Hello!
So it’s been just over a year of writing about music with y’all - and next week I’m taking two weeks off while I’m off on vacation for a delayed honeymoon! Sorry to those who just subscribed, but I *promise* I’ll be back in October with more jams.
I’ll be out of your inbox until October 4th, but in the interest of keeping your ears busy, I’ve updated my Best of 2022 playlist (Spotify | Apple Music) for y’all to enjoy.
But of course, the Good Links never stop:
More like HumpMo - Miles Klee goes deep on a TikTok trend about the world’s worst sex song.
Just a very good Phoenix profile - Jeremy Gordon profiled Phoenix for GQ, dropping maybe the best description I’ve heard of their music: “Few bands are better at conjuring a perfect party where the mood is right, the sweat is justified, and everyone is getting along until it’s time to go home.”
“Rap Game Ron Desantis” - Drew Millard profiles MAGA rap stars for Gawker, which turns into a portrait of what de-platforming looks like to people thriving on election denial grift.
Tweets About Fucking - Steve Albini did a Twitter AMA and this one made me lol.
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.
UNSKIPPABLES #53
Phoenix feat. Ezra Koenig - Tonight
Phoenix get a lot of credit for their big, bright guitars and easygoing hooks, but their real superpower is the killer pre-chorus. You know you’re listening to a Phoenix song when you suddenly feel like you’re on a rollercoaster climbing up a hill after the verse. On “Tonight,” it’s a “pull back the curtain” drop underneath the song’s most plaintive lyric, then a filtered snare roll drops into a waterfall of candy-coated, cascading guitars. The chorus is fine, but the sugar rush comes from the buildup, not the release - and Phoenix remain top-notch confectioners.
A&A - Eternal September
From Avalon Emerson’s Instagram last week - “Last fall Anunaku and I met up in London, initially intending to work on something besides club music, but as it does, the ghost finds its way out anyway, and we made a handful of dance records.” The first track from the resulting collaboration A+A is bright, searching dance music, with small lilting melodies wiggling in and colliding into each other - the melodic equivalent to the first moments of a sunshower when the combination of bright lights and water seem impossible.
Kelela - Washed Away
Kelela is back! In “Washed Away” the evolving synth pads and imagery both erase the horizon from the sky, pulling in endless fields of shimmering water and desert. “I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” she says of the single, and if anything, it only makes me more excited for the bangers to come.
Deerhoof - My Lovely Cat!
The best Deerhoof songs sound like someone chopped up the tabs to a classic rock song, reassembling the score it until it becomes a grinning, lurching Frankenstein of a guitar riff. However, my favorite Deerhoof songs are the ones that break from chopped-up riffery into open, searching space - and about a minute into “My Lovely Cat!” the band find the cruising psychedelic speed they perfected on The Runners Four. Of course, it’s only a brief respite before Deerhoof find another idea to turn inside out and reassemble for our listening pleasure.
Oliver Sim - Never Here
I’ve written about this album a few times this year, and I’m still convinced it’s one of the year’s best pop records. Not only does Sim do a great job developing vivid, sweet worlds in every song, but Jamie XX shows his range as a collaborator by mixing in unexpected hues and colors across the record. “Never Here” balances Portishead, post-punk and Gen Z intimacy over a woozy groove - it’s uneasy and strange but also familiar and charming.
THROWBACK CORNER
The Velvet Teen - Counting Backwards
My friend Ben discovered local indie rock first of our friends, and I remember the day after he saw the Velvet Teen at a local rec center, he carried their slim-case CD around our high school like the artifact from another world. “Dude, and ALL the songs are this good!” “Counting Backwards” is a particularly effective Cure-via-emo raveup, especially when they hit the stop-start chorus. The band’s LP Out of the Fierce Parade turned 20 this year, but their Plus Minus Equals EP is still the sound of realizing that bands and music were actually happening all around, and there was nothing stopping me from joining in.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox.