Monday Mixtape, Vol. 223

Over the many years since I met my wife, I have slowly warmed up to country music. It’s the genre du jour at her family’s house. I got introduced to legends like Waylon Jennings and Garth Brooks and newcomers like Midland. Not to mention Kacey Musgraves, who I was following by the time the classic, Golden Hour, came out and was my #1 Album of 2018.

Welp, I there’s another classic album to add to the repertoire: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time.

My first few thoughts when I heard this album:

• There are like 8-12 legit hit songs on this album.

• I’ve never heard an album that’s 36 tracks long I can play all the way through.

• He’s very clever with words and melodies.

• He’s a musical shapeshifter, fitting into different molds of music like rap (“Sunrise” and “180 (Lifestyle)”), John Mayer pop rock (“One Thing At A Time” and “Me + All Your Reasons”), Kings of Leon (“Hope That’s True” and the general tone of a specific reverb-y electric guitar you’ll hear throughout), and of course, country, but in so many sub-genres.

• This will have to be one of my top albums, if not my #1 album of the year.

I don’t care if you don’t like country, this album’s worth a try. And it’s really lame if you were like me and have ever said, “I like everything but country.” No, you don’t. You just haven’t found your country.

I added some other great tracks to round out Mr. Wallen, including the powerful “Never Learned To Dance” by Medium Build, a new artist I just discovered. There’s something so emotionally bare about this song, and it’s chrous. Some great lines in the song, none more powerful, “The things that I don’t know could build a million fucking houses.” I feel ya, man.

Have a good week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 179

A few notable musical events this past week:

• Kings of Leon released their eighth album. While after a listen, I thought maybe this one is a mellow release, but no, it’s a snoozer. Caleb Followill is STILL PLAYING THE SAME GUITAR WITH THE SAME TONE AND THE SAME BAR CHORDS THAT HE’S BEEN PLAYING SINCE Only By the Night. WTF.

  • "The Bandit” is a totally regurgitated track in almost every sense and instrument from previous outings, but I can’t deny that chorus.

  • KOL used to be one of my favorite bands. Their first three albums still kick ass and sounded nothing like I had heard before. I will always love those albums (and really, their two albums after that are pretty good too.)

• Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak created a supergroup, Silk Sonic, and all that can be said is DEAR GOD YES.

• M.A.G.S. gives me indie rock Frank Ocean vibes. Really interested in this artist.

• The bass line on the first track, “Slowly” by the young Irish band, NewDad, is a heaping of 90s grunge and a dash of shoegaze. Some Nirvana with a bit Pixies and a smidge of DIIV. Good stuff.

• I can’t hate on Post Malone. I’ve been giving this guy love since 2015 when I had “White Iverson” on Monday Mixtape, Vol. 15! And when he covers Hootie for a Pokemon movie, I mean come on, let’s all just enjoy it.

• I don’t know who she is, but Julia Jacklin is pretty badass.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 22

Good morning, afternoon, and evening! There's some good music in store:

I stumbled upon Cousin Stizz recently. His debut album, Suffolk County, is chill rap at its rawest. Hailing from the Boston area, Stizz is one of those artists that sounds real, nothing contrived or forced. Rarely does he speed up his strolling delivery, but when he does, it's powerful (see: "Bonds" and "I Got It").

I spoke about Rome Fortune back in my 5 Faves of him, and at the time I hadn't heard anyone like him. But Stizz has similar beats and cadences. They're both in their own world, a galaxy of soma and sedatives. His vocals also remind me of Kid Cudi too (who should also be releasing an album sometime soon). If you like the spaced-out "No Bells" and "No Explanation," definitely check out this album. It's one of my favorite rap debuts this year.

Listen to the beginning of "Narrows." Does it remind you of another song? Or maybe a band? The guitar at 0:29 sounds exactly like the clean guitar sound on a number of their albums (in fact I would venture to say the guitars are the same make - Gibson - and possibly a similar model). Anything? The song: "Arizona," the band: Kings of Leon.

I can't stop listening to Widowpeak's album which "Narrows" is on. It's super chill and is paced really well without one bad track. Put it on in the background and enjoy. It's definitely made it's way into my Top 25 Albums this year.

I included AM & Shawn Lee on last week's Mixtape, but these guys write catchy electro-popish tracks, so I thought everyone would enjoy my other favorite track on their album.

Another pop quiz: Do you think "Sister of Pearl" by Baio sounds like any other band you know? If you guessed Vampire Weekend, then you are on your game. Or maybe you were even smarter and knew the name of Vampire Weekend's bassist was Chris Baio and put two and two together. (If you thought this was Scott Baio's band, you can see yourself out) Either way, I'm excited for Baio's album which is release THIS FRIDAY. 

"Disintegrate" by Painted Palms has a lot of influences. You got Cut Copy for sure. LCD Soundsystem, no question. Holy Ghost! as well. I'm actually surprised they're not on the DFA record label. I need to give their album another go round because the first time wasn't too impressive. However, this track keeps growing on me, so maybe the album will too. To be continued...

If you've been reading my stuff for a bit, you know I love the last song on albums (I already referenced "Arizona" on this post!), and Dan Auerbach's (of The Black Keys) The Arcs' last track, "Searching the Blue," is subtly sweet and a great closer for their album and this mixtape. If you haven't read up on my review of The Arcs' great album, please do!

Have a good week.