Post Malone featuring Justin Bieber “Deja Vu”

I was in a car in Los Angeles last week with my friend Daniel and he decided it was a good time for me to hear some Post Malone. For whatever reason, I just hadn’t listened to Post Malone. I had no preconceived notions or bias against the guy – all I knew was that he was a white rapper and fairly popular, and that I didn’t know of anyone who really cared about his music, so I didn’t feel compelled to seek it out. My immediate impression upon hearing a few tracks was that he sounded kinda like Future, but with more vulnerability in his voice.

Daniel hyped up “Deja Vu” before playing it for me, saying that it sounded like Stereolab, but with Justin Bieber as Laetitia Sadier. I am always wary of people saying things sound like Stereolab because publicists are always sending me things like “sounds like Stereolab!” when maybe, at most, there’s just a keyboard on it and not even a type of keyboard Tim Gane would own. (This is kinda weird thing for publicists to do since Stereolab is not actually a popular band and most writers under 35 are not familiar with their music.) But you know what? I totally get it. The central keyboard part in this song absolutely does sound like something that could’ve been on Dots and Loops, and Daniel is right that Bieber’s part would’ve sounded better he sang it in French. The rest of it is still much closer to stoned Future-esque rap, but it’s musically a lot more interesting and Post Malone’s voice is richer and more melancholy. Bieber sounds great too – unapologetically soft and feminine, and notably unguarded compared to other tracks where he’s trying hard to seem cool.

Buy it from Amazon.

Bobo Swae featuring Rae Sremmurd “Rowdy”

What a great example of making the most of two chords. “Rowdy” is in a state of musical stasis for nearly five minutes, but it still feels dynamic in the way these two bell tones seem to move slowly from left to right. Bobo Swae sounds drowsy on the beat, and he delivers his lines in a breathy, soft-spoken voice just shy of a full-on Ying Yang Twins “Wait” whisper. The members of Rae Sremmurd aren’t that much more energetic, but I like what they do here. Slim Jxmmi is a bit more aggressive, while Swae Lee’s voice is slow and stoned, but also playful in how he dodges some easy rhymes in favor of more flamboyant inflections. This is exactly what I like to hear in a posse track – a steady center supported verses that contrast nicely and complement each other.

Buy it from Amazon.

The Steoples “From the Otherside”

“From the Otherside” sounds as though it’s suspended mid-air, but not quite floating. This effect mostly comes from that old The Field trick of a stuttering ambient sample that sounds just like a skipping CD, but is somehow soothing rather than jarring. There’s no solid floor to this track – the keyboards and vocals are just as weightless, and the only thing holding it together is the relatively tight structure of the vocal melody, which incidentally sounds like “Eleanor Ribgy” reworked as an R&B slow jam. The overall effect is lovely and sexy, but also vaguely ghostly and unnerving. The singer’s lyrics are all about the present or what’s to come, but the music and the tone of his voice suggest it’s fading or already gone.

Buy it from Stones Throw.

Nick Hakim “Bet She Looks Like You”

Nick Hakim’s vocal style is firmly rooted in R&B, but his music is very much in the same aesthetic mode as contemporary festival-circuit psychedelia – Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Living, maybe a touch of MGMT. As it turns out, that’s a very natural formula, and a stoned vibe just makes the vocal performance seem more plaintive and nostalgic. The reverb on this track is so wet that it sounds like Hakim is singing in a public bathroom and the guitar notes sound like they’re literally dripping out of a leaky faucet. It’s a bit much, production-wise, but the sound is immediately ear-grabbing and the emotion in his voice feels very raw and immediate.

Buy it from Amazon.

Temple of the Dog “All Night Thing”

Grunge wasn’t a very sexy genre. This was somewhat by design, since the major artists involved were deliberately distancing themselves from the casual sexism and corny bro antics of the previous generation of mainstream hard rock acts. And besides that, these guys were all way more interested in singing about depression, trauma, grief, discontent with society, and general existential dread than anything else.

