jeen-yikes (plus this week's best new tracks)
Empath! Margaret Glaspy! Sharon Van Etten! Claire Rousay!
Hello from the Unskippables where we’re big on pants that are both too high…and too low?
This weekend, Kanye spent the weekend beefing with the whole internet (though mostly Pete Davidson), deleting the evidence, then making a cameo in a…McDonald’s commercial?
It’s an odd pre-post-script to jeen-yuhs, the long-awaited documentary of Kanye’s rise to fame. The directors did an interview with the New York Times, where dealing with Ye sounds exactly like you think it would:
Did he ask again about getting into the editing room?
COODIE Nah, his process is to have people look at it, so we showed them the film. I did ask Kanye, “Did you watch the film?” And he said that’s not his process.
Ok then! We at the Unskippables don’t “miss the old Kanye” but even reading the interview, the impulses and enabling they hint at make the current Ye reality seem sadly…inevitable.
In better news, the Good Links of the week:
Two takes on the VIBE SHIFT! Allison P. Davis asks if us geriatric millennials will get left behind, and one on a future with Un-Grammable Hang Zones from “menswear Carles” Blackbird Spyplane
This is your brain on playlists: Liam Benzvi on the impact of the playlist on the independent artist for Talkhouse, through his own listening and creative habits
Ear Ivermectin: Chris Richards explores the sonics of Joe Rogan’s misinformation ASMR in the Washington Post
Glaive Un2 The Joy Fantastic: Maybe more than you need to know about glaive, digicore wunderkind from Rachel Brodsky for Stereogum
Now for this week’s tracks - you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which will update every week along with the newsletter.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #25
Claire Rousay and More Eaze - Stairs
Like dltzk, Claire Rousay and More Eaze expand digicore’s emo reach beyond Good Charlotte to something a bit more hand-hewn and yearning, suggesting an exciting future for the genre. On their new collaborative album Never Stop Texting Me, major 7th chords and cute counterpoint recall Rilo Kiley, IDM, and Kevin Drew more than Paramore or Blink-182, delivering a pang of sadness alongside chirpy enthusiasm. I guess this is growing up!
Margaret Glaspy - Love Is Real
A stunning ballad that melds a voice memo performance in a laundry room (really!) with a swelling, romantic string arrangement. The resulting mix sounds like a daydream-filled commute, lost in memory and floating through the crowd. It’s Glaspy’s first single since 2020, and it’s a bold return that successfully marries the intimate with the fantastic.
Empath - House + Universe
Like many, I loved Empath’s 2018 EP Liberating Guilt and Fear, and though their new album Visitor takes its time where the EP crashed through with its ideas, the band still delivers on life-affirming noise pop. “House + Universe” sprints along, pausing only once to catch its breath a minute and a half in, as if the band needs to rush to your house to tell you a secret.
Sharon Van Etten - Porta
SVE’s first single since 2020 is inspired by her bouts with depression and disassociation, with the video anchoring her message of connecting back to her body and the real world. It’s a stunning followup to her song with Angel Olsen last year, and matches that track’s big, sweeping melodrama with…big, sweeping melodrama AND synthesizers!
crush - Bckwards 36
Pure, uncut shoegaze from Manchester’s crush that’s unafraid to take the crystalline shimmer of Slowdive head-on, no faux VHS fuzz hiding their love of the era.
THROWBACK CORNER
Preacher & The Saints - Jesus Rhapsody Pt. 1
The closest I get to church is listening to old country and soul gospel on Sundays while cleaning the kitchen, and Numero Group’s Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal has enough heaters to *maybe* make me repent and go full born again. Preacher and the Saints’ “Jesus Rhapsody Pt. 1” in particular packs a nasty punch at the start of the compilation, but the whole record is worth putting on and getting a little holy.
Thanks for reading/subscribing! See you next week!