the minimum viable drake era
Plus A. Savage, Hannah Diamond, A Beacon School, and the Disco Express!
Helloooo welcome back to the Unskippables, where the 20th anniversaries of albums keep rolling with the unending tide of time. The “new” era of Belle & Sebastian started 20 years ago????
A few good links:
I want to know all about Hua Hsu’s collection of 90’s press releases, just to figure out how much my personality was shaped by the PR professionals of that decade.
Friend-of-Unskippables Elliot Aronow wrote a great piece about the dynamic between gatekeepers and artists
Aaaaand on to the best of the week! You can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy!
A. Savage – Elvis In The Army
Having a baby snaps you out of the rhythm of New York in a very meaningful way, especially in the early months when you have no muscle memory for getting around the city with another living thing strapped to you.
That disconnect made A. Savage’s tribute to leaving NYC especially poignant – what memories will you carry with you? Dare I ask, has the world changed or have I changed?
The song had me thinking about Teddy Brown’s essay exploring Jack Antonoff’s surprisingly sharp critique of the current downtown scene, and how every New Yorker wants to think their scene is the last breath of what they loved about the city:
I’ll also go one step further and say that, much like ancient Mayans or Heaven’s Gate, New Yorkers of a certain type desperately want to live through a specific sort of end times. Dimes Square being the last breath of downtown culture means that you were there when New York finally ended, witness to the death of the cool. If you’re sure there’s nothing interesting going on then you’re not missing anything.
Savage’s “Elvis In The Army” is the inverse, when the strangeness of home is somehow stranger than being away, but you know that it will carry on without you. The first image of the chorus “Like Elvis in the army / Eating dinner from a can” is him at his best – surreal yet mundane – and the song is a fitting goodbye to a place he loved.
Drake ft. SexxyRed, SZA – Rich Baby Daddy
There are no incentives left for Drake to dig deep, and you can hear his worldview in the 23 listless tracks of For All The Dogs, a cynical tribute to doing the least to get to #1. The calculated mess of Drake’s 23 track surprise record is like wading through a major label marketing plan on how to maximize streams through collabs and algorithmic playlisting to land a chart-topping record. Much like Certified Lover Boy and Her Loss, Drake seems at best to deliver verses in search of a catchphrase, and otherwise just hangs in the murk of an increasingly paranoid mode of misogyny. However, a few fun moments pop up on the back third of the album, especially the silly Miami Bass of “Rich Baby Daddy,” where SexxyRed’s chorus (“Shake that ass for Drake! Now shake that ass for me!”) and SZA’s verse lighten the mood of Drake’s machismo noir that drags down the album.
Hannah Diamond – Flashback
It’s fitting that before PC Music closes up shop in January they drop a new LP from Hannah Diamond, one of the label’s most distinctive voices. Listening to Hannah’s new album Perfect Picture back-to-back with Kylie Minogue’s Tension is an interesting POV on how much PC Music’s sonic template has become the mainstream sound of dance-pop, but I’ve always found Hannah’s alien insouciance hard to resist.
Alastair Lane – Disco Maléfico
London-based party the Disco Express dropped their Best of 2023 compilation – on gold vinyl, natch – with seven of their favorite tracks and edits of the year. The instrumental “Disco Maléfico” on the b-side was the winner for me, a pulsing rhythm section paired with searing strings and verbed out Moog leads.
A Beacon School – Mantra
Between this and Melenas, nu-komische pop has been hitting the spot for me. Is it just the fall? Is this musical seasonal affective disorder? Something about the motorik pulse of “Mantra” – from the band’s new LP yoyo out this Friday – hit home for me, especially when paired with the plaintive opening lyrics: ‘Everything I don’t want to change is changing, Everyone I don’t want to leave is leaving, Everything I want to change is staying the same, Everyone that I want to stay is leaving.”
throwbaaaack
Frankie Valli & the Commodores – Grease
Staying up late with an infant means you start finding deep, weird corners of YouTube quickly as you burn through things to watch – leading me to uploads of the best of Midnight Special. The best of 1977 is particularly rife with one hit wonders, but the best of 1980 had this gem of a collab between Frankie Valli and the Commodores. Lionel Richie’s coke energy, Valli’s strangely confused stage presence, the band ripping into the backing track, the unexpected vamp at the end? Glittery, bizarre, delightful.