The major exception is Temple of the Dog’s “All Night Thing,” which stands as the sexiest and most romantic song in the grunge canon. It’s only grunge by default; there’s no guitars at all and it’s much closer in sound and sentiment to a Prince ballad than anything you’d reasonably associate with early ‘90s Seattle. Chris Cornell’s voice is the center of the song from the very start, as he opens with this perfectly vivid line – “she motioned to me that she wanted to leave” – that has him spinning off into various scenarios of what’s about to go down. The entire song is in a liminal space, and even if it’s fairly obvious that Cornell is about to hook up with this woman, he sings each line with such commitment that the anxiety and anticipation feels entirely authentic. The timbre of his voice is very post-metal, but the nuances of his performance comes closer to the hyper-emotive R&B of Otis Redding. This is part of what makes the song feel so romantic – it’s hard to imagine he’d be singing with this much feeling if he was just trying to get laid. “All Night Thing” sounds like the beginning of something special.

It’s worth nothing that “All Night Thing” is, in its low-key way, a song about consent. The entire drama of the song hinges on what she wants to do, and being totally OK with whatever she decides. You don’t get a lot of that these days.

Buy it from Amazon.

Marika Hackman “Boyfriend”

I’m a big fan of songs sung from the perspective of “the other woman/man” because they unavoidably mix sadism, delusion, vulnerability, and insecurity in interesting ways. There’s always some justification, and in this case it’s the implication that the “boyfriend” in question deserves to have his girlfriend secretly hook up with another woman because he’s sexist. Or, like, probably sexist. The odds are pretty good, right? But regardless of that, you can tell that it’s just a smokescreen for the envy, hurt, and frustration that’s really driving this song. The music mirrors the lyrics nicely – sexy and sly and funny on the surface, but coiled up and tense at the core. It’s a thin grin concealing grinding teeth.

Buy it from Amazon.

Cornelius “If You’re Here”

“If You’re Here” is slick and awkward at the same time, and deliberately so. It sounds like a slightly broken lounge or yacht rock tune, with these clean, gorgeous chords that fall between beats that stagger as though they’re buffering between clicks and hits. There’s a feeling of regret and disappointment in this music, as though you’ve planned something beautiful that hasn’t quite worked out, but the tone isn’t depressing. It’s more like — baby, we can work this out, let’s make the best of this, and besides it’s so beautiful here! I have no idea what he’s singing in Japanese, but I’ve got this whole story worked out in my mind.

Pre-order it from Amazon.

Perfume Genius “Just Like Love”

Sometimes it helps to know the backstory of a song. Here’s Mike Hadreas explaining the initial source of inspiration for “Just Like Love” in an interview with NPR:

“I saw this Facebook video of a boy, probably around seven, wearing a dress he had fashioned from a blanket, sashaying through his house while his mother applauded and cheered him on. He was so proud. It was such a beautiful thing, but bittersweet because I knew his spirit would change soon, that he’d become self-aware and ashamed, at some level. The song is about how divine he is, then and always — that he was born perfect.”

I didn’t need to know that to immediately click with the sound of this song, but knowing this has deepened my reaction to it quite a bit. The beautiful thing about this is how Hadreas seems to be willing himself into this boy’s effortless grace, trying to shed every hang-up and societal obstacle that’s kept him from being this pure in his adult life. And it’s not sad, or motivated by regret. The boy is a beacon, an inspiration. I think in channeling this beautiful moment into graceful, elegant music – for me, the most impressive composition of his career to date – Hadreas has become that as well.

Buy it from Amazon.

Chastity Belt “Caught In A Lie”

Chastity Belt’s first two records were more lo-fi than their forthcoming third album, and the primary casualty of this aesthetic choice was that Lydia Lund’s crisp, elegant lead guitar parts usually got crowded out in the mix. I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone has a cleaner sound and the mix doesn’t feel nearly as cramped and claustrophobic. They haven’t really changed much about how they play, but the implied negative space in the recording makes everything feel much more relaxed, and much closer to the lovely low-key melancholy of Real Estate than a standard punk band. This suits them very well, and the sad-but-pretty tone of the music serves as an interesting frame for the unpolished angst in Julia Shapiro’s voice. I love how the sound of “Caught In A Lie” is mostly quite drowsy, but Shapiro sounds alert but exhausted, like she hasn’t slept for days because this uncertain feeling has been burning a hole in her brain.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Fin “Pike”

