Monday Mixtape, Vol. 201

A totally random mixtape of strange songs, none more so than Men I Trust’s opener on this week’s mixtape, “Lifelong Song.” Whatever that vocal effect is, it’s captivating and hallucinogenic.

What made you leave? / What made you go?
Long road, long time ago
Whistling you life of song
Solace is your lifelong song

Amine is one of my favorite rappers right now. I loved 2020’s Limbo and his recent mixtape shows him moving in and out with autotune and some different beats, such as the lullaby-like “Van Gogh.”

Now you want some ridiculousness? DOJA CAT IT IS! True story: I had no idea who Dojas Cat was other than Isaiah Rashad saying something about her on his new album, but I decided to check her album out. She’s got BILLIONS of plays on one album, her song with SZA alone has 890 million plays! I’m totally out of the current stuff, but let me tell you, this album is awesome. Pure pop/rap pleasure.

Doja Cat’s like Nicki Manaj and Cardi B but dare I say more universal? Anyways, one song I love for it’s wildness is “Get Into It "(Yuh)”. I mean, come on, take off the music snob hat and just enjoy it. Love it.

Big K.R.I.T. has been one of those rappers I’ve talked about since the first days of this blog. He’s under appreciated and underrated, maybe because a lot of his stuff sounds pretty similar, but he’s got soul and a real love for his craft. Mad respect for this guy. Two of my fave tracks on here from his 2021 album, Return of 4eva.

Finally, and don’t sleep on this last track because it’s my favorite track of the mixtape, and one of my favorite tracks this year. Ashley Monroe’s latest album is pretty good, but “Til It Breaks” is the clear standout. A beautiful song of heartbreak that really sings in as she slowly pleads,

Let it melt away
Let it melt away
Yeah, it might get bad before it’s better
Sometimes it doesn’t come together
’Til it breaks.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 169

If this first track isn’t the party rap anthem off the year, I don’t know what is. This song is amazing, and it’s got some rappers I love like Big K.R.I.T and Curren$y and a new one I’ve gotten into recently, Smoke DZA (who appears again on this mixtape with Joey Bada$$ in “The Mood”).

Really digging this new The Neighbourhood album. I will continue to put tracks from their album on upcoming mixtapes. Their sound shifts a bunch, so it’s hard to even tell it’s the same artist. See if you can spot it next week!

Shout out to Sean C. for letting me know Roosevelt released some new stuff. Hopefully, that means an album is around the corner!

If you haven’t heard of or heard IDLES before, be prepared. They are raucous. Their live shows are raucous. It’s a rowdy bunch, and their lead singer REALLY gives it his all in live shows, you should just check them out on YouTube if you’re digging what they’re spinning.

Fleet Foxes released their fourth album a week ago!! I have been digesting it constantly. On first blush, it is a really, really good album. It’s not as good as Helplessness Blues, my favorite of theirs, and it probably can’t overtake their debut album, but it’s still a really solid album. Robin Pecknold’s vocals are in the stratosphere, I think he’s such a talent, a dark soul trying to come to some light through his music. Couldn’t imagine any other voice of Fleet Foxes (though spoiler, he lets someone he met from his time at school in Oxford sing the beginning of the first track).

I’ll be putting much more from this album on future mixtapes.

Happy Monday. Go make something of yourself.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 134

Happy Monday, all! A bevy of tunes for your enjoyment, starting with Dylan LeBlanc, a newcomer (for me) with a new rock album that’s been blasting through my speakers. The first track of his album, the first track of this mixtape, is probably his best.

Have I told you how much I love Midland? Probably the only “country” band that I listen to regularly a band who I also saw live and they completely rocked the place. Really great show and crowd. And did I mention that “Drinking Problem” has to be the best country song written in the past decade or two? IT JUST IS. This is their new track off their upcoming album. My britches are bunched.

Speaking of great live performers, one of the best rappers I’ve seen live, Big K.R.I.T., has a bass thumping new track which I believe you will enjoy.

A number of other great tracks, including a belated one from Andrew Bird, whose new album this year, My Finest Work Yet, may be facetious (I’m using Andrew Bird words) on his part but aptly named in my estimation.

Leaving us is a “demo” track from Hippo Campus. This band is AWESOME and UNIQUE, and I can’t exactly believe why they’re not beloved by more, but they released some more intimate demo tracks from their previous albums. Always cool to hear songs in their infancy.

Have a good week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 88

It's the week of Thanksgiving, so please give thanks to those and everything you have in life that  so many less fortunate do not.

And give thanks to the music.

The 2016 version of "1Train" - Really Doe by Danny Brown feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul. and Earl Sweatshirt

2013's "1Train" was a Royal Rumble of the hottest rappers at that time: A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf. Danny Brown, Action Bronson, and Big KRIT. The production by Hit-Boy explodes and never lets go. It was my favorite rap track of the year (looking back at my Top 100 Songs of 2013, I listed Kayne's "On Sight" higher as a rap song which I still stand by because it's one of those Kanye as Radiohead comparisons I tend to make - no one could make that song but Kanye, no one could envision something like that): 

So now it's 2016 and we need another 1Train! This beat is filthy, first off. In comes Danny Brown, the shrill rapper, with a track off his new album, Atrocity Exhibition, with a who's who of the hottest rappers: Kendrick Lamar, TDE label-mate Ab-Soul, and the reclusive Earl Sweatshirt.

No surprise that the best rapper alive, Kendrick Lamar, KILLS the hook and then kicks his verse down the stairwell. Ab-Soul's verse is a bit too Watch the Throne-ish with his Balmain and BAPE talk, but I find it hard to hate on the man, I love his flows. Danny Brown is an acquired taste. 

Then there's Earl Sweatshirt, who finishes in a tie with Kendrick, mainly with the closing line, "Well it's the left-handed shooter / Kyle Lowry the pump / I'm at your house like / "Why you got your couch on my Chucks?"