Newcomer Sam Bruno Puts In Her Song Of The Summer Bid With “Search Party”

Carl Williott | May 22, 2015 9:33 am

Let’s face it, this year’s Song of the Summer outlook is bleak. “Uptown Funk” peaked too early, “Trap Queen” is huge and still rising but it’s over a year old, Nicki MinajDavid Guetta, and Afrojack‘s “Hey Mama” would be a serviceable but forgettable choice and the reign of “See You Again” may finally be ending — not that anybody was rolling their windows down blasting that anyway. This means there’s still time for a summer savior to emerge, and in this unpredictable era, there’s no reason to count out a relative unknown like Sam Bruno and her dope new song “Search Party.”

Her relaxed delivery of globe-trotting lyrics about evading some vague authority figures gives the song an M.I.A. hip-pop lean, and the effervescent beat feels like a Purity Ring production that was sitting out in the sun too long. But in addition to being a killer pop track, “Search Party” has a few other things going for it. 1) It’s in the Paper Towns soundtrack, along with songs from Twin Shadow and Mikky Ekko, and as we know, we’re in the middle of a soundtrack hegemony. 2) Paper Towns is a teen movie starring Cara Delevigne, so if she or one of her famous friends throws a tweet behind this track, it’ll blast off. 3) As Stereogum’s Caitlin White points out, Bruno already seems to have scored a Kanye West co-sign: She had a hand in writing “The One” off Cruel Summer.

In my estimation, the only thing working against its mainstream summer anthem prospects is the lack of a drop-everything-and-sing-along chorus. But its breezy swagger could make up for that. Hear the track below and let us know what you think in the comments.

“Search Party” is the lead single off the Paper Towns soundtrack. The movie is in theaters July 24.

[via Stereogum]