I have listened to this closely several times over and I am not fully confident this woman is singing words throughout this song. Well, aside from when she says “no shit” a couple times. That’s totally clear. But regardless of what she may or may not be saying, the repetitive murmuring has a pleasingly hypnotic effect. Fin’s approach to layering beats, synths, and vocal parts is rather similar to that of Grimes, but trades off Claire Boucher’s typically bratty/perky tone for a more subdued and vaguely mystical vibe. “Pike” sounds like it could plausibly be music associated with some techno-utopian cult, or what might happen if you asked a computer program to create spiritual dance music. The track has the feeling of not quite being something or somewhere, but knowing that it must be something and somewhere.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Maggie Rogers “On + Off”

“On + Off” is built upon a network of interlocking rhythms, but somehow never feels particularly dense or even all that busy. The beats and clicks imply a shifting space around the lead vocal melody, which seems to hover just above the rhythm. Maggie Rogers’ voice is striking in the way it’s emotive in a very pop sort of way, but also a bit aloof and serene. She’s singing about finding a state of emotional stability with someone, and then yearning for it when they’re apart. The interesting thing to me is that she’s singing from that safe place, reporting live from the peaceful equilibrium. She’s already anticipating the yearning to come.

Buy it from Amazon.

PWR BTTM “Now Now”

“Now Now” is a self-directed pep talk that extends to anyone who hears it. It’s very simple and direct, with Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce singing lines the verses about wanting to punish themselves for being so hard on themselves, and choruses that resolve to do it NOW NOW NOW! Setting aside the irony of admonishing oneself for other self-admonishments, this is a lovely sentiment and written from the perspective of people who know damn well that deciding to change ingrained behaviors isn’t as easy as simply deciding to do so. The trick of this song is making the act of letting go sound so cathartic and fun, and emphasizing that the barriers you create for yourself as the main thing keeping you from the happy life you want. I love how playful Hopkins and Bruce sound on this, and the way their willingness to get silly and excited sends a message to the listener that it’s OK to let yourself be ridiculous and vulnerable. Most PWR BTTM songs are in some way about self-acceptance and breaking out of restrictive social norms, but this is the one that makes the most effort to pull the listener out of their hangups and into their better, more glamorous world.

Buy it from Amazon.

This is the fifth in the 1990s survey mix series, which will come out monthly in chronological order through this year. You can find the previous mixes here.

I think 1994 may be the best year for popular music ever, or at least the best year for music in my lifetime. The sheer density of all-time classic records that came out in 1994 is staggering, and even aside from all of those breakthroughs and blockbusters, there’s also the early phases of scenes and sub-genres like emo, IDM, and post-rock that would be more important later on in the decade. Even the shitty and schlocky music of 1994 is above average! It’s crazy, and the overall quality is all the more impressive when you consider the quantity of notable music from the year. I try to keep these surveys to 8 “discs,” but this one sprawls out to 10, and I still left some songs out for space. It is by far the longest survey I’ve ever compiled, and clocks in at a little under 22 hours. God help you if you try to listen to this all in one sitting.

As I said in the first ’90s survey post, I think of the music of the ’90s as being a trilogy in which each act ends in tragedy – the suicide of Kurt Cobain, the murders of Tupac and Biggie, and the chaos of Woodstock ’99. So with this in mind, 1994 is the end of the first act and the beginning of the second.

