Vince Staples' new album wants you to go outside
Doechii! Kikagaku Moyo! Father John Misty! Ethan Woods!
It’s always odd to get news of a tragedy while writing an ostensibly fun and silly weekly email about music. With this morning’s terrible news from Brooklyn, it feels extra odd knowing that something horrible happened only a few R stops away from where I live.
I don’t have anything smart or good to say, but y’know, check on your friends, tell people you love them, etc. Read about how Bushwick Country Club accidentally invented the pickleback.
On to the music. You can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #31
Vince Staples - MAGIC
The latest from Vince Staples is classic, all-caps West Coast bounce that feels built for burgeoning spring weather. Especially on this collaboration with Mustard, huge basslines buoy Staples’ verses with a carefree joy that feels elevated even from his previous career peaks. The whole record is perfect for spring-into-summer warm weather listening - even at its most lyrically dark (“NAMELESS,” the back half of “WHEN SPARKS FLY”), the record is inviting, classic and funky.
Kikagaku Moyo - Cardboard Pile
Stitching together an acid-washed ascending vamp with a brass-laden psych strut, the first single from Kikagaku Moyo’s upcoming (and final?) album Kumoyo Island. The first minute and change see the band climbing a holy mountain made of guitars and chimes, only to find a syncopated psych bounce at its climax. The late-to-the game but perfectly deadpan vocal refrain only adds to the track’s haunted, searching feeling.
Ethan Woods - Chirin’s Bell
Recorded partially outside in North Carolina - insect noises and all - and then overdubbed later, “Chirin’s Bell” is swirling, pastoral single that feels as wooly and earthen as its recording process. Woods’ vocals are small and wondering, akin to Phil Elverum’s close-mic’d intimations, ultimately making the song’s sonic sprawl feel like an expanding night sky Woods can remark on but never fully grasp.
Father John Misty - Kiss Me (I Loved You)
The advance singles for FJM’s latest album, Chloë and the 20th Century, had all left me cold from their embrace of Misty’s costume-drama embrace of artifice and high drama. FJM’s work has always resonated most for me when anchored in specifics, from his album-long love letter to his wife I Love You Honeybear, or his album-long separation letter from his wife God’s Favorite Customer, his best work feels like it’s from a specific vantage point, paranoid and itchy with feeling. “Kiss Me (I Loved You)” feels grounded and sketch-like, proving Misty is best when he’s at the back of the Chateau Marmont, not looking down on all of love and loss.
Doechii - Crazy
Tampa-based rapper Doechii delivers on the title of her latest single - she doesn’t rap as much as full-tilt shout her way through “Crazy,” which dropped with a strangely NSFW video. Video controversy aside, Doechii’s commanding presence is what makes the looping, chaotic track work - she turns up to 11 at the thirty second mark and never backs down.
THROWBACK CORNER
The Saints - Know Your Product
Fronted by singer/songwriter Chris Bailey, who died this week at 65, the Saints were Brisbane, Australia’s first (though not self-proclaimed) punk export. They self-financed and self-released their debut single “I’m Stranded,” but the first track off their 2nd LP, “Know Your Product,” melded their insistent bar-punk with a triumphant horn section that sounds like Sam & Dave covered by the Stooges. I honestly hadn’t heard the band until I read about Bailey’s death - and hearing their first two albums for the first time revealed to me what the world lost.
That’s all for this week - thanks as always for reading, and if you haven’t please subscribe. I swear my writing is *even better* when it’s in your inbox.