Björkin' hard or hardly Björkin'?
Nosaj Thing! Shygirl! Mo Troper! Sans Soucis! L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation!
Well, last week we went from a Björk drought to a Björk flood.
Björk has been laying relatively low since 2017’s Utopia, but over the last week not only did she announce a new album Fossora, but also dropped the first single “Atopos” *AND* a podcast about each of her albums.
Weird MailChimp brand integration aside, the podcast has been the real treat in my opinion - other than this very cool video about how she made Homogenic, I’ve found limited documentation of Björk’s inspiration and process. The first episode on Debut especially was revealing around how leaving her band and moving to London influenced her first solo foray. Her decision to go solo in the face of the “vulgar” nature of pop stardom is particularly fun to hear her work through.
Her new single is good - but the podcasts so far are great. Check them out!
And now, on to this week’s tracks - as always, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
UNSKIPPABLES #52
Shygirl - Nike
Shygirl and producer Mura Masa masterfully tap into the elusive Neptunes 2000s pocket on Shygirl’s latest single. The lunchtable drums, an elastic sense of space, the almost-out-of-tune high chorus part…it’s all spot on. Shygirl’s chorus vocals slowly shift as the song evolves, like she’s slowly morphing into an alien…an extremely horny alien.
Nosaj Thing feat. Julianna Barwick - Blue Hour
Maybe it’s the rain in NYC, but something about this lurching, devotional ballad really hit for me. Taken from Nosaj Thing’s upcoming fifth album, “Blue Hour” buries the drums in favor of crystalline reverbs, pads and viola underneath Barwick’s ethereal melody.
Mo Troper - When I Fall Into Her Arms
Like Robert Pollard on helium, “MTV” feels incredibly familiar while throwing a breathtaking number of hooks at you under an inconspicuous layer of hiss. There’s a bit of Belle and Sebastian, a bit of GBV, a bit of Big Star, a bit of McCartney I - if power pop and twee bops are your thing, MTV is a pure dose.
Sans Soucis - All Over This Party
Some singers would be fine letting a beat with this much swing and swagger do the heavy lifting, but Sans Soucis uses a multilayered chorus to elevate the song’s breezy confidence into something anthemic. The whole song has the casual fun of singing to yourself a little too loud in the car, or having the perfect number of drinks right as the needle drops on your favorite song.
L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation feat. Lulu - Cybernetic Super Lover
The final track on a deeply weird, noisy synth W.A.R. In The Digital Realm, “Cybernetic Super Lover” ditches the distortion and destruction of the album in favor of pure John Maus/Annie post-apocalypse bubblegum. The whole album is a trip, but this song is pure house party dance floor fodder. Throw away your red cup, do the worm, who cares!
THROWBACK CORNER
Blue Jeans - Moon Mist
Billed as “Spokane’s first rock’n’roll outfit,” Numero Group reissued these PNW surf-rockers’ tunes in 2017 - and it turns out, Washington is a great place to find the cross-section between Dick Dale and Ennio Morricone. “Moon Mist” especially benefits from a wordless arrangement, leaning on saxophone and operatic vocals from a local 12 year-old singing contest winner Candy Schumaker.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!
title of this one alone is brilliant