Last week all of Twitter quickly finished their drinks and ran back to the dancefloor as we got back-to-back announcements, and then listens, to the new dance music projects from Drake and Beyoncé. Two of the world’s biggest stars’ calculated sonic shifts and narratives aligned briefly, and ultimately showed a huge difference between how the two artists would take on a dance music-focused project.
For Drake, dance music is about the algorithm; for Beyoncé, it’s a mood board.
Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind is, at best and at worst, a tapas-style menu of “Passionfruit”-adjacent tropical dance music and bumping house, from the lithe “Falling Back” to “Massive,” the most explicit house track, complete with a mid-song piano drop. It’s a smart release during a summer without any discernible song of the summer, with fans hungry for party-friendly lite-dance pop. What’s most striking about the record, however is how demo-like the songs are, how much Drake’s verses sound improvisatory and dashed off throughout the record. There aren’t many big punchlines, and nothing on the album sounds like a radio single. Keeping in mind how calculating Drake has been his whole career, from sound shifts to knowing he’s a meme, the “vibes first” writing must be intentional - these are almost designed to sit in the background. Honestly, Nevermind might best be understood as a set of algorithm-focused tracks built to find summer ~mood~ playlists and rooftop party DJ sets, where Drake is the brand but the vibes and lite nostalgia are as important as his singing. There’s empathy for listeners if you squint - what is this record if not a Minimum Viable Aubrey for your personal soundtrack to the summer?
Beyoncé, on the other hand, exists outside the algorithm, outside the playlist: she commands attention like almost no other living artist, and her use of classic house (Robin S. “Show Me Love”) feels less like a utilitarian play and more like a costume set to announce An Era, complete with the Vogue shoot to match. Her new single “Break My Soul” has all the flavor of dance music with none of the structure, none of the release, and no sense of body movement: the Big Freedia samples and Korg M1 bassline are window dressing to announce the brand pivot. Unlike the lithe, lightly doughy tracks of Honestly, Nevermind, “Break My Soul” is a creative brief turned to music, lyrically trivial and sonically typecast. Longtime collaborators The-Dream and Tricky Stewart handle production, meaning that even if the album’s scope is a departure, Bey still has the team that wrote “Single Ladies” on top. However, it’s clear that neither hitmaker is in their bag on the dancefloor, as the song’s sagging backbeat does a disservice to the planet’s greatest living performer, who is as charming, potent, and virtuosic as ever.
Listening to the projects back-to-back, it’s revealing hearing the two megastars use dance music so differently: while Drake seems genuinely interested in making dance music for people to dance to, “Break My Soul” feels singularly focused on telling the story of Beyoncé’s creative aim, even if it’s at the cost of making something that could sit alongside the classics it references.
And now, the week’s Good Links:
The Smoking Man is NOT in this one - Tom Breihan uses his Number Ones column to unload his hatred of the Barenaked Ladies and “Bowling Shirt” rock
John Cougar Chili Dog - this Tik Tok asks the question, what if “Jack and Diane” just repeated its one lyric about suckin’ on chili dogs
Get Loose - friend of the newsletter Joe Tirabassi’s funky summer Deep Fried mix is out today
And now, on to this week’s tracks - as always, you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
UNSKIPPABLES #41
Wombo - Snakey
Fire Talk Records continue their 2022 hot hand with the latest from Louisville’s Wombo, which takes the no-wave DNA of Enon and Erase Errata and imbues it with nonchalant, slacker charm. The song’s pugilistic arrangement is paired with a simple double-tracked vocal from singer Sydney Chadwick, the simple refrain providing a critical counterpoint to the Touch and Go-esque groove.
Drake - Sticky
I’ve said enough about Drake’s album above, but this is the album’s horny, sweaty heart. If you have any friends who are recently single for the summer…you’re going to hear this song a lot.
Thee Sacred Souls - Easier Said Than Done
This is the latest single from the Oakland soul outfit, taken from their upcoming self-titled Daptone LP produced by none other than label head Gabriel Roth, who penned the greatest “how to make funk music” primer of all time. “Easier Said Than Done” is freewheeling and loose 70s FM-indebted soul, closer to the O’Jays or the Commodores than Daptone’s usual stomping 60’s soul fare, but the classic swagger still drips off the arrangement and production. And they’re touring now!
Spencer Krug - How We Have To Live
Taken from Spencer Krug’s latest LP, Twenty Twenty Twenty One, “How We Have To Live” is a self-recorded and self-produced affair, drawing from the songs shared via his Patreon from (you guessed it!) 2020 and 2021. The song is a baroque pop miniature, like a Talk Talk ship-in-a-bottle, and the intimacy of the writing and production suit Krug well, the song’s rough edges giving his voice a worn-in and inviting home.
Tirzah & Still House Plants - 22222 (‘Send Me’ Rework)
This cover of Tirzah’s “Send Me” by art-rock trio Still House Plants abruptly hops into a skeletal groove at the two minute mark, taking its time to build up glossy chords around Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach’s voice. On a record of Colourgrade remixes, Still House Plants’ decision to desiccate and rehydrate the melody of “Send Me” multiple times over in their own track is as generous as it is exploratory.
THROWBACK CORNER
Milton Wright - Keep It Up
Betty Wright had a brother? And he was ALSO a soul singer? And he wrote this Bill Withers by way of Stevie Wonder Moog jam? You learn something new every day.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!