OOPS! 50 of 2022: #35 – 31 / Hyper-Pop, An Indie Super Duo and Nashville

The OOPS! keeps coming and I keep listening to great music I missed. How could I have missed so much great music??!!! Anyway, let’s get talking about some amazing music!

35. Jesse Ware: Free Yourself

Disco has come back in 2022 with Lizzo, P!nk and Beyoncé all using aspects of disco on their records this year. Jesse Ware also got her disco flag waving in the air with her dance liberation track Free Yourself. This also follows a 2022 them of uplifting tracks and celebrating yourself after the long pandemic. Be sure to pump this track up and move.

34. Maren Morris: Circles Around This Town

Morris serves up a mix between Luncinda Williams country / rock storytelling and The Chicks edgy country vibe. She sings about driving around her small town to searching for a song, for knowledge and for meaning. No matter how long she drives the meaning she is searching for still alludes her and she is left driving in circles and unable to leave. It is rich storytelling that is both relatable and catchy.

33. Yaya Bey: Keisha

Bey is smooth, vulgar and sexy on her R&B track Keisha. In the song she is searching for why her lover is no longer interested in her and interested in someone else. The smooth synth and guitar gives the entire track a lush sexy quality, which underscores why her lover is missing out on not being with her and being with someone else. Like Bey says “Why don’t you like nice things?”

32. Angel Olsen ft. Sturgill Simpson: Big Time

The slide guitar, percussion and distant banjo paired with Olsen’s raspy country twang serves me Patsy Cline vibes. She is an excellent storyteller and her vocal draws you in like some pack a day country bar wailing siren. Her sad tale of love lost leads to the lesson that love is all she has to hold onto. Sturgill Simpson joining in on this track gives it an added dimension the album version lacks. Ultimately, they both sing about loving each other, so within this story of loss there is hope.

31. Yeule: Bites on my Neck

Much like Björk in the 1990s, Yeule inhabits the strange world of hyper-pop where you are assaulted by pounding bass, hyper syth and a barrage of post – effects on the vocal. Having said that, this wild ride through electro cotton candy is well worth it and exciting. Ultimately, the track is about the emotional pain one sustains within a relationship that’s sinking and bordering on toxic. You can argue that Yeule is more sonic performance than your typical pop song. All I can say is that it is well worth a listen.