Monday Mixtape, Vol. 173 - Introducing the World's Next Pop Star - BENEE

All I can say is BENEE enraptured my attention from the the first note of the first track I heard, the first track of this week’s Monday Mixtape, “Happen to Me.”

Every once in a while, a song really catches my attention, but when it’s a new artist I’ve never heard, I’m usually skeptical. It’s probably a one-off, I think to myself. But I have to look into the album where the song came from when I hear a track like this. And so begins my love of BENEE.

BENEE is of the Lorde / Billie Eilish / Grimes / SZA mold, I guess, simply because she’s a young (20 years old!) female with a sound that resonates with the times. Like Lorde, she’s from Auckland, New Zealand. Like SZA, she’s got more soul, R&B, and funk in her songs than any of the others could even try.

More importantly, the others got massively popular with the release of one album, and I think the same is going to happen to BENEE. She’s got six or seven big hits on her just-released album, Hey u x.

She’s got a great voice, a sweet wispy, almost husky serenade. Her vocals really shine when she’s performing on bare tracks like “C U,” “Want Me Back,” or when she shows up as a feature like Joji’s “Afterthought.” (which isn’t on this playlist!)

She’s got a better voice than Lorde, Grimes, and Eilish, but her lyrics are pretty usual, at least in Lorde standards. She’s not the creative solo genius that Grimes brings to the table, but almost every one of her songs is catchy, and there aren’t bad tracks. They all have great drum beats, lay on the synths and spacey effects when needed, and her vocals and intonations always make the song stronger. Her album sounds like a team that’s been playing together for years, seamlessly in sync at every bridge, chorus, intro, and outro.

I also hear influence from other bands I love, like the xx (if you don’t hear the xx on “Happen To Me” than you crazy!) and Beach House. Her songs, like theirs, can be very subtle: a guitar lick (the one on “Monsta” is so sick), a drum beat, her vocals, and occasionally bits of keyboards and synths too add some memorable spice. She makes subtle sweet and powerful.

On Spotify, she’s currently 343rd in the world. Not bad (seriously)! I’m going to go on a limb and guarantee she’ll be in the Top 50 by the end of 2021.

This is your year, BENEE!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 159

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s a good day for music.

Let’s start with the young lads from Dublin, Ireland, Fontaines D.C. I found about them through a random video I watched of their performance on Seattle’s famous radio station, KEXP.

They give off some DIIV vibes (certainly on the first track on the KEXP video for “The Lotts“), but there’s more to them than DIIV. They’re raw, and their debut album from last year spans all sorts sounds from ballad (“Roy’s Tune”) to party starter (“Boys in the Better Land”) to Irish diddy (“Dublin City Sky”).

Part of the performance was an interview, and it was interesting to hear them talk about their origins, which started with beers at pub discussing poetry. Fast forward to now, a band to watch, a sound I love.

Haim just released their third album. I enjoy it so far though there doesn’t seem to be a better song than the previously released (and bonus track) “Hallelujah.” I love the opener “Los Angeles,“ and I’ll be listening much more to see whether I get into it.

Twin Peaks is a band that started out years ago as a bunch of knuckleheads who sounded like they had just picked up their instruments as tools to drink more and get louder (that’s a compliment!), but they’ve really turned into a band that’s keeps improving and making better music. “What’s the Matter” is the most recent example.

I still don’t know what I think of Grimes’ new album. It’s good, and I don’t think I’ve given it the proper time, because if I did, I think I’d like it a lot more. I rediscovered “Delete Forever” as I listened to the album again recently, and there may be a few more to add in the coming weeks as I cycle through some more listens.

Finally, I have no idea who Israel Nash is, but he’s got some soul a la St. Paul and the Broken Bones and sound country feel a la Chris Stapleton while giving some Neil Young (who ALSO released a new album, which I hope to feature next week) vibes. That’s a pretty, pretty, good combo.

And that’s it people, enjoy your week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 151

Good Morning this Monday all! Hopefully, you all have a day off and can blast this music while enjoying yourself in the outdoors and reminding yourself this day who real agents of positive change in our history were.

So we have to start with Georgia. Seeking Thrills was the first album of 2020 that I hear, and I can guarantee this album is already cemented in the Top 10 albums of the year, if not Top 5.

Georgia has made an album that’s an amalgamation of my favorite female pop albums of the past decade. The comparisons to Robyn will be endless as “24 Hours” makes abundantly clear. There’s also Carly Rae Jepsen sounds (“About Work the Dancefloor” and “Till I Own It), Tegan and Sara (“Never Let You Go”), Purity Ring (“I Can’t Wait”), Grimes (“Feel It” and “Mellow” and “The Thrill”), MIA (“Ray Guns”).

You even get an homage to one of the greatest movies of the 1980s, the classic “The Goonies,” with the eerie and reverbed “Ultimate Sailor.” Just listen to the first 5 seconds, you’ll know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. Then she sounds exactly like Robyn the rest of the song.

Now, a critic of Georgia would say she’s just cribbing the best pop artists of the decade and making songs that sound a little too much like them, which I think is a fair critique. I don’t think this album is some NEW thing, but I’m impressed that it takes some of the best stuff from these artists and packages it all into one very cohesive album. I’ve been listening to it non-stop, and it will definitely be the life of the party. So, like the reference to “The Goonies,” the album seems like a homage the artists that came before her who were all cribbing sounds from the 80s.

