ed sheeran, corndog king of the right to steal

plus Q, sweeping promises, billy woods, peter gabriel, and KNOWER!

Last week human ukelele Ed Sheeran defeated the copyright claim from the family of “Let’s Get It On” cowriter Ed Townsend against his song “Thinking Out Loud.”

This decision had me heated in the group chat as I went to bat for Ed Sheeran, the sexless king of the troubadours – this was an important decision that hopefully will cool the jets on estates suing for royalties. The “Blurred Lines” decision in 2018 kicked off an era of worried superstars trying to Matrix-dodge lawsuits through added credits and weird soundalike synergy scams that trade interesting interpolation for gross brand crossover events. In a world where you can pay millions for borrowing a song’s vibe, the risk of scoring a pop hit suddenly came with a very real price tag.

As pictured above in what looks like the world’s most ill-timed “Wonderwall” performance, Sheeran went as far as to play the song in court, fighting for his songwriting, and songwriting in general. Is him saying “I’ll quit music” if he lost a bit much? Yeah, but so is trying to make a copyright claim on a IV V I chorus, essentially making the practice of writing consonant pop music pointless in 2023.

I won’t ever put on “Thinking Out Loud,” but it was nice to see someone who could have just settled the suit take a stand for every artist’s right to write without fear of stepping on the toes of estates with the legal means and incentive to crush your song.

If that’s not good enough news, here are some Good Links:

• Julius Randle on keys? – Jay Papandreas finds the exact cross-section of my interests in “NBA Playoff Teams As Albums Of The Year”

• Ray-sident Advisor – Fever Ray put together a mix for the latest RA podcast, which includes a techno song called “John Cena”

• Mess With Texas – “Every list is dumb” starts the Houston Chronicle’s list of the 10 greatest Texas rap records, but this one had me digging into classics I didn’t know I didn’t know from Z-Ro, Lil’ Keke and MC Choice

• Now Truer Than Ever – Shout out to Hua Hsu and his f***in’ PULITZER for Stay True, last year’s excellent memoir about friendship, loss, college, and boredom.

And with that, here are your best songs of the week. As always, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.

Q – SOW

Q’s album Soul, PRESENT takes the sounds and textures of 80’s quiet storm R&B and soft rock and re-mold them into a silky cocoon to wrap around his nervous, intimate vocal performances. Every track finds him reworking well-known sounds into something adventurous and unfamiliar; on “SOW” he flips a “Caribbean Queen” groove to reflect on a moment of self-doubt – “I have today, will I let sorrow flow?” – but the whole album takes expensive yuppie pop and tames it into something ponderous and strange.

billy woods and Kenny Segal – Soft Landing

Yeah, this record is as good as the Best New Music claims. It’s one of those rap records that drops an unforgettable couplet every few bars; something you need to share in the group chat. “Soft Landing” and others up front are playful, fun, and immediately memorable, but “Hangman” on the back half of the record is the track that stopped me in my tracks from the first line – “Matisse without the colors / Sharp teeth, new lovers,” and never let up. The bone-dry, low-in-the-mix vocals and blurry, menacing beat add to the song’s lurking menace. Best rap record of 2023 so far.

Peter Gabriel – Four Kinds of Horses

Peter Gabriel’s latest single was produced by XL Recordings’ Richard Russell, which accounts for the brooding, modern synthesis that powers the track – but the huge, dramatic chorus is all Gabriel. The song lurks like a lost Fever Ray instrument, while Gabriel’s vocal slowly grows fifty feet tall as it launches into the hook.

KNOWER – I’m The President

Absolutely bizarre video and song from LA jazz-poppers KNOWER. The song’s prim chord charts are thrown into a DIY Wall of Sound with horns, a choir, a string section, and a strange sing-song refrain from vocalist Genevieve Artadi. The track rides a goofy groove that avoids Vulfpeck nerd-overbite funk thanks to how much it makes the weird choice at every turn – including the “where do we put the tuba???” staging of the live video, the full piano solo in the middle, and the dumb awesomeness of the chorus “Who’s the president? Me! Landslide fucking victory!!”

Sweeping Promises – Eraser

The title track of Sweeping Promises’ debut LP, “Hunger For A Way Out,” might be the best post-punk song of the last decade. Singer Lira Mondal has an incredible ear for when to yell and when to chill, and I’ve been waiting for their follow-up LP ever since. Last week they announced Good Living Is Coming For You, out June 30) with the opening track “Eraser.” It lacks some of the subterranean funk of their debut, but the band’s ear for perfectly hooky punk remains – and most importantly, Mondal’s voice at the front.

thhrrwooowwwbbaaaack

Blackburn and Snow – Stranger In A Strange Land

This is a heater from the San Francisco Love Is The Song We Sing Nuggets box set. Nestled among the more obvious proto-Grateful Dead and Haight bands are weird folk-rockers like this one, marrying peak Summer of Love paranoia with bar band faux-soul.