I always love when Spotify provides some details on my listening patterns, habits and overall time spent just jamming out to music. While I will never top my 101,000 minutes of music in one year, I still enjoy these and wanted to share what I had, including:
62,510 minutes listening to music!
1,377 Artists listened to
149 musical genres listened to
I’m in the 0.5% of listeners to Mac Miller this year
The War on Drugs released a new album, one I have not been able to ingest enough, but i did include one track that caught my attention. More to come.
Mac Miller’s 2014 mixtape Faces just got released on vinyl and streaming services, and it’s the one mixtape of his I had never heard! There are many, many references to drugs. Many. And it is obviously taking place in the middle of the blurry road he was on to his tragic overdoes only four years later. “Should have died already…” is Miller’s first line on the mixtape.
Listening to Faces, an album he mostly produced himself, it’s wild he was only 22 years old. His rapping and lyrics were really crafty and clever, and his production showed so many signs of the brilliance he could create. You may notice the sample in this week’s track, “Diablo,” a straight lift from “In a Sentimental Mood” by Coltrane and Ellington.
Although he took the back seat to producing his next few albums (while still writing every song), his final and posthumous album, Circles, was produced by him and super producer, Jon Brion. Faces is worth a deep dive for any Miller fan, and I’ll be adding my favorite tracks over the next few weeks.
Spotify led me to Yeek or Verzache, and I’m digging their sound!
Lots of new music to wrap your ears around today and very little for me to say! Happy Monday.
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.
Morning all. I think the world is reeling a bit with the deaths of Kobe, his daughter, her teammate and father, and another unannounced individual. While this may be a bit coarse, during his playing days, I did not like Kobe as a player or a person, but I, like almost everyone, respected his work ethic and devotion.
He certainly had his weaknesses, and the sexual assault case is the largest unknown, a criminal case which was dropped once the witness / alleged victim did not testify after bringing a civil suit, a case which was settled for a never disclosed amount.
It’s hard to reflect on a person’s life when you don’t know the person at all, yet he/she seemed like such a presence in mine, and all of their blemishes and mistakes are out in the public.
This brings me back to the hardest death I can remember of someone I never deal but genuinely cared about, Mac Miller. Miller pretty much finished the 2nd of what he wanted to be a three album cycle. The last album, never made, was supposed to be a straight rap album, showing the world he still loved to do what made him.
So the second album in this cycle, Circles, was released posthumously two weeks ago. Given how much I loved Swimming, I didn’t think it was possible to be as good or surpass it. But Circles is phenomenal. I need to listen more to make a final judgment as I still think Swimming is better, but time will tell. I’m blown away at the musicianship and the many pieces, sounds of different eras, styles, and ideas that floated through this guy’s head.
Miller was constantly getting better as a musician, and these albums are proof of the leaps and bounds he continued to make. He constantly worked on his craft as a producer, rapper, singer, etc.,, a devotion and love of his craft which sounded similar to Kobe’s. Always get better. RIP to the both of them.
As for the remainder of the mixtape, rapper Theophilus London released a new album which has some great tracks on it, a couple which are produced by Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. The two tracks on here are my two faves.
Have a good week all.
I'm pretty torn up about Mac Miller's death. This feels like the first musician that I grew up with that's tragically passed away. His death kept me up the night it was announced, and my mind had difficulty processing a musical soul gone way, way too early.
From 2010, I watched a young, silly, goofy white rapper from Pittsburgh rap dumb songs about Donald Trump while showing his potential with "Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza" and "Nikes on My Feet. " He knew he had something behind that always cheesin’ half smile on his face in videos like he was in on the surprise that he was blowing up too.
Miller moved out to L.A. and started taking music more seriously; consequently, he started taking drugs more seriously, ultimately leading to his overdose. It really is a tragedy because his most recently released album, the phenomenal Swimming, and without a doubt his best album to date, an album that started to show his growth as a lyricist, showed that this guy had range and ingenuity.
He wrote songs with John Mayer, Thundercat, Jon Brion, and Dev Hynes on this album. He was really searching and finding something despite all his clear troubles. Swimming is a really sad album that holds onto a sliver of hope in a heavy ocean, but it was so clear he was finding himself as a musician.
Read MoreGreetings! 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!
This opening track from Rayland Baxter should uplift you from the dreary feeling of another Monday with the understanding that beauty can constantly be created and sound is one perfect avenue to see that. Gorgeous song, and a pretty darn good album too!
