If you find yourself falling into a musical slump, how about looking abroad for the next little something to spice up your playlist?
1. Man With a Mission: “Dead End in Tokyo”
“Dead End in Tokyo” is a fun, pop-punk hit by Man With a Mission, a Japanese rock band that sings in English and performs exclusively in wolf masks. They claim to have been created in a lab by Jimi Hendrix himself and then frozen in the Arctic, only to emerge now due to global warming.
2. The Struts: “Could Have Been Me”
Front man Luke Spiller of British glamour-rock band The Struts is often compared to a young Freddie Mercury. Their motivational anthem, “Could Have Been Me,” was featured in the trailers for the 2015 Bradley Cooper movie, Burnt.
3. Kadie Elder: “First Time He Kissed a Boy”
Danish duo Kadie Elder reminds us with this soft, synth-pop hit that sometimes you need to get lost before you can find yourself.
4. Seventeen: “Don’t Wanna Cry”
Breaking hearts all across South Korea, K-pop group Seventeen channels their inner Chainsmokers for this electropop hit. And because half of the fun of Kpop is watching the dance moves, make sure to go check out the music video, too!
5. ONE OK ROCK feat. 5 Seconds of Summer: “Take What You Want” – feat. 5 Seconds of Summer
This one is a two-fer, as both of these bands are from out of the country. 5 Seconds of Summer is an Australian pop-punk band that gained fame after touring with One Direction. ONE OK ROCK is a Japanese rock band signed to American pop-punk label Fueled by Ramen, making them label-mates with the likes of Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots, and Paramore.
6. Takida: “Don’t Wait Up”
Takida is an alternative rock band from Sweden. They sing in English, and “Don’t Wait Up” is a dance-y track off their most recent album, A Perfect World (2016).
7. Fauve: “Blizzard”
Fauve (“big cat”) is an anonymous French music collective that represents the disillusioned youths of France. Even if you’re not a francophone, it’s hard to not appreciate their spoken word poetry and intricate musical arrangements.
8. Stromae: “tous les mêmes”
Stromae—or “maestro” in French inverse slang—hails from Belgium and sings in French. Though Stromae is male, he gets in touch with his feminine side in “tous les mêmes” (“All The Same”), singing about the woes of a woman in an unsatisfying relationship.
