Monday Mixtape, Vol. 193

All sorts of stuff on this week’s mixtape to absorb! I had never listened to Deafheaven until this past week, and I really dig their new album. They’re best described as shoe-gaze rock (although many categorize them as metal, which I imagine comes from their previous albums because this album doesn’t have much metal sound albeit some screaming and kick ass distorted guitars), and if you like the band Nothing, these guys are for you!

My buddy introduced me to The Brook & The Bluff, and I think this track from their 2019 album is the best. Great rhythm, good singer, upbeat.

More Kacey Musgraves for all those who didn't get enough of her on last week’s mixtape.

Remember Sneaker Pimps?? Remember the greatest song that every 90s kid should know?

Well they’re back with their first album in…checks Spotify…double checks Spotify…19 years!! I need to listen to it a bit more because they have their own sound, but if you like “Fighter,” listen to the rest of the album.

And finally, a band that is slowly becoming one of my favorite bands, The War On Drugs. They’ve released two new singles from their forthcoming album on October 29th. They are on an epic run as their last two albums were phenomenal. Each year, I love both albums more and more (and I still need to listen to their three earlier albums much more.). Also, the markings of a special band is when they’re even better live. These guys are a must see in concert.

That’s all I got. Enjoy the week!

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. 111

Greetings! I spoke a lot about Mac Miller on Vol. 110 as I put a recently released track on the mixtape. Well, he released his new album, Swimming, and I've really been digging it. It's got some funky vibes, none better than the Thundercat-led "What's the Use?" I can understand if you can't get over Miller's singing voice, but I applaud him for veering outside of rap only and getting a little jiggy wit it. 

The Brummies. What the hell kind of a name is that? I...don't know. But this album is a great hodgepodge of sounds and influences. My fave track is the Kacey Musgraves-assisted "Drive Away."

I mean, I had to put a new song from John Mayer on this. Apparently, now that he's 40, he's a new guy! You can date me now, girls! You'll see me in a new light, I swear. Uhhh ok. 

Big Red Machine is one of Justin Vernon's thirty bands he's in outside of Bon Iver. This one is with The National's Aaron Dessner. Looking forward to the album which is coming out shortly. 

This new Travis Scott album is awesome. I've never listened to him before, and "COFFEE BEAN" is not a good representative track from his new album since no other song sounds like this. He's more on the auto-tune stuff with his other tracks, but I love it. I was surprised how good it was, and from what I've read on the interwebs, it's his best release to date. Listen!

Have a good week all! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 99

I'm blown away. Kacey Musgraves just released her fourth album (if you count her Christmas album), Golden Hour, and it's a stunning album from the sultry, smokey soul. This will end up as one of my favorite albums this year, a must listen for all because it's so damn universal. 

I was trying to find a comparison for this album because it's easy listening in the best possible way. You turn it on and do whatever you gotta do - run, walk, drive, party, have a drink or a smoke, talk, you name it.

In an album review by Rob Harvilla from The Ringer, he noted it was an album to smoke a joint to (as Musgraves notoriously loves to do - amongst some other psychedelics that clearly influenced the album), as you float away in the slow burn of Musgraves' music.

Back to the best comparison: Some might think of this as a dig AND OF COURSE IT'S NOT IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME, but the album reminds me (though a bit more country and twangy) of John Mayer during his Room For Squares days. Every song is beautiful, listenable, different, and buoyed by a flow that never gets too fast or lulls you to sleep. Songs have different tempos and keys and instruments, nothing is boring. There’s highs and lows and in betweens, Musgraves gets all my emotions, just as Mayer could do but Musgraves comes more authentic to me. Though Mayer obviously wins the guitar battle.

John Mayer even gave his own post two cents on the album on Facebook:

Her voice goes straight to the soul. You stick to her siren in "Golden Hour," or her melodies in "Butterflies," or her balladry in "Rainbows," or her sexiness in "Slow Burn."

And you might think her voice sounds too perfect (or produced, as they say, like all the no talent ass clown pop stars who can’t sing but fourtunately have computers that fix their inability to sing and writers that fix their inability to pen a song). Well, I give you Exhibit A from her performance on Colbert, where she crushed it:

This album should be ingested whole and given a lot of time to sink in. It only gets better. 

Enjoy :)

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 42

Because I missed last week (which makes it two missed mixtapes in about the past four weeks - sorry), there is a large amount of music that I would love to just jam in here. Fortunately for me, I can add some tracks to the backlog that didn’t make the cut. 

So what’s happened in the past two weeks? Kanye’s album got released on Spotify, I discovered a new rapper from DC who is amazing (thank you Paddy), Pete Yorn released a Pete Yorn-y album, my Spotify Discover Playlist was ON POINT and I found two really cool new bands, Young Thug dropped a mixtape/album/who knows and was featured in a captivating GQ profile, Bibio released an album, AND Tame Impala decided to remix a song from Miguel’s new album.

The crazy thing about Tame Impala’s remix (last track on the mixtape) of Miguel’s “Waves - It wasn’t even the best remix. That honor goes to Kacey Musgraves, who gave a bit of twang and a whole lot of beach vibes while still keeping the super charged sexual innuendos alive. “Body surf on me / don’t stop / I wanna ride that wave / all night / I wanna ride that wave.”

Miguel makes some baby making music, but hearing Musgraves sing these lyrics takes it to another level. 

KANYE. A divisive figure who I officially can no longer defend. The transgressions are too many at this point. I can still love his music, but I’m totally tired of him. This is one of my favorite tracks from his new album with rap god Kendrick Lamar. I think the album is pretty great and certainly worth a listen for any rap fan. I’ll have some more tracks from the album in other mixtapes.

I spoke about Thugger earlier. His music is just strange, but that profile I read provides a bit more insight into the guy. He’s an alien. And it sounds like a man with a lifestyle that will leave him dead at a very early age. 

LOVE this song from Moses Gunn Collective, particularly that drugged out guitar bending to infinity. 

Remember Pete Yorn? That guy that had a classic album musicforthemorningafter? Well this track reminds me a lot of it. Sorry that I’m just asking the guy to play the hits, but when you’ve made like five other albums (most of which i’ve listened to!) and just aren’t doing it for me, it’s all I ask. 

Bibio releases tracks like “Wren Tails” that make me think I’m coasting through a Wes Anderson movie in a convertible watching the leaves change. Beautiful songs. 

Oddisee is a rapper from DC who my buddy put me on to. I have been listening to him a lot the past week and am amazed with his technical abilities (his second verse in “Want Something Done” is sick!) and production. This guy has some serious talent and is due to breakout. Just a taste of his rhymes: 

“We started off locally / and now this chains globally / that’s the way it’s supposed to be / single seeds only grow to trees / if left alone to breathe / so lets take some time to expose the weeds / feeding off the roots of the culture vultures next to you / convincing you to stay in the forest when they the record crew.”