WK: Alt/Pop Mix #916
Thirty tracks for the first Friday of September 2016, the late-summer shoulder week. The standard September edition is the broader cross-genre survey; this rotation leans into the electro-pop and dance-rotation peaks of the year — warmer than the fall pulls, lighter than the high-summer editions, the kind of programming that the in-between week of early September specifically rewards.
The Chainsmokers anchor the EDM-pop crossover spine that had been defining the year’s mainstream radio for months. By September, “Closer” with Halsey had become the song you couldn’t escape — every Top 40 station was playing it every hour, the friend group had played it at three different events in two weeks, and the duo’s catalog was either the year’s greatest pop achievement or its greatest crime against music, depending on which friend you asked.
Fonkynson featuring Le Couleur “Caresse” opens. The Montreal-based French-pop duo Le Couleur had been on my discovery rotation since spring and the Fonkynson collaboration was the cut where their work crossed into the broader audience that their solo catalog hadn’t quite reached. The track is built around a bass-and-synth line that fits exactly the late-summer porch context — sounds great at low volume on a Bluetooth speaker, sounds better at higher volume in the kitchen.
ATR31 “Asuka” sits in the front quarter as the wildcard pull. The producer’s catalog is the kind of streaming-era discovery that the year was full of — single tracks released without album-cycle support, working through Spotify recommendation engines into specific listeners’ rotations without crossing over into the broader conversation. “Asuka” is one of those cuts.
The Chainsmokers with Halsey “Closer” is the structural anchor of the year’s pop-radio rotation. The song was inescapable from May 2016 through January 2017, the kind of streaming-era saturation that the pop-radio rotation hadn’t quite seen before. The placement is honoring how the cut actually lived in the rotation — not in the front quarter where I’d usually put a structural anchor, but woven into the middle where it could land naturally rather than dominating the opening.
DJ Snake with Justin Bieber “Let Me Love You” carries the slick-pop-radio anchor. Snake’s catalog has been navigating the line between EDM-festival production and pop-radio singles for years and “Let Me Love You” is the cut where he committed to the pop-radio side. The Bieber vocal is at the top of his comeback cycle from the previous year’s “Purpose,” and the collaboration is the kind of cut that should be cynical and somehow isn’t.
The Knocks “Kiss The Sky” is the dance-pop pull that the year’s rotation kept producing in volume. The NYC duo’s catalog has been quietly excellent for a decade and the streaming-era’s working-rotation has criminally undervalued them. “Kiss The Sky” is the cut where the duo’s house-pop production aesthetic clicks into its actual identity.
KDrew “Bullseye” is the deep-cut EDM placement that elevates the rotation past pop-radio orthodoxy. The producer’s catalog has been working in the trance-and-progressive-house space for years and his solo singles get released without the album-cycle support that bigger names get. The placement is the rotation’s small acknowledgment that the deeper-EDM rotation deserves the same rotation honor that the broader-audience cuts get.
Feder featuring Alex Aiono “Lordly” sits late in the rotation as the late-summer dance-pop crossover. Disciples “Daylight” closes the front block with the UK-house-revival pull that had been on the year’s deep-rotation through the fall. The British duo’s catalog is the kind of streaming-era discovery that the friend group’s rotation specifically rewards — house-revival production with vocal hooks, the kind of cut that works on a porch speaker at low volume and on a kitchen amp at high volume.
Thirty tracks lands at about ninety minutes. The right length for the standing Friday-evening rotation in the late-summer season. Built for the friend group’s standing tradition. The September edition locked in the year’s late-summer rotation before the fall editions could take over. The shoulder-season tape always punches above its weight.
The September shoulder-week tape always over-performed relative to its calendar position. Something about the late-summer-into-fall transition gave the rotation the kind of textural variety that the deeper-summer editions couldn’t quite manage. Built for the porch. Played long past the porch’s actual closing hour.
