Frozen - Love Object

Indulging in the latest from the incomparable, Italians Do It Better, I discovered Moscow-based, Love Object. The duo’s music may strike you as cold and severe as the Siberian winter (never been, but speculating based on a little reading), but, allowed to mature, “Frozen” and much else by the band, is as vibrant and complex as the vaunted Russian novel (Brother’s K, anyone?). Conjuring up music for the keen of ear, Love Object is best experienced by means of quality headphones. Patience, dear listener, let Love Object fascinate and haunt you.

Sadly, the album on which “Frozen” appears has little else to offer.

Rainy Day Loop - Sales

Sales’ music mates understatement, attention to detail, and vocals of lead singer Lauren Morgan that beguile even the most discerning ears. It is unclear who among these musical gems - Sales is composed of Lauren and Justin Shih - comes up with lyrics, production and music; it is, however, clear that their work is somewhere along the lines of pure bliss. The latest full-length album was released in 2018 - lets hope the two are busy making another.

Cruise Ship - Young Thug

I missed this. The more I hear from Young Thug, the more I like, and I’ve been a Future fan since at least his song served as the soundtrack to the one of the greatest moments in one of the greatest adult animated series of all time, Rick and Morty. Super Slimey, the collaboration between the artists just mentioned, is mostly good. Cruise Ship is the short but sweet, best song of the album, released back in 2017.

Never Lose Me (feat. SZA & Cardi B)

Among my playlists - diverse and many - is Hip-Hop Love Songs, which is at it sounds: songs from the genre that speak of relationship goals and drama, conquests, a fair bit of vanity, and days idled away with that special someone. Flo Milli’s Never Lose Me belongs mostly in the flaunting-what-a-catch-I-am category but could be added to the relationship drama subset without much fuss. For me, it’s safe where it is, namely, in my headphones on repeat.

VCR Romance - Vestron Vulture

The monotonous thrum of bass pedal and bass guitar, in sync and in some iteration, formed the core of many a industrial tracks from the 80’s, into the 90’s (think: work from Joy Division, New Order, and The Cure). Similar thrums replicated themselves in much of the past 20 years. Today, the progeny of the bass drum-and-bass guitar-drone resemble the human gene: numerous, pervasive, and when conjoined with outside elements, say, guitars and synthesizers, form cells of sheer, unpredictable delight. More could be said about how the thrum propagated itself in Hip-Hop, Chillwave, Pop and now something called deathwave (explaining how these genres are distinguished from others, and named, is a good question). But that’s somebody else’s interview.

Vestron Vulture, whose music apparently bore sufficient affinity with others in the deathwave genre, released VCR Romance in 2021. I heard the song thumbing through algorithmically chosen videos. I was looking for nothing in particular, and being lead to nowhere specific by AI and antecedent scrolling behaviors. The visual to which the sang played second fiddle is forever lost; the song, of course, was located (helpfully imbedded at the clip’s bottom) and posted here, for your enjoyment.

Here’s to excellent background music and to the outstretched tendrils of the thrum.

Waltzing Back - No Vacation (Cranberries cover)

You know when you’re hanging around, letting your playlist bleed into suggested songs, on a summer night, when all of a sudden a song comes on that you love the first time you hear it, and it turns out that that song is a cover of a song by a band you know well, but didn’t know sang said song?

Am I right? You know how it goes. Needless to say, No Vacation (long-time fan boy, here) put out Waltzing Back, a cover of a Cranberries’ song, sometime in 2023.

Porches - Cars & Adore You

New York-based, Porches (aka Aaron Maine), graced my presence whilst I ate dinner, alone, in a Tiki-bar operated by Gen-Zers with sound musical tastes. That has almost nothing to do with why these songs are meaningful; I suppose it was that the melancholy - the debt incurred for a life on the road - paired blissfully with each of the songs below. They travelled well, which is to say they resonate at home, too.

The Loop - Toro Y Moi

I recently had the opportunity to buy a red-colored vinyl of Toro Y Moi’s recently-released Mahal…and I passed, foolishly, it seems. The album has a number of comforting, soulful and funky jams too good not to own in red vinyl. The album demonstrates Toro Y Moi’s remarkable ability for prodigious output, within the same vein of music, without redundancy.

Don’t pass up the chance to see him live (or to purchase one of his colored albums).

Baby Keem - 16; Honest

Billed as a “rapper”, Baby Keem’s best music, I found, is only rap-adjacent. His wikipedia bio as a rapper ignores his range and potential. But wiki isn’t to blame; Baby Keem’s profile on Apple Music includes among his top songs all are hip-hop and only two can be reasonably described as soul or soul-adjacent. These two songs, “16” and “Honest”, are my favorites. Listen for yourself at Apple Music and find out why I think Baby Keem should sprinkle his remarkable soul music with hip-hop, rather than sprinkle his hip-hop albums with brilliant soul.

YUM! - Eliza Legzdina & Ruckspin

Perfectly pitched between vacuity and vapidity, YUM! joins a long list of music destitute of meaning. The lesson of there being such a song such as YUM! enjoying commerical success is that any author, singing about any thing, can enjoy any amount of money and fame. There appears no hidden meaning behind YUM!. As far as I can tell, it isn’t a 2-and-half minute exploration of diabetic-inducing fare, nor the author’s yearning for, and sexualization of marshmellow milkshakes, chocolate drips and ripe, swollen strawberries (I added that last one). I can discern no hidden meaning - sexual or otherwise - in its lyrics. Utter silliness notwithstanding, YUM! is well-worth indulging. Add it to your favorite Dance-centric playlist (mine is called, The Dancing! - I challenge you to do better), and your houseguests will smile past its stupidity and wiggle to its beat…who doesn’t like smiles and wiggles?

An experiment can be conducted: if, by parental obligations or other legal activites, you find yourself picking up middle-schoolers from school or extracurricular function, play YUM! and observe who among your passengers cringe, who repeats the word, “sus”, who giggles and repeats the word, “sus”, and who embraces the song with a chorus of LOLs.

Here’s to silliness and easing your commute.

As seen as on an Apple TV ad, introducing (yet another) iteration of (yet another) iPad.

Big Energy - Latto; Money - Leikeli47

Leikeli47

Between Latto and Leikeli47 it’s safe to say that the cadre of female hip-hop artists - among whom, Cardi B and Nikki Minaj are only the most popular - is both expanding and deepening. Both artists serve as vanguards of a host of female hip-hop artists; both are doing their parts to fuel a culture that develops female hip-hop artists. Quality-wise, Latto and Leikeli47 make music that rivals the big shots’ - ditto for their sex appeal. Growl!

Latto has produced more than a few catchy hits, and as such, you won’t be surprised to hear her - or of her - on a scale that greatly exceeds this website’s. Leikeli47 could do for a name change (and, perhaps, reassess her penchant for face coverings) but has two, very good tunes that astute observationists will recognize from glossy TV ads.

Big, big energy, indeed.

ARI - K Camp

Milwaukee-born, Atlanta-based rapper Kristopher Thomas Campbell - or, K Camp - is yet another testament to the unfairness of making music for a living. K Camp is the kind of outstanding talent you should be hearing all about, but aren't. His music flows with remarkable ease. And all great music seems to have been birthed by their authors, easily (no doubt having to do with our absence during the music’s gestation, with its initial imagining, repeated false starts, countless revisions; in this we grant artists their privacy and, we - connoisseurs - arrive only after the musician’s product is swaddled and bewitching). Good music has so flooded the landscape as to submerge genre-wide swaths of fertile artistry. The two genres with which I am familiar enough to comment upon - hip-hop and indie (a broad label, I know, but what else am I going to say, “shoe-gaze bubbleyum”?) - are rife with unexplored talent, and its attendant music that a lifetime of curiosity would'n’t suffice to unearth.

The casualties of today’s landscape - those undiscovered talents among whom you can count K Camp - are no less pleasing than a Drake, Lil Uzi Vert or Future, if you’d only get a chance to hear them. Thankfully, for a nominal monthly fee, you can access virtually every volume of the library of the world’s recorded music and can, as part of that nominal fee, avail yourself of an algorithm that shoulders the time-consuming and expensive work of selecting pieces for display at your next house party.

Hearing this song, you’ll see what I mean. K-Camp deserves to be better known, have more fans and occupy the space in your playlists that befits all your favorite music.