Thanks to Rob Sheffield, Eric Harvey, Sean T. Collins, Jen Appel, and especially Paul Cox for their valuable assistance in putting this set together.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy” / Nas “The World Is Yours” / Wu-Tang Clan “C.R.E.A.M.” / Craig Mack feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Rampage, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes “Flava In Ya Ear (Remix)” / Outkast “Git Up, Git Out” / Gravediggaz “Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” / Portishead “Sour Times” / Nine Inch Nails “March of the Pigs” / Hole “Violet” / Sonic Youth “Bull in the Heather” / Beastie Boys “Sabotage” / Beck “Loser” / Pavement “Cut Your Hair” / R.E.M. “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” / Pearl Jam “Not for You” / Dave Matthews Band “Ants Marching” / Tori Amos “Cornflake Girl” / Oasis “Live Forever” / Green Day “Basket Case” / Veruca Salt “Seether” / Sebadoh “Rebound” / Velocity Girl “Tripping Wires” / Liz Phair “Nashville” / Helium “XXX” / TLC “Creep” / R. Kelly “Bump N Grind” / Mary J. Blige “I’m Goin’ Down” / Da Brat “Funkdafied” / Stone Temple Pilots “Big Empty” / Weezer “Undone – The Sweater Song” / Nirvana “All Apologies (Unplugged)”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Blur “Girls & Boys” / Elastica “Connection” / Pulp “Do You Remember the First Time?” / Radiohead “My Iron Lung” / Toadies “Possum Kingdom” / Alice In Chains “No Excuses” / Soundgarden “The Day I Tried To Live” / Sunny Day Real Estate “The Blankets Were the Stairs” / Grant Lee Buffalo “Mockingbirds” / The Tragically Hip “Grace, Too” / Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fall Down” / The Jesus and Mary Chain featuring Hope Sandoval “Sometimes Always” / Lisa Loeb “Stay (I Missed You)” / The Cranberries “Ode to My Family” / Counting Crows “Round Here” / Madonna “Take A Bow” / Seal “Prayer for the Dying” / Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love to You” / Janet Jackson “Any Time, Any Place” / Tricky “Ponderosa” / Method Man “All I Need” / Fugees “Nappy Heads (Remix)” / Snoop Dogg “Gin and Juice” / A Tribe Called Quest “Oh My God” / Ween “Freedom of ’76” / Frank Black “Headache” / Stereolab “Ping Pong” / Air Miami “Airplane Rider” / Guided by Voices “I Am A Scientist”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Digable Planets “Dial 7 (Axioms of Creamy Spies)” / Jeru the Damaja “Come Clean” / Massive Attack “Karmacoma” / 20 Fingers “Short Dick Man” / Crystal Waters “100% Pure Love” / Salt N Pepa “Whatta Man” / Warren G “Regulate” / Bone Thugs N Harmony “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” / Jodeci “Cry for You” / Enigma “Return to Innocence” / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Red Right Hand” / The Smashing Pumpkins “Frail and Bedazzled” / Soul Asylum “Can’t Even Tell” / Sloan “Penpals” / Sugar “Your Favorite Thing” / Meat Puppets “Backwater” / The Black Crowes “Cursed Diamond” / Travis Tritt “Foolish Pride” / Tim McGraw “Don’t Take the Girl” / Morrissey “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get” / James “Say Something” / Luna “California (All the Way)” / Rollins Band “Liar” / Rage Against the Machine “Freedom” / Shellac “My Black Ass” / Girls Against Boys “Kill the Sexplayer” / Tool “Prison Sex” / Jeff Buckley “Last Goodbye”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do” / Des’ree “You Gotta Be” / Brand New Heavies “Dream On Dreamer” / Aaliyah “Back and Forth” / SWV “Anything” / The Roots “Distortion to Static” / 2Pac “Papa’z Song” / Common “I Used to Love H.E.R.” / Bonnie Raitt “Love Sneakin’ Up On You” / They Might Be Giants “Snail Shell” / Phish “Down with Disease” / G. Love and Special Sauce “Cold Beverage” / Lucas “Lucas with the Lid Off” / Maggie Estep “Hey Baby” / Ani DiFranco “Letter to a John” / Trisha Yearwood “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)” / Rusted Root “Send Me On My Way” / Blues Traveler “Run-Around” / The Mavericks “What A Crying Shame” / Ass Ponys “Little Bastard” / Alan Jackson “Summertime Blues” / The Juliana Hatfield Three “Spin the Bottle” / Superchunk “Like A Fool” / Live “Lightning Crashes” / Pink Floyd “High Hopes” / Slint “Glenn” / Group Home “Supa Star” / Gang Starr “Mass Appeal” / The Beatnuts “Props Over Here” / Artifacts featuring Busta Rhymes “C’mon Wit Da Git Down (Remix)” / DJ Shadow “What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)” / Tortoise “Ry Cooder”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Mariah Carey “All I Want for Christmas Is You” / Ace of Base “The Sign” / Selina “Amor Prohibido” / Toni Braxton “Breathe Again” / Faith Hill “Wild One” / Hootie and the Blowfish “Hold My Hand” / Freedy Johnston “”This Perfect World” / Garth Brooks “Callin’ Baton Rouge” / Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels” / Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You” / MC 900 Ft. Jesus “If I Only Had A Brain” / Pizzicato Five “Twiggy Vs. James Bond” / Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Bellbottoms” / Luscious Jackson “Citysong” / Scarface “I Seen A Man Die” / Redman “Rockafella” / Black Moon “I Got Cha Opin’ (Remix)” / 69 Boyz “Tootsee Roll” / Goldie “Inner City Life” / Everything But the Girl “Missing” / Saint Etienne “Like A Motorway” / Manic Street Preachers “Faster” / Helmet “Milquetoast” / The Loud Family “Marcia and Etrusca” / Underground Lovers “Dream It Down” / Built to Spill “Car” / Mary Chapin Carpenter “Shut Up and Kiss Me” / Tony Bennet “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” / John Michael Montgomery “I Swear” / Aphex Twin “#3”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

