A Playlist for Your Next Walk

[Celerity]

It’s time for a walk. Liven it up with a peppy playlist of an hour of new music, chosen for you by our music writer.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2021/02/a-playlist-for-your-next-walk/618162/



When asked to curate an hour of new music for Atlantic readers to listen to while walking, my mind immediately went to Sophie Xeon, the brilliant electronica producer who died at age 34 in January. Sophie, a pioneer of the zany new sound known as hyperpop, once told Rolling Stone that “all pop music should be about who can make the loudest, brightest thing.” That’s an appealing idea in this late-pandemic winter when life—not to mention the music business—feels like it’s in a holding pattern. Accordingly, I’ve been on the lookout for music that will go to extreme lengths in the name of pleasure. The songs below, all from the past year, are pep rallies that celebrate music’s ability to puppeteer emotion.

Bomba Estéreo, “Deja”
The tingling guitars of this ever-adventurous Colombian psychedelic band evoke a watercraft skimming through a bioluminescent sea and casting purple ripples.

Dawn Richard, “Bussifame”
Strut along to this explainer—from one of the most idiosyncratic figures in R&B—about the brilliance of New Orleans dance culture.

Dry Cleaning, “Scratchcard Lanyard”
The rising punk poet Florence Shaw imagines herself as “a woman in aviators firing a bazooka” while her band chugga-chugs along.

D0llywood1 featuring Acounta, “Human Nature”
For a rare couple of minutes, hyperpop’s glitchy chaos gets used not to vent angst, but to endorse chillaxing.

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