Top Ten Tracks: Toro y Moi, Lava La Rue & Dora Jar 28/1/22

PinkPantheress is the name on everyone’s lips this year. Having won the BBC Sound of 2022 award she’s recruited the calvary for her remix tape. Our favourite comes from LSDXOXO.

The sounds of delayed saxophones provide an invitation to Walshy’s inner psyche on ‘Glass Case’. Equal parts warm and therapeutic, the release is as much a sign post to warmer months as it is an exercise in honesty for the Irish artist.

Four singles in and no misses as yet, Jeshi’s forthcoming album is shaping up to be special. ‘Another Cigarette’ captures the toxic cocktail of paranoia and denial that’s part and parcel of staying too long at an afters.

Lucid vocals, amapiano-inspired production and cinematic visuals – p-rallel’s first release of the year has hit the sweet spot.

E and Ahmed have proved a energetic partnership time and time again. However, on ‘SHALLOWS’ they switch up fast-faced production for nihilistic one-liners and lonely piano keys.

A funky ode to the postal service is not the first thing we expected this week, but we are here for it. Ahead of his seventh album MAHAL, Chaz Bear aka Toro y Moi shared ‘Postman’.

Raveena enlists Ramona Park rapper Vince Staples to explore love that traverses through different dimensions on ‘Secret’ ahead of her sophomore album Asha’s Awakening.

Opening up is hard. With that in mind, Dora Jar wrote ‘Lagoon’ from the perspective of a lonely mermaid to give herself space to ponder vulnerability. The character-driven story and surrealistic production sounds like it was delivered straight from another romantic universe.

Lava La Rue is diving headfirst into their dating experiences to showcase the nuances of LGBTQ+ relationships that are often absent in popular culture. In Lava’s own words,  in ‘Vest & Boxers’ they “reference all the little moments we joke about… ‘Vest & Boxers’ is what we would refer to as our ‘dyke uniform’ – we’d wear it under our baggy denim / oversized suits with the waist band showing as a little signal to all the other gays in the room”.

In opening a new chapter in his career, Denzel Curry has shelved his previous characters in his quest to build out a new world for his forthcoming album Melt My Eyez, See Your Future. The first single from the record ‘Walkin’ sees the Florida rapper amble through the desert as he reflects on life with the benefit of hindsight.