The collaboration station: Unlikely pairings who created unexpected hits

When musicians come together from various genres and create something that tastefully combines their talents, it’s arguably very impressive. Many have failed, and before I get too controversial, many have prevailed.

Collaborations and features are not only a gift to listeners, but also push an entirely new level of creativity in music. They break the barriers of stereotypical genre ‘guidelines’ and find innovative ways to blend their styles no matter how starkly they differ. Let’s begin with a collaboration that stays in their relative musical territory.

“Mystery Lady” - Masego and Don Toliver (2020)

While these two musicians are stylistically related, “Mystery Lady” lands itself as one of the best features in recent times because of how Masego and Don Toliver reposition the typical sounds of hip-hop and R&B. Masego provides an initial layer of light, jazzy vocals, while Don Toliver accents with his equally unique and elevated sound.

The vocal structure also deserves a round of applause; Masego and Toliver produce a beat and vocal rhythm that repeatedly climbs an intriguing scale. Each collection of verses begins at the bottom and ends at a higher pitch, and yet the repetitive ascent in tone is highly effective. Toliver sneaks in throughout the song to provide the same scale, but his sound tactfully adds a more modern and edgier touch to root the track in a more hip-hop fashion.

As for the instrumentation, it’s quite diverse and finds itself leaning more toward Masego’s specialties. Outside of the beat, listeners hear a variety of instruments such as synths, a delicate acoustic guitar, and what I find most alluring, the strum of a harp as the final seconds of the song play. The listener is bound to move to the tempo because of its addictive and magnetic flow. Together, Toliver and Masego bring dynamism to a track that you cannot help but groove to.

“Change” - Norah Jones (feat. Remi Wolf) (2024)

This next feature dips its toes into old and new musical territories with early 2000s legend, Norah Jones, and refreshing indie-pop artist, Remi Wolf. It doesn’t stop there either; this song was originally composed and performed by “Big Thief,” one of indie’s recent(ish) widely admired bands. That being said, this culmination of talented musicians was bound to produce something magical.

Jones opens the piece with her nostalgic crooning, immediately bringing back a familiar sound to listeners’ ears. She’s an obvious contrast from “Big Thief” lead singer Adrianne Lenker’s trembling and delicate sound, carrying her classic heavily caramelized drawn-out words and breathy vocals. Wolf’s voice arrives alone a minute in, and is easily recognizable with her raspy and crisp tones, lifting the piece with even more emotion, as well as providing it with supplemental depth.

When their voices eventually collide, they elegantly harmonize and drive home a whole new collection of feelings; a bittersweet melancholiness of what once was. This is a cover that makes the soul sing, despite its heartbreaking lyrics, and is a combination of two people no one believed would become such a stunning duo.

“Alien Love Call” - Turnstile, Blood Orange (2021)

Finally, we have “Alien Love Call” representing one of the more contradicting collaborations I’ve encountered in a while. The lyrical content and beat are relatively simplistic, but Blood Orange and Turnstile don’t necessarily collide in terms of style, leaving them to rely strongly on their vocals to unite the sounds on this track.

Brendan Yates, lead singer of the hardcore punk band Turnstile, begins the song by repeating the same verse in an aggressive delivery over a modest combination of a prominent drum beat, dreamy guitar, and an accenting synthesizer. Because Turnstile handed themselves over to a slow R&B overtone to bond with Blood Orange’s psychedelic indie-pop nature, Blood Orange doesn’t appear until halfway through the piece.

His role exists in the remainder of the song primarily repeating the same verses, except for a near-minute long speech as the ending. While this union is an acquired taste and makes for quite the odd match, the eccentricity of it outweighs the unconventionalism.

For more unforeseen musical partnerships that just make sense, listen to this playlist on Spotify.