Selective Listening | Klô Pelgag, Iñigo Quintero and MGMT

Every week, our music journalists add songs to the playlist of The Press on Spotify. Here are three recent titles that are in our selection.

Favorite colorKlô Pelgag, Joseph Mihalcean and Samuel Gougoux

Sometimes, musician friends get involved in spontaneous and free projects, the result of which is… spontaneous and free. This is what the singer-songwriter Klô Pelgag (of whom we were a little bored), Joseph Mihalcean – aka Joseph Marchand, distinguished guitarist and singer-songwriter in his spare time – and the drummer did and composer Samuel Gougoux. Last week they launched four songs created remotely, sending their parts to each other a bit like in an exquisite corpse, without them being reworked afterwards. The result is evanescent, almost volatile, and surprisingly rich given the context of creation. While the song Favorite color slowly insinuates itself into our brains, the observation is obvious: this combination of talents is a winner, whatever the way of achieving their ends.

Josée Lapointe, The Press

Iñigo Quintero, If Our Estas

Taylor Swift dominates the stage, but in her shadow, a young Spaniard – he is Galician, in fact – stands out: Iñigo Quintero. His song Si No Estas occupied the first position of the “global” chart of the Spotify platform at the beginning of November. Iñigo Quintero is only 21 years old and sings about love obsession with stripped-down music (a sparing piano and drums) leaving plenty of room for his voice imbued with skin-deep romanticism. Another success story due to Tik Tok.

Alexandre VigneaultThe Press

Mother NatureMGMT

They are back. Yes, yes, MGMT, the same duo who gave us the legendary song more than 15 years ago Kids (which, all these years later, is still just as catchy). The Americans Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser had not disappeared from the map since their first album, but the three albums they released subsequently did not make much of a splash. After another try in 2018, the group is preparing to present a fifth album in 2024 (which will include the first ever collaboration on an MGMT album, thanks to a song with Christine and the Queens), the first extract of which, Mother Nature, just published. The Oasis-style guitar leads the way, the voice is discreet, on a production that is more down to earth, less psychedelic than the duo’s first albums. Mother Nature is no less catchy, announcing very good things for the future.

Marissa Groguhé, The Press