The Hotness is your daily look at 3 new songs that are amazing, essential, and are sure to make you horny. Ok, the last part isn’t necessarily true. But if you don’t like at least one of these three songs, you need to check 1) Your testosterone levels 2) Your estrogen levels 3) Your hearing.
Million Young is the recording moniker of Florida-based solo artist Mike Diaz. I’m a bit late to the game with Million Young, and I’ve had his debut album, Replicants, for almost a year now; but I’d never given it the full attention that I’ve been able to in the past few weeks. As the old saying goes, I guess better than never, right? Fans of 80s synthpop, new wave and chillwave will be all over Million Young’s music; which sounds as if it’s been plucked off the soundtrack to Miami Vice or something – and I mean that in the best possible way. Equal parts relaxing and groovy, Replicants has gotten more ear time with me than any other album so far in 2012. Have a listen to the title track below.
*Million Young’s debut album, Replicants, is out now via Old Flame Records.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Young/143686317700
Million Young “Replicants”
Aaron Alexis is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and director. Aaron caught my ear last year when he released his beat-driven dark pop single, Heart.Box.Smasher. His music is all over the map in the best possible of ways; going from PM Dawn-style beautiful breathy pop one minute to mysterious acoustic trip hop the next – and much much more. The one thing that’s always a guarantee with Aaron’s music is that it’s going to be interesting, and the production will have you hitting the rewind button time and time again. With each spin of his songs, I always find myself discovering something new that I didn’t hear the time before. He understands how to craft beautiful music as well as anyone I’ve been listening to in the last few years and I really hope his career eventually takes off; talent like his is hard to come by. Out of every song Aaron’s released, my favorite track is one of the more recent ones, called Full Moon. Check it below and download it for F-R-E-E.
*Aaron Alexis’s music is available via his page on SoundCloud.
http://www.facebook.com/theaaronalexis
Aaron Alexis “Full Moon”
Mirrors is a Brighton-based quartet, comprised of James, Ally, Tate, and Joseph. Their sound brings it back to 80s synthpop and throws in some modern production tricks to give the sound a fresh makeover. You purists out there will probably roll your eyes and whine about how derivative their music is. But once you accept the fact that ALL music is derivative of something, hopefully you’ll be able to appreciate these guys for everything they bring to the table. Good songwriting is good songwriting and every one of the tracks off Mirrors’s criminally overlooked debut album, Lights And Offerings, features chugging beats, plenty of hooks and solid vocals in the styling of countless 80s alterna-heroes, including OMD, Tears For Fears, a lighter version of Depeche Mode and even maybe New Order. The band was compared to fellow 80s nostalgia whores, HURTS, when their album came out last year but, while I don’t think they nail their influences nearly as well as HURTS does, I still think their album is loads of fun. My current fave song is called Searching For The Wilderness; which you can listen to below.
*Mirrors’s debut album, Lights And Offerings, is out now via Skint Records.
http://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors
Mirrors “Searching The Wilderness”
Selebrities is a Brooklyn-based synth-y new wave trio signed to Cascine, and comprised of lead singer Maria Usbeck, Jer Robert Paulin and Max Peterson.