The Breeders “Saints (Head to Toe version)” / Archers of Loaf “Lowest Part Is Free” / Letters to Cleo “Here and Now” / Bush “Everything Zen” / The Jesus Lizard “Fly on the Wall” / L7 “Andres” / Bad Religion “Stranger Than Fiction” / Rancid “Salvation” / Lush “Hypocrite” / Jawbox “Savory” / Gin Blossoms “Allison Road” / Lisa Germano “Geek the Girl” / Codeine “Ides” / Polvo “Tragic Carpet Ride” / Brainiac “Sexual Frustration” / Drive Like Jehu “New Math” / East River Pipe “Ah, Dictaphone” / The Afghan Whigs “What Jail Is Like” / Dinosaur Jr “Feel the Pain” / Magnapop “Slowly, Slowly” / Madder Rose “Car Song” / Kathy McCarty “Rocket Ship” / Dump “Secret Blood” / Elliott Smith “Roman Candle” / The Magnetic Fields “Born On A Train” / Gastr del Sol “The C In Cake” / The Sea and Cake “Jacking the Ball” / Eric’s Trip “Girlfriend” / That Dog “Old Timer” / The Grifters “Felt-Tipped Over” / Urge Overkill “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” / Soul Coughing “Down to This” / Cake “Rock N Roll Lifestyle” / Silkworm “Couldn’t You Wait?” / Laika “Let Me Sleep” / Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Sleeps with Angels” / Victoria Williams “Crazy Mary”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

