Hello!
I took a week off writing this last week - I was changing jobs, I was in LA with my wife, and there was a fresh threat of nuclear war in Europe!
Spending a week in LA felt like a week in a bubble, thanks to hours in cars going from the West side (where I was staying) to the East side (where everyone I know lives). I’m not used to being cut off from sound - not just music, but raw audio from conversations, ambient audio - for that long, and it was odd to think that a city that produces so much of what we listen to makes it hard to hear things.
Anyway - here are the Good Reads of the week:
Spoiler: It’s Bad! David Turner looks at the repercussions of Sony buying independent distributor AWAL on Penny Fractions
Stevie Wonder Helped Invent Siri? Jayson Greene goes deep on Stevie Wonder’s synthesizers on Pitchfork
“Don’t become a musician.” David Crosby says a lot of wild things in this Stereogum interview!
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 #26
GOON - Fruiting Body
GOON’s 2nd EP, Paint By Numbers Vol. 1, is out this week, full of spindly, dusty twee indie rock gems. “Fruiting Body” is a good example of the EP’s light paranoia and deft use of unexpected dissonance to break through their pastoral pop, acoustic guitars glimmers providing unease like flickering lights riiight at the start of a mushroom trip. Or so I’ve been told.
Haim - Lost Track
This song - with a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video - has been playing before some screenings of Licorice Pizza, the other critically-acclaimed PTA/Haim collab. It’s a minor track, but there’s a homespun verité to the glockenspiels and woolen guitar tones anchoring the song’s sighing refrain.
Jane Inc. - Contortionists
At 1:55 into “Contortionists,” a perfect chorus blooms from the song’s vocal and mono synth arrangement, with Carlyn Bezic asking “Do you feel it too???” True to the song’s name, the track continually reshapes itself, building on the song’s initial skeletal motif with drizzles of chiming pads, crispy hi hats and interlocking vocal refrains.
Mura Masa - bbycakes
It’s weird to type, but this song might be what one could call classic hyperpop, thanks to the immediate sugar rush of bright Final Fantasy arps meeting the song’s trappy bounce. But either way - the confidence in the track’s pocket and composition is clear, equally working for Lil Uzi Vert’s flow and the ethereal vibes of Shygirl and PinkPantheress.
Daniel Rossen - Unpeopled Space
I’ve long thought Daniel Rossen’s solo EP Silent Hour / Golden Mile was wildly underrated, anchoring his wild playing with tight, warm arrangements and production. Rossen’s upcoming album You Belong There seems to be anchored in the same modesty, with close-mic’ed drums and dry recordings propelling Rossen’s knotty writing forward. “Unpeopled Space” in particular feels like the band is interpreting a Vince Guaraldi chart in real time as Rossen’s melody dreamily rides on top for an exhilarating feeling of discovery over the track’s six minutes.
THROWBACK CORNER
D’Angelo - Chicken Grease (Live on the Chris Rock Show)
Found during a kick studying Pino Palladino’s work with the Soulquarians, I was surprised to find such a clear document of D’Angelo’s joyful live performances supporting Voodoo. By the time I appreciated D’Angelo’s music in the mid-2000’s, his disappearance was already shrouded in myth, Voodoo mentioned as the work of a reclusive, troubled genius. This clip dispels that - or at least complicates it - with “Chicken Grease” opened up into a full-fledged funk workout with a new stomping coda. “Troubled genius” is a narrative that can push out the details, and I was genuinely surprised to see D’Angelo and the players that made the album special onstage, clearly having an incredible time.
That’s all for this week - thanks for reading!