29th October, 2024
Don’t get me wrong, Spotify is great. The algorithm is great at predicting what I want to hear while I’m trying to complete some mundane task in a slightly less boring way. You can find nearly any artist and nearly any track there; however, some songs slip through the cracks.
SoundCloud is a tad more lenient with the content they’ll allow you to upload. You’ll still get in trouble if you straight up steal music, but you can put remixes up. A lot of artists start on SoundCloud, for example, Billie Eilish. I admittedly don’t use SoundCloud nearly as much as I use Spotify, but the tracks I use SoundCloud for are ones that deserve my loyalty. You know it’s a tune if I go through all the labour and effort of switching apps.
So anyway, here’s a list of songs I listen to on SoundCloud!
We All Try by Frank Ocean
I originally jumped on SoundCloud because I got into the grand and widespread work of Frank Ocean. Unfortunately, Spotify only has two of his albums, Blonde and Channel Orange. Those are great for people who’ve just found Frank’s music – I know it took me a year or so to feel like I listened to Blonde in enough detail to move on. Frank Ocean has two more incredible albums that you can find on SoundCloud. There’s his first album, ‘Nostalgia, Ultra‘ and ‘Endless‘. Although it’s his first lot of released music, there are some absolute gems on Nostalgia Ultra. This one is my favourite.
Blonded Currents
This is the most pretentious indie kid creation possible, but I swear that I nearly passed away on the bus when SoundCloud recommended it to me. It’s all of Frank Ocean’s Blonde Album mixed with Tame Impala’s Currents album. It runs for about half an hour, but it’s mixed so well that I’ll leave it playing while I’m doing random things, and I’m always vibing when it gets to Ivy mixed with The Less I Know The Better.
The Less Circles The Better
While we’re on the topic of Tame Impala Remixes, this is one of my favourites. I don’t particularly like Circles, but I remember this mix exists now and then, and I jump on SoundCloud to listen.
Oceans x Fine Line
It’s not hard to find the good mash-ups on SoundCloud; you just find the ones with the most comments. This one is great to sleep to.
The Finest Line
This is a track off of the mashup album version of Harry Styles‘ Fine Line album, entitled ‘The Finest Line’. You might have heard some of the mixes on TikTok last year, and for a few weeks, you were able to get it on Spotify because the maker disguised it as a podcast. You can, of course, still find it on SoundCloud.
Redbone x Somebody That I Used to Know
Redbone and Somebody That I Used to Know are both timeless classics, in my opinion. It’s not the best remix in the world, but maybe that’s because I’ve listened to it so much. I was so very excited when I first found it, though.
Borderline by Gallant
When I originally decided to put together this list, it would include a few more regular, non-remixed songs that you couldn’t get on Spotify. However, most of the songs I thought you could only find on SoundCloud have since been uploaded to Spotify. This one used to be on Spotify; it’s one of my favourite songs ever, but Gallant got signed to a label, and I presume he had to take all his old music down.
Xanny by Billie Eilish in 8D
I used to have problems sleeping, and one thing I found that helps is 8D audio. It’s just the original song, but someone mixes it to isolate sections of the song to be louder or softer in your earphones. You can follow the sound around in your head, and it’s basically meditation. This one is one of my favourites because Billie lays heaps different sounds in her songs, so it’s interesting.
SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK by Joji in 8D
This is also one of my favourite 8D audios.
Season 2 Episode 3 by Glass Animals (slow+Reverb)
I went through a slowed and reverb phase, as you do before, you realise most of them are trash. But I think this one is okay! And, of course, you can find just about any song slowed and reverbed on SoundCloud.
