Monday Mixtape, Vol. 192

Kacey Musgraves shocked me with a newly released album on Thursday! Her last album, Golden Hour, was my #1 Album of 2018, and received all types of awards. It’s a classic, an album any artist would kill to have just one of.

After any classic album like this - I think of Tame Impala’s Currents or Arctic Monkey’s debut album - There’s a lot of expectation for the next album but also a bit of leeway because it’s very, very hard to recreate perfect again, and a band has to go in a totally different direction - think Radiohead’s Kid A - to make another classic. Usually, the album after a classic sounds like a B-Side to the classic: similar sounds, still great tracks, but not the same magic. Musgraves’ star-crossed is the latter.

It’s a very good and listenable album, nowhere near Golden Hour, and is more of a mellow, stoner’s ride through Musgraves’ divorce peppered with some sass and pop.

It’s a wistful goodbye to her marriage and ex-husband. Given the stage she has, she was reasonably kind to her ex (and who knows what all really happened, of course, you never get both sides). Though she makes her point that he couldn’t handle her fame and attention.

It wasn’t a revenge “Dear John” Taylor Swift-style attack, it was more of a retrospective and thoughtful, “So I think this is how we got here…” with a few punches thrown in here and there.

Her vocals carry everything. She has such a delicate and gorgeous voice, and it sounds like no one else. That’s her biggest magic trick to me, and as she keeps experimenting with sounds (and drugs!), it will be interesting to hear where she goes.

On another note, Isaiah Rashad dropped a new version of “H2BU” which trims the fat from the track on his new album. “H2BU” on his album is seven minutes and two songs in one, and the first song is amazing and not so much food the second song. So he created a version where it was just the first song, one of my favorite tracks on one of my favorite albums of the year.

Drake’s new album is pretty disappointing, but I have to listen to it more. There are still great tracks. I love how he comes right in and attacks “No Friends in the Industry.” Great rap track.

Now this song by Jack Harlow and The Homies, “White Lies,” was more of what I was hoping for with his recent album. This is just a feature he’s on, but it’s pure Harlow.

Disclosure released some tracks, and no surprise, the songs are awesome. These guys have quality control down.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 154

Morning, it’s the Monday Mixtape, version one hundred fifty four fed directly into your ears.

I will start with an utterly gorgeous LIVE song by Sohn with an orchestra. Words don’t do this justice, just listen.

One of my front runners for album of the year (so far!) is The Districts’ You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere, their fourth album. This album exemplifies that the sum is greater than its parts. It’s meant to be ingested whole.

The first track (and second track on this mixtape) is a warmup lap, warning those who have listened to The Districts before that the violin, trippy bubbly echoes, and reverb signify this will be a different experience. “Cheap Regrets” (track three on the mixtape) is likely my favorite song on the album, a buildup of a banger.

Which effortlessly glides into the electro magicians, Disclosure. These guys make songs that you nod your head to and want to dance. I remember seeing them at Treasure Island Festival in 2013. People LOST THEIR MINDS when they came on, just dancing like only Disclosure was looking. It’s contagious.

“OK” by Wallows is a great track by a band I know nothing about, and “People, I’ve been sad” by Christine and the Queens is another.

You all know how much I love Mac Miller. I’ve now listened to his 2020 posthumous album, Circles, probably 30 times or so. It grows and grows and grows on me. His vocals are akin to Bob Dylan. He doesn’t have a good voice, but it’s his voice that makes the songs.

Miller was becoming so comfortable wading between musical styles and confident in his abilities (and love from his peers), it’s a loss to music that he’s gone.

The Mac Miller track I put to end this week’s mixtape, “Woods,” is a song, like the album, that kept getting better with time. A slow paced beat with only sustaining keys and Miller’s vocals, it’s a song to get lost in or zone out in your work while it plays in the background.

Miller starts the song ominously, “Things like this ain’t built to last / I might just fade like those before me.” Too soon.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 113

Lots of upbeat jams for ya this week from some tried and true winners.

If you can’t notice that the first track is live by Natalie Prass, that’s because her silky voice and great band behind her defy expectations. I’ve seen her play live to a group of about eight people, and she’s a talent, one I wish got a bit more recognition.

Speaking of great live acts, the cherubic lead singer of St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Paul Janeway, gives everything he has when you see him live, and these guys just released a new album, which I’m a bit disappointed in but still looking forward to seeing them live in October to perform a bunch of their great jams, including the catchy “LivWithoutU.”

“Moonlight” might be the best Disclosure song I’ve heard, this song in a very loud car just crushes.

All this upbeat music is recipe for a little downturn in vibes which AlunaGeorge and Bas provide. The Bas album is one of the better rap albums of the year, not amazing but solid. “Tribe” with J. Cole might be my favorite track on the album, I just love when the drums come in a 0:45.

Wale has gotten better with age. It’s somewhat surprising he’s still around, but his last three EPs have been great.

Finally, we end the mixtape with BRONCHO, a no frills rock band that bring a little bit more swagger and reverb to this track than their usual. Pump it!

Have a good week all.