The Prodigy “Voodoo People” / Prong “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” / Pop Will Eat Itself “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” / My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult “Blue Buddha (Bomb Gang Girls Remix)” / Mouse on Mars “Uah” / Real McCoy “Another Night” / La Bouche “Sweet Dreams” / M People “Movin’ On Up” / Rozalla “I Love Music” / MK featuring Alana “Love Changes” / Orbital “Kein Trink Wasser” / Zhané “Groove Thang” / Brandy “I Wanna Be Down” / Xscape “Understanding” / Doop “Doop” / Juliet Roberts “I Want You” / CeCe Peniston “Hit By Love” / Jamiroquai “Space Cowboy” / Dink “Green Mind” / Marilyn Manson “Get Your Gunn” / Korn “Blind” / Angelfish “Suffocate Me” / Moonshake “Ghosts of Good Intention” / Disco Inferno “A Crash At Every Speed” / μ-Ziq “Twangle Frent” / Plastikman “Plastique (Video Mix)” / Autechre “Glitch” / Yanna “Santorini”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Ini Kamoze “Here Comes the Hotstepper” / The Coup “Fat Cats, Bigga Fish” / E-40 “Captain Save A Hoe” / Sam Sneed featuring Dr. Dre “U Better Recognize” / UGK “Front, Back, and Side to Side” / Prince Rahiem “Cop One, Smoke One” / Brand Nubian “Word Is Bond” / Keith Murray “The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World (Green-Eyed Remix)” / Pete Rock & CL Smooth “The Main Ingredient” / Organized Konfusion “Black Sunday” / De La Soul featuring A Tribe Called Quest “She Fe MC’s” / Mic Geronimo “Shit’s Real” / Saafir “Hype Shit” / Channel Live featuring KRS-One “Mad Izm” / Fu-Schnickens “Breakdown” / Coolio “Fantastic Voyage” / Queen Latifah “U.N.I.T.Y.” / 5th Ward Boyz “Once Again It’s On” / Lady of Rage “Afro Puffs” / Casual “We Got It Like That” / Lords of the Underground “Tic Toc” / MC Eiht “Goin’ Out Like Geez” / Future Sounds of London “Lifeforms” / Gescom “Sciew Spoc” / Underworld “Cowgirl” / Danielle Brisebois “What If God Fell From the Sky” / Heather Nova “Sugar” / Willie Nelson “December Day”

DOWNLOAD DISC 9

Todd Snider “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” / Sponge “Plowed” / Primal Scream “Rocks” / Sleeper “Delicious” / Echobelly “Insomniac” / Supergrass “Caught by the Fuzz” / The Auteurs “New French Girlfriend” / Silver Jews “Tide to the Oceans” / Gary Young “Plantman” / Bratmobile “The Real Janelle” / 7 Year Bitch “M.I.A.” / Indigo Girls “Least Complicated” / Cranes “Shining Road” / Love Spit Love “Am I Wrong” / Kristin Hersh “Your Ghost” / Team Dresch “Hand Grenade” / Bedhead “Powder” / Lambchop “Soaky in the Pooper” / Low “Lullaby” / Take That “Love Ain’t Here Anymore” / Wet Wet Wet “Love Is All Around” / Kylie Minogue “Confide In Me” / Keith Sweat “How Do You Like It” / The Alkaholiks “Mary Jane” / Ill Al Skratch “Where My Homiez?” / Prince “LetItGo” / Sinead O’Connor “Fire On Babylon” / Celine Dion “Think Twice” / Big Mountain “Baby, I Love Your Way” / John Mellencamp featuring Me’Shell NdegeOcello “Wild Night” / Widespread Panic “Can’t Get High” / Ida “Accidents”

DOWNLOAD DISC 10

Our Lady Peace “Starseed” / The Stone Roses “Love Spreads” / Suede “Stay Together” / Ash “Petrol” / Therapy? “Die Laughing” / NOFX “Leave It Alone” / The Offspring “Come Out and Play” / Rednex “Cotton Eye Joe” / Bruce Springsteen “The Streets of Philadelphia” / Insane Clown Posse “Chicken Huntin’” / The Divine Comedy “The Booklovers” / The Charlatans “Can’t Get Out of Bed” / The Fall “Hey! Student” / Pram “Life in the Clouds” / Palace Songs “Agnes, Queen of Sorrow” / Johnny Cash “Delia’s Gone” / Vince Gill “Tryin’ to Get Over You” / Iris DeMent “No Time to Cry” / Jawbreaker “Boxcar” / Thee Headcoatees “It’s Bad” / Latin Playboys “Chinese Surprize” / American Music Club “How Many Six Packs Does It Take To Screw In A Lightbulb” / Domino “Ghetto Jam” / Thug Life “Cradle to the Grave” / Ahmad Lewis “Back in the Day” / Brooks & Dunn “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind” / Ben Harper “The Three of Us” / Neal McCoy “Wink” / Shenandoah “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)” / Joe Diffie “Third Rock from the Sun” / Beaumont Hannant & Lida Husik “Now I’m Older, Silver Girl” / Luther Vandross & Mariah Carey “Endless Love” / All-4-One “I Swear” / Elton John “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