The Dead Tongues are somewhat of an acquired taste, and I'd recommend to give them a little time. Open up a bit and be more willing to like other stuff. This has twang and bluegrass and country, all things that I typically avoid, but not here. I love it. This song sounds like it could be played during a Braveheart montage as William Wallace trains his troops and grows as a man beside the babbling brook. What a cool song.
If you haven't noticed yet, this week's mixtape is pretty chill. It's this week's theme! Shallou, who I'd have to say is an Odesza wannabe, makes good Odesza wannabe songs. So just nod your head to the rhythm.
Everyone has their own preconceived notions of Mac Miller, and I think they're usually either wrong or dated opinions that may have applied to him years and years ago. He gets flak because he's a white rapper who was somewhat goofy in his come up days, but that was actually just who he was.
He since then got famous, dated a pop star, and got (maybe still?) addicted to drugs which can CLEARLY be heard in the change in sound from his debut album Blue Slide Park to his groggy and spaced out (while still enjoyable and more artistic - ALTHOUGH his biggest issue as a rapper has always been his lyrics. They're usually either silly, stupid, both, or just plain. He's just not a good lyricist. Maybe he'll grow into it, but I doubt it. The only thing he can do is be honest and write from that perspective, which is what he's doing on his new stuff) Watching Movies with the Sound Off.
All that being said, I've always followed him since his days of "Nikes on My Feet," a 90s throwback that I'm ALWAYS a sucker for (the Nas hook might help):
Song starts at 1:40. Yeah the rapping isn't the best, but it was my beginning to think he's got some places to go. Cut to his fifth album which was just released, Swimming, and he's come a long way and more serious, and sadly, more sad. "Buttons" was included as a single before the album release, and surprisingly, not on the album. I love the beat, and like most other rappers, he's singing now. Which sounds like a guy who can't sing sing, but if it's coming from some place sincere, it's a way of expression. I oddly like it, so we'll see if you agree.
Ahh Drake. I've listened to his new album a ton. It's two sides, a rap side and his R&B/rap-ish side. I love the R&B side, and this song was a creeper. I listened to it many times, not paying it much attention, then all of a sudden I realized who catchy it was. I just can't hate on Drake, I love him.
FINALLY, Diamond Thug - AND ACTUALLY I should first give a big shout out to my buddy Dave who put me on to a number of the artists on this mixtape since they were on his Best Albums of 2018 list. We are about as close as you can get to music dopplegangers, so shout out to Dave! - who really reminds me of Little Dragon with a bit more of the Odesza-like sounds. Really digging this album.
Ok, that's it. Enjoy!
The real star on this mixtape is Amber Arcades. This is the female Deerhunter. If you don't know Deerhunter, do yourself a favor and go listen to Halcyon Digest, one of the strangest, catchiest rock albums this decade. I included "Nothing Ever Happened" to follow Amber Arcades because a) I thought it sounded the most like "Fading Lines" although Deerhunter's "Desire Lines" was a very close second and b) it's my favorite Deerhunter song and it's actually not on Halcyon Digest!
Just started listening to this track by Future Haunts - whoever the hell they are (all two tracks of them on Spotify) - and it immediately caught me.
These Spotify Sessions curated by Jim Eno (the drummer of Spoon and producer extraordinaire) are recorded really well and worth checking out. I heard this one with FJM and have been digging into them since.
A while back I wrote about Ghostface Killah making a really great jazzy album with a group called Badbadnotgood. This is a track off their new album with the wild and super cool live:
lead singer from Future Islands. (Letterman loved it!)
Have a great week all.
Albums make music permanent. Albums are the story to the chapters, the theme of so many thoughts. Albums are what make songs something more.
This year has provided so many albums - to the tune of 1,457 artists, 6,426 songs, and 100 thousand minutes of music that I’ve listened. And I listened to and loved nothing more than Tame Impala’s Currents.
As I wrote in my album review, Currents is a wonderfully freeing musical expression and acknowledgement of adaptation for the sake of Parker and no others. One of the coolest things I noted was that Currents is so different than its two top notch predecessors, yet it eclipses both.
"Yes, I'm changing," Kevin Parker sweetly serenades the critics, haters, and trolls, "Yes, I'm gone / Yes, I'm older / Yes, I'm moving on / And if you don't think it's a crime / you can come along with me / Life is moving / can't you see?"
My love for Natalie Prass is evident if you read this blog. It all started because of her debut album. I did not write a review, I just enjoyed the many, many instruments and Prass' vocals delicately absorbing the wind and strings to harmonize above it all.
It’s been the best year in rap in many many years. Six rappers made it onto my list, and three of them - Drake, Lupe Fiasco, Kendrick Lamar - in the top six! Each album was completely different.
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