No intro today! We’re straight to the takes!!
And though it’s ironic alongside this week’s email title, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy!
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Pharrell – Black Yacht Rock
Two of the week’s best records Matrix-dodged Spotify and streaming DSPs in favor of a little friction in where their albums live online.
While the two couldn't be more different – Pharrell, global superstar artist/producer, and Cindy Lee, the elusive project from ex-Women singer/guitarist Pat Flegel – both opted to create their own digital worlds around their new releases as opposed to entering the great frothing maw of streaming, flattened alongside the masses, even if you get plucked into a premium playlist. As producer/writer/friend of the Unskippables Nick Sylvester put it, “Spotify is music’s final resting place. It’s where music goes to retire.”
With both releases, the digital friction in accessing their music is oddly pleasant. For Pharrell’s Black Yacht Rock, including the mix metadata in the filenames of his download-only new music on a simple URL made peeking into the creative world of a mega star feel oddly thrilling, like the fun of getting a friend's demo over iMessage.
For Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, whose discography is already disjointed and difficult to find across streaming, YouTube, and Bandcamp, dropping two hours of hiss-laden sonic explorations in a single YouTube video feels like the digital equivalent to parsing through a long, fuzzy mixtape from a friend.
Pharrell's new album is markedly less wild than Cindy Lee's ghostly, reverbed psych-pop explorations, it's still nice seeing inside his world even if the end result sounds a bit like b-sides from Hyperspace, the Beck album he produced back in 2020.
More importantly, it's refreshing to spend time with music outside of streaming apps and in standalone spaces – definitely check out Cindy Lee's Geocities-hosted website – and I hope it's a sign of things to come in 2024 as artists break out of “best practices” and embrace a world where you don’t live and die by the playlist.
Greg Saunier – Grow Like A Plant
Deerhoof turned 30 this week?! Showing no sign of slowing down, Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier announced his debut solo LP We Sang, Therefore We Were, leading with appropriately Deerhoof-y lead single “Grow Like a Plant.” Considering how new generations of weirdos continue to borrow the ‘hoof’s moves, happy to hear Saunier stay restless.
Sofia D’Angelo – Jane Goodall
The B-side to the new single from NYC artist Sofia D’Angelo, “Jane Goodall” alternates between what feels like dark thoughts in the corner of a crowded room, to the joy of breaking out of your internal monologue at a house party. Built for singalongs in a living room dance party.
Sarah Farina & Tish Bailey – Let Me See Dat Work
This is a fun, funky track from Berlin producer Sarah Farina that came from her trying to find the voice on classic house songs she loved, leading her to Chicago singer and songwriter Tish Bailey. Bailey, heard but uncredited on classics like 1996’s “Freak Like Me,” lends her skills to three big, joyous workouts on the three-song Stay Soft EP with Farina. It’s a really cool collab story, but more importantly, the EP flips classic sounds and house moves into something fresh and exuberant.
throwback kkk kk kkkkkkk
Kool & The Gang – Kool & The Gang
A prime example of the album/song/band name triumvirate, I got back into this track via the guitar tutorial from Silk Sonic guitarist Ella Rae Finegold. Finegold’s Instagram is filled with extremely sick funk guitar tutorials, and I got hooked on trying to play along with the dense chicken scratch that opens the track. Give her a follow – and definitely blast this record during today’s early glimpse of NYC spring.