it's too hot for a subject line, here are very good songs
Akini Jing! Chace! The Dare! Healing Potpourri! Felicia Douglass!
Ahhh yes the dog days of summer, complete with sense of doom from climate-related disasters. Hope you’re all hanging in there during this super weird August!
You know what has been doing great though? The takes! Here’s the week’s Good Links:
Hennything Goes - Hannah Giorgis on how Henny lost out to George Clooney’s tequila in rap lyrics for the Atlantic.
Oops! All Madge - Matthew Perpetua dedicated last week’s Fluxblog to just Madonna for an excellent read.
TBH I Can’t Tell If This Is Real - This essay from Mike Crumplar is a bizarre look at some of the art scene in NYC’s cursed “Dimes Square.” It’s surreal, bizarre, and oddly compelling meta-criticism, even if Barbara Kruger still said it best.
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.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #48
Akini Jing / Chace - Blessing
I think I'm ready for big beat and electronica to come back, as long as it hits as hard as this collab between Akini Jing and Chase. It’s pure block rockin’ beats energy and a chaotic vocal bounces around like it's the soundtrack to a 1997 action sequence; but the song still feels modern and relevant, mostly from the pure confidence and joy it exudes.
The Dare - Girls
An infectious electro-infused rock track from NYC’s the Dare aka Harrison Patrick Smith. The vocal line is incredibly catchy, dumb, and horned up, all in the right ways - like a male version of Avenue D’s “2D2F.” It all washes down like a Sparks Plus in a brown bag on the train to the LES.
Felicia Douglass - City Desolate
Taken from an EP of home recordings by the Dirty Projectors/Ava Luna/solo singer, “city desolate” is just a murmur of a drum machine and spare, wiggly synths underneath a vocal performance that slowly opens up on a chorus of “pick me up sometimes.” The song feels like more than a demo, more like the musical equivalent of the shorthand between romantic partners - it’s not dashed off, it’s hushed, familiar and intimate.
Healing Potpourri - Truly Good
Between the lush brass, the charmingly dinky drum machines or the weighted blanket-esque doubletracked vocals, Healing Potpourri consistently finds the coziest lane between BBC Radiophonic sounds and breezy 70’s FM pop on their excellent new record Paradise. A gentle spread of psychedelic sonics ripple through these tightly crafted pop songs, like someone wrote a beautiful singer-songwriter album over lost Avalanches instrumentals. “Truly Good” is the album’s masterstroke - especially when it hits the piano and vocals midsection - but “Fireworks” and “Here” are also gems. Paradise might be nostalgic for a time that never really existed, but you’ll yearn nonetheless.
Ashley McBryde - Straight Tequila Night
Taken from a Dan Auerbach-curated compilation of John Anderson covers, McBryde’s cover pulls the Nashville sheen off of Anderson’s original ode to trying your luck with a brokenhearted barfly, instead giving it an intimate hush. The production choices and McBryde’s empathy-filled performance lend the verse details - “Here's a glass of Chablis, and some quarters and change/Maybe you can turn her love life around” - a lived-in credibility the original couldn’t quite capture.
THROWBACK CORNER
Ryo Kawasaki - Juice
For some reason last week the YouTube algorithm started serving me links to full Japanese funk and jazz albums from the 70s, and it was a rare moment of surprise and delight online. 1976’s Juice in particular overdelivered with its lightly proggy jazz/funk - Aquarium Drunkard put it best:
A deeply pleasing sensation arises when terrific cover art not only fully delivers on the music, but also bears a distinct resemblance to it. Ryo Kawasaki’s 1976 jazz-funk album Juice is one such record. Bright and refreshing like a piece of citrus, peel the skin back and you’ll find an electric fantasyland of traversing wires and circuits. Over the course of its seven tracks, the visually sci-fi-tinged world of Juice feels at once perfectly of its time, yet remains delightfully vital in 2022.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!