cain feels so trapped in isn’t directly mentioned, but the sample at the start of the track suggests some kind of drug or addiction.
“5 Dollar Pony Rides” by Mac Miller (Jan. 9)
I had to do a double take when I saw this single suggested to me on Spotify considering Mac Miller has been dead for more than six years now. This mellow, funky, jazzy tune was initially recorded about a decade ago, along with an entire album Miller collaborated on with fellow musician Thundercat. The album went untouched and unreleased until now out of respect for Miller, according to Thundercat. However, even in death, Mac Miller sings on.
“5 Dollar Pony Rides” is a lighthearted serenade that had me singing along in no time. The rest of Miller and Thundercat’s album was released on Jan. 17 featuring artists SZA and Delusional Thomas (Miller’s alter ego) and will be paired with a short film screening in select theaters illustrating the new album.