Superorganism “It’s All Good”

The Twitter bio for Superorganism proclaims “WE ARE DIY,” and yet they’re hooked up with Rough Trade, featured by Apple Music, and pushed heavily on what remains of the music blogosphere. The whole thing makes me nostalgic for the old mp3 blog days, right on down to the mid-00s twee peppiness of the track. I wouldn’t be surprised if nostalgia for that era – over ten years ago now, I am very old – is part of what inspired this group. “It’s All Good” is light and fun, but also a bit screwy and strange, so it’s riding this very appealing line between super accessible and genuinely alt. It’s undeniable, but I am obviously the mark for this sort of tune. I say that like I’m certain that this is some sort of scam, but I really don’t think so. I think this is sincere music. Just forgive me if I’m skeptical of the “WE ARE DIY” thing.

You can’t actually buy Superorganism’s music anywhere, but it’s streaming on all your major platforms. They’re DIY like that, y’know?

Annie Hardy “Want”

Annie Hardy’s music in Giant Drag was usually quite playful, and at times overtly silly in a bratty, stoner-ish sort of way. Her first solo record has a very different tone, a direct result of her experiencing some truly awful trauma – the death of her infant son, and a year later, the death of that son’s father. She sounds shell-shocked and anguished in this music, and her words are direct and plain spoken. On “Want” she wails “I want my baby back, what else can I do?,” and sometimes sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. The music, which falls somewhere in the space between the most ragged and desolate Neil Young stuff and Beck’s Sea Change aesthetic, feels both intimate and epic. There are moments of catharsis in this song, but it mostly sounds lost and crestfallen. It’s a song begging for answers or release or some kind of sign, but all it can offer in return is raw, undiluted grief.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Filthy Friends “Any Kind of Crowd”

Filthy Friends is essentially the touring version of R.E.M. minus Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, but with Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney on lead vocals and Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks on guitar. It sounds almost exactly like what you’d expect, but… even more so. “Any Kind of Crowd” sounds as though Corin specifically requested Peter Buck to go full-on Reckoning, and he graciously obliged. I’m pretty sure even a layperson could identify Buck’s playing on this song – it sounds like the platonic ideal of himself, like a perfect early ‘80s R.E.M. song that we all know but never actually existed. Tucker sounds fabulous in this context, and the jangling, easygoing vibe brings out out the warmth in her voice, and files down the sharper edges that get highlighted in Sleater-Kinney’s more jagged and urgent style. They’re so simpatico that this song, which would’ve felt light and summery no matter what, comes out feeling especially fun and relaxed.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Gorillaz featuring De La Soul “Momentz”

If you could go back in time and tell me as a teenager in the ‘90s that Damon Albarn from Blur would one day find even greater success as a respected rap producer, I never would have believed you. But here we are 20 years after “Song 2” and Albarn has been doing Gorillaz so long that it’s not even a novelty anymore. “Momentz” is his third collaboration with De La Soul, and it might be the best so far – obviously “Feel Good Inc” is a classic and “Superfast Jellyfish” has its surreal charms, but I love the way these guys sound rapping over the ecstatic pogo bounce of this track. The music is so hyper and supercharged that it sounds like it could break apart at any moment. It makes perfect sense that the De La guys would hear this track and decided it had to express a “carpe diem!” sentiment. It’s basically “1999” all over again: “We could all die any day, but before I’ll let that happen I’ll dance my life away.” The thrill in this song is in how close it comes to crashing and burning, and hearing these guys rap as if they’re trying to make the thing go even faster and harder.

Buy it from Amazon.

Depeche Mode “So Much Love”

It is fun to think about how at one point in their career Depeche Mode could be dismissed as a faddish thing for teenagers. They were so far ahead of the curve of mainstream music culture that even their corniest early stuff now sounds like it could be contemporary, if sorta deliberately retro ‘80s. The band essentially found its final form in the early ‘90s and have been in something of a creative holding pattern ever since – some elements shift, the technology advances, but a Depeche Mode record sounds like Depeche Mode. And this time around, Depeche Mode sounds very current.