It’s a great album regardless. So let’s just love it.

I also just started listening to Compton CA’s, Roddy Ricch, a guy you would swear was from Atlanta or the South by hearing his Future inspired sound. But he’s taking a lot of stuff and making his own little sound with it. “The Box” is his best track and then “Peta” with Meek Mill is another one that bumps.

So I haven’t even listened to the new Kanye album. That’s where this guy is an artist to me now. The SAME guy I defended back in 2015 but could care less for at this point. SAD! Anyways, I heard “Follow God'“ on Spotify’s Rap Caviar, and I loved it. I thought his new album was all gospel-like, and I’m pretty tired of all that thanks to Chance and Kanye’s last album, but this is just Kanye rapping (well) on a great beat. Good stuff.

Bombay Bicycle Club just released their fourth album (I don’t count Flaws), the oddly titled, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong. They’re a band I put up there with Young the Giant and Two Door Cinema Club, a band that I’ve listened to an INSANE amount over the past ten years. All of their albums have been really enjoyable, each with some phenomenal tracks. They’re upbeat and fun and totally have their own sound.

Anyways, I’ve been enjoying their new album, though I need to listen to it a lot more to give it a full thought. BUT I keep listening to “Good Day,” and I’m not sure exactly why. It seems so slow and simple, but maybe it’s Jack’s deep vocals, what I think is the lowest register I think he’s done on record. Whatever it is, I love it.

Finally, I never listened to Juice WRLD while he was living. He died a couple months ago, but I just started listening to him a bit. He reminds me a lot of Post Malone. “Bandit” is one track that stuck out to me. RIP.

Happy MLK Day.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 30

When I was at Outside Lands this year, there was a teeny tent where artists would play a handful of songs prior to their sets on the big stages. One of these artists was Natalie Prass, who I have written about a number of times on this blog. 

It was Prass, her guitarist, and no more than twenty of us watching. I was an arm’s length away from her, and her delicate voice and stripped down renditions of her tracks was subtly beautiful. 

Prass’ debut album is easily one of my favorite albums this year, and she just released an EP (recorded live at her record label’s studio in Richmond, VA) which includes one of her best songs from her debut, “My Baby Don’t Understand Me,” and a few covers from the likes of Anita Baker, Simon & Garfunkel, and Grimes.

Which segueways perfectly to the incomparable Grimes. I haven’t written a lot about her new album Artangles. It’s an album NO ONE else could have made. She is an original melding genres in a kaleidoscope of sounds. If you’d like to get into the mind of one of the most brilliant and innovative artists out there right now, listen to this album.

She’s also respected and beloved by fellow artists as the cover by Natalie Prass would indicate. I included both the original Grimes song as well as Prass’ cover. 

I stumbled upon Mutemath accidentally, and I'm really digging their electro-pop sound. Check this album out if you like this mainly instrumental track (the other songs have singing!).

Last but not least is Freddie Gibbs, the rapper from Gary, Indiana. His new album, Shadow of a Doubt, is one of the better rap albums this year. Gibbs initially made a name for himself with a ton of mixtape but started to get a little more critical attention with his collaboration with Madlib on the crazy spacey, Pinata. I think he’s furthering his case as one of the best rappers out there. 

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 28

Life has been really crazy as of late, and the demands and time of work and life have had its effect on this blog! So I apologize that I have not been writing as much as I would like to. I'm headed to Salt Lake City in about eight minutes, and I wish I had more time to give an update on this week's mixtape, but I digress. 

Here it is, and if you're still reading this blog, thank you. 

Albums to look forward to in 2015!

I've scoured the interwebs for a bunch of info on 2015 album releases (thank you Consequence of Sound, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Metacritic, Ranker) and here's an incredibly quick listing of albums that I promise to listen to MANY MANY times which are ranked from somewhat excited to RIDICULOUSLY excited):

Brandon Flowers - TBA
Savages - TBA
The Dodos - Individ (1/27)
Wild Nothing - TBA
Panda Bear (Noah Lennox from Animal Collective) - Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
Heems (from the now extinct Das Racist) - Eat Pray Thug (3/10)
Jose Gonzalez - Vestiges & Claws (2/17)
Fleetwood Mac - TBA
Chromatics - Dear Tommy
Pusha T - King Push
Freddie Gibbs - Lifestyles of the Insane
James Blake - TBA
DIIV - TBA
Purity Ring
Belle & Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (1/20)
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (1/20)
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2/10)
Death Cab for Cutie - TBA
Chance the Rapper - Surf
Blood Orange - TBA
Joey Bada$$ (finally!) - B4.DA.$$ (1/20)
Band of Horses - TBA
Drake - Views From the 6
Adele - TBA
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves (3/3)
Beach House - TBA
A$AP Rocky
Grimes - TBA
Run the Jewels - RTJ3
My Morning Jacket - TBA
Kanye West - TBA
Kendrick Lamar - TBA
Radiohead - TBA
Frank Ocean - TBA