tune in to the week's best to tune out
feat. bigboi0101, Datadata, Sophia Kennedy, Jamie XX and the recession-era Gaga comeback
Damn the atrocities really got hands don’t they!
This weekend, while Elon Musk and his teenage weirdos broke into and started to dismantle the U.S. government, Chappell Roan forcefully spoke on trans rights better than literally any elected Democrat. Who’s in charge?? We’re in for weird times y’all!
But you know what’s always got you? The Good Links!
New Year New York – this is a re-recorded version of one of my favorite songs I’ve written with my friend Kareem Rahma. An anthem for anyone who’s felt like the last mid-30s sucker left on Avenue A.
All Day I Dream About Scents: KoRn guitarist Munky released a fragrance, but alas, you have to go to Berlin to buy it
Hello, Horses! A posthumous Q Lazzarus album is on the way, with a previously unreleased song “I See Your Eyes” out now
City Pop Got Seoul – I really loved the Andy Warhol Polaroid/City Pop styling in Michelle Zauner’s feature in SSENSE last week. Also sick as hell that they published it in English and Korean!
Congestion Pricing Is Working! Just in case you didn’t see it anywhere because the NY Post, our Mayor and Governor all could give a shit about the MTA and anyone who rides it
As always, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday (or, uh , Wednesday) along with the newsletter. Enjoy!
bigboi0101 – moon
bigboi0101 has gone semi-viral a number of times for his soft, multilayered acapella covers of pop songs (“Even Flow” was a recent favorite of mine), and he’s finally starting to release them on Spotify/Apple Music. His voice is solid – lovely in the Sampha flavor of eyes-closed soft R&B – but his strength in unusual harmonic choices give his covers an ethereal, pillowy harmony thanks to unusual suspensions, 9ths, and colorful pedal tones. His cover of Kanye’s “moon” takes Ye’s track and finds a skyward hopefulness nowhere present in the nihilistic production of the original.
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Sophia Kennedy – Rodeo
Sophia Kennedy’s “Rodeo” finds the midpoint between icy indie pop and a “Urizen”-like funk pocket. Kennedy’s double-tracked vocal dances around the track’s spare piano-and-drums groove, with a placeless, restless energy that’s befitting of Kennedy’s Berlin-via-Baltimore roots.
Cor.Ece & Bad Colours – Say Yea (datadata remix)
Datadata’s debut single “OKAY” was one of my favorite dancefloor cuts of last year, so I was very excited to see her remix of Cor.Ece & Bad Colours’ “Say Yea” this week. She flips the original’s deep house into something more deconstructed and abstract, opening up into a roomy, suspended piano break before building it back up into a rumbling groove.
jamie xx feat. erykah badu – FU
I wish more of Jamie’s last LP included fun one-off weirdness like this – “FU” is more interesting and memorable than the proper singles from In Waves. It’s amazing that it’s an Erykah live sample, but the flippant audio would still match perfectly with the simple, boisterous acid house beat Jamie puts under it even if it were someone unfamous.
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
During her peak Bad Romance years I used to say Gaga’s vocal sound leaned heavily on “fascist reverb” which I still think is true, but is a lot less fun to say as a bit when there’s all this actual fascism going on. That said, this is a “return to form” moment I’m unfortunately a total sucker for – big Catholic-flavored drama, absolutely no cross-rhythm, bloghouse gated drums? Sign me UP.
throwback
The White Stripes – Apple Blossom
I’ve been listening to a ton of De Stijl, the White Stripes 2nd LP, lately and I’m always surprised at how few of this album’s tracks are canon White Stripes hits. “Apple Blossom” feels like the best distillation of White’s Bacharach-esque writing lane, with a solo-as-vocal melody bounce that deflates his guitar rippery and replaces it with an eerie 60’s AM ache.