Rated by The Face: a weekly playlist
A brand new ballad bop from Billie Eilish, smooth vocals from Jorja Smith and the latest from poetic punk band Fontaines D.C.
We’re in a crisis, but great music keeps coming out.
To keep up with it all, check out this playlist which we lovingly update every week. Read about last week’s additions here.
Octavian – Rari ft. Future
The lead track from Octavian’s forthcoming album. Getting Future on board is an impressive look, but it’s the elastic synth sound – sampled from AYYA’s track Second Mistake – that really gets stuck in your head.
Fontaines D.C. – Televised Mind
Probably the highlight on the poetic punk band’s new album A Hero’s Death, frontman Grian Chatten told Steve Lamacq that A Televised Mind is about “the echo chamber, and how personality gets stripped away by surrounding approval”.
Flo Milli – Weak
Following a couple of TikTok-boosted hits, Flo Milli has dropped her debut mixtape Ho, Why Is You Here? On Weak, the Alabama rapper laments the low standard of the guys who are always flooding her DMs.
Jorja Smith – By Any Means
This loosie from Jorja will appear on a forthcoming Roc Nation compilation, Reprise, which is raising money to support civil rights, victims of police brutality and hate crimes. “The inspiration behind By Any Means really came from going to the Black Lives Matter protest and leaving thinking, what can I do to keep this conversation going?” Smith said in the press notes. “It’s not just a post on social media, it’s life.”
Billie Eilish – My Future
Billie Eilish’s 2019 album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is remembered for its macabre take on Gen Z anxiety and its dark, Yeezus-influenced production, but this new track is more in line with her James Bond tune No Time to Die – a gentle ballad which oozes a traditional sense of classiness.