Poke It Out (feat. J. Cole) - Wale

Many requests for this song: on the way to school, on the way from school, to practice, back home from practice, upon arrival to home, and so on. The play count for this song indicates I rarely, if ever, decline said requests. And you would, too, considering the fun, danceable beat and clever lyrics. J. Cole and Wale have yet to collaborate for an entire album’s worth of material. Here’s to possibilities.

Drake...now I see

Of course I know who Drake is, and of course I’d been familiar with his pop star fame long before I heard the songs under consideration in this post. But I hadn’t really known him, had yet to value his contribution or to understand why love for Drake would send countless hip-hop stars his way for collaborations (20, by my count, on his latest release alone), why he occupies a 50,000 square-foot, custom designed and lavishly furnished, Toronto mansion, or why someone would tattoo his name on her forehead. I think I get it, or am staring to.

Future and Lil Uzi Vert - Drankin & Smoki

My introduction to Future came from Rick and Morty ("Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty"; season 4, episode 4), and, as is well known, my fondness for Uzi Vert continues unabated. I encourage all my listeners to begin their Rick and Morty journey at season 1, episode 1, and to grab a hold of Future’s Mask On. He’s not always easy to understand but anyone who insists that lyrics and meaning must be immediately decipherable is hardly worth listening to. Wisemen know music can be beautiful despite its being shrouded in occasional mumbles and unidentified references.

Your Dog - Soccer Mommy

It would be easy to dismiss this 20-something singer songwriter as a reiteration of the mopey, whiny and never-know-how-good-they-have-it loathing we’ve heard before, around the early 2000’s. That would be the case, if it weren’t for the lyrics, voice and music being both believable and brilliant. Even to an old man, Soccer Mommy (all of 24) resonates authentic feeling, which is never forced. i got the kind of emotion I’d associate with dead-man floating atop the troubled seas of youthful love (if that makes sense). You’ll know you’ve been there when you hear she’s been there, too.

Faded Now - Chromatics

By now, there should be no doubt that Chromatics remains woefully underrated, unappreciated by most, yet brilliant to long-time fans. “Faded Now” showcases the band’s ability to mate competent beats with angelic, seductive vocals. The song demonstrates as well Johnny Jewel’s range and depth as a producer. For a taste of said range, compare Italians Do It Better, vol. 1, with Kill for Love. Or, just listen to everything they have, posted in a number of previous posts on this website.

His & Hers (feat. Gunna) - Internet Money, Don Toliver & Lil Uzi Vert

If you have yet to feast on hip-hop composed almost entirely of indecipherable lyrics, have a nibble of this sampling, His & Hers. Before you bemoan the demise of hip-hop’s gilded age, when hip-hop was decipherable enough for you to memorize and recite lines from The Chronic to friends and family, let the music take you where it may. As you listen, know that the song engages in actual speech, your language center’s protestations to the contrary. So long as Apple Music includes access to song lyrics, you can bridge lyrical gaps (roughly, every other line). And, because the lyrics are decipherable enough, you should be able to convince those trapped in the throes of nostalgia that hip-hop’s gilded age never ended, and will never end. Besides, the beat is “off the chain” - as the youngsters say.

Listen - An Horse (Bodega Girls remix)

Digging through the “downloaded music” file of an old computer, I was reminded that in olden times iTunes introduced me to uncharted musical worlds. I was also reminded that exploring new musical territory served as justification, albeit after the fact, of purchasing a very expensive 13-inch MacBook and an iPod. The hours I surrendered to sampling countless songs - good and bad, the money (less than a dollar per) I spent on individual songs, and the joy I took in creating yet another mix-CD, are fond memories.

An Horse stands on in their own, but this remix from Bodega Girls is sheer delight and retains the emotion of the original.

Crush - Souly Had

Apparently there exists a slew of young, musically gifted Americans idling away afternoons creating a mix of soul, hip-hop and doing their best to upset the nature of things, free of the heavy hand of established sound and delightful enough to make at least one middle-aged man with nominal rhythm, dance and sway and celebrate the relentless newness of our musical era.

Souly Had…had me at “Overrated”, far from his most popular. I’ve included “Crush” as well.