Hype Song of the Month // Beyoné All Night

Beyoncé proves she is still ruling the pop world with the release of her fourth standalone video for her track All Night, taken off her stunning masterpiece Lemonade. The Diplo-produced ballad isn’t a breathtakingly beautiful song alone, it is also the centerpiece that holds Queen Bey’s groundbreaking visual LP together. While much of Lemonade seems to speak to a broader experience of Afro-American women, All Night appears to be all about Beyoncé and Jay-Z, delivering heartwarming home video footage of them hanging out on the streets, dancing, kissing, and spending family time with Blue Ivy. Without All Night’s weary words of reconciliation, Lemonade would rather be a tale of love lost, anger and mistrust instead of redemption. Musically, All Night builds around a bare skeleton of reggae guitars and slinky funk bass, evolving into a warm, sidling love song buoyed by Outkast-sampling horns and Beyoncé’s soulful vocals. All Night provides a peaceful coda to a noteworthy year and serves as a perfect reminder of Bey’s top spot on year-end lists.

Hype Songs of the Month // LIV Dream Awake & Wings of Love

The Swedish word liv, pronounced as in leave, translates as life, serves as denotation for Lykke Li’s recent band project which she formed earlier this year. LIV assembles some of Lykke’s fellow Swedes — Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt and Pontus Winnberg, Peter Bjorn & John’s Björn Yttling beside American producer Jeff Bhasker, whose past collaborations include Kanye West, fun., and Mark Ronson.

Although LIV have unveiled only two songs so far, the shimmering folk-pop yearner Wings of Love and the six minute synth-driven gem Dream Awake, these are assuredly part of something bigger. Musically, the two beautiful songs offer a welcome opportunity to ring in a tough year’s end with a true act of contemplation. Naturalistic, back-to-roots style, along with a fair dose of quasi-hippie mysticism and Fleedwood Mac influence, Li’s signature vocals come with trademark ease, yet with considerable pop craft.

Li conceives LIV as an art installation and a sort of social commentary, a reflection on a dismissed generation. “Love is the only thing that will remain after we’re gone. Even when you die the only thing you can ask yourself is, ‘Did I love enough?'” Lykke stated in a Pitchfork interview quite recently.