It certainly helps that Spirit is largely a record about political anxieties and disillusionment, and the harsh electronic ambience of their default sound feels very right in this dreadful historical moment. Some of Martin Gore’s more obviously political lyrics come off a bit clumsy, but when he merges a defiant socially conscious message with classic Depeche Mode themes of guilt, compulsion, and desire on a song like “So Much Love,” it’s rather compelling. I like the way this takes the self-involvement of their usual music and says to the audience “yeah, this is me, this is the damage I’m dealing with, but that doesn’t get in the way of feeling empathy and love for others. So what’s your excuse?”

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Casey Dienel “High Times”

“High Times” is a story about a woman having a one night stand with a hot dude at a hotel in Palm Springs, and it plays out lyrically and musically like a hazy memory of something you’re vaguely surprised actually happened. Casey Dienel sounds bemused throughout, and describes the encounter with a droll, critical tone. “He said some things that seemed borderline basic, but when he took off his shirt, I acquit him,” she sings, striking a perfect tonal balance of humor and sexiness. It’s kinda Prince-esque that way; this isn’t far off from the sort of witty erotic fantasies he shared in a lot of his best ‘80s material. The difference is that while Prince always presented himself as an intensely desirable person, the subtext of “High Times” is that the character is slightly confused that she’s hooking up with this tan, clean cut, all-American hunk, but is going along with it because, hey, why not? She compares the situation to splurging on cake after a juice cleanse, and it’s hard not to root for her as you listen: Get that cake, girl!

The most immediately striking musical element of “High Times” is the bent, sped-up string part that opens the track and loops throughout. It sets the tone for the piece very nicely – graceful and confident, but also a bit warped. That feeling gets twisted at the song’s climax, when Dienel’s character hands the dude her key and invites him back to her room. At this point, the bass shifts so it feels as though it’s moving against the tide of the song, and the cathartic vocal hook – “in 103, in 103, if you wanna get lost find me in 103” – sounds slurred and psychedelic. The reality of the song changes in this moment, snapping out of a sunny fantasy and into a scene that’s more grounded in physical reality but distorted by lust and booze. It’s “this is really happening!” and “what the fuck is happening?” at the same time.

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2 Chainz featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz & Jhené Aiko “It’s A Vibe”

I can’t say I’ve given a lot of thought to 2 Chainz over the years despite liking a lot of songs he’s on, but I’m still vaguely surprised he’s so great on a genuinely sexy slow jam like this. But I guess any talented rapper would rise to the occasion of a track as gorgeous and elegant as this G Koop and Murda production. 2 Chainz’s lyrics are blunt and occasionally sorta clumsy, but his delivery is smooth and the ample negative space in the music and lets your ears linger on the slurred curves of his Atlanta accent. I spend more time focusing on the guitar, though, and the way the chords hover over a beat that’s two parts reggae, one part trap. The vibe is incredibly strong, so I’m not shocked that 2 Chainz and company heard the music and decided the best thing to do would be to nod their heads and mutter “it’s a vibe” over and over.

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Kendrick Lamar “Fear.”

The flashiest bits Kendrick Lamar’s new album Damn. are confrontational and menacing, but in context, that’s all a defensive front. As bold as he can get, Kendrick is introverted and introspective above all other things, and the majority of these songs are paranoid ruminations on a world where even a best case scenario like becoming one of the world’s most popular rappers feels like the losing end of a game that’s been rigged against you from the start. Lamar borrows the narrative structure of Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in “Fear.” to reflect on his anxieties at three stages of his life – childhood, teenage, young adult. The teen sequence is the most bleak, with him running down a litany of ways he’ll probably die in the near future, every one of them very plausible and entirely senseless. Alchemist’s track is sparse and melancholy, and subtly moves between clipped minimalism and cinematic melodrama like RZA at his mid-‘90s peak. The music feels like a depressive loop, and emphasizes Kendrick’s words about feeling trapped and isolated. His vocal tone shifts with each age jump – defiant as a child, dejected as a teen, frustrated as a man – but the track implies a world that remains static as he keeps changing.

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