Monday Mixtape, Vol, 204

Spoon. The band. The ageless wonders. These guys are in their 50s yet they’re still rocking. Example A: “Held,” the first track on their 13th album, 2022’s Lucifer on the Sofa. Certain bands and songwriters create sounds on records that are so clear and perfect that it sounds like they’re playing in your living room.

That hard bass drum beat in “Held” sinks into my skull, and I can’t help but nod. And the sounds of those guitar’s warming up into their opening riff, a riff that’s so clear in tone and so damn unique, I just get the feels when I hear stuff like this. Britt Daniel’s voice brings it all together and more instruments start to come in as the first verse winds up. God what a song.

(Don’t forget their first track, “Inside Out,” on their 2014 album They Want My Soul, was my #3 Song on my Top 100 Songs of 2014, and also an awesome listen to Britt Daniel’s break it down on Song Exploder

Tame Impala released a bunch of b-sides and mixes from their last album, The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker has said he spends 90% of his time creating music on the drum beats. It doesn’t matter if a drum beat sounds simple or not, it’s how it makes you feel, and “The Boat I Row” gives me the feels!

“Scared Money” is just an awesome rap track. It bangs hard, and I love J. Cole’s verse, so sick. YG kills it too.

As usual, Vince Staples is on a great track. His quality control is insane. He is rarely on a bad track.

This new Big Thief album is very long. 20 tracks and 1 hr 20 min. So it’s hard to get through it all. But they’re really weird and all over the place. “Time Escaping” gives you a good idea of their extensive palette.

My boy Pink Sweat$ with a feature from 6LACK ends off the mixtape with a beautiful love track. Enjoy the short week :)

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 137

Starting the mixtape with a new troubadour by the name of Alfie Templeton. He’s giving me some vibes of a more pop oriented Mac Demarco. His track “Stop Thinking (About Me)” show his pop chops while “Tragic Love” has that total Mac Demarco chilled out vibe.

ALPINE. These guys & gals are VERY underrated. A Is For Alpine is a really great debut album (from 2013) and no one sounds like them. They just released a new track that is as catchy as their best stuff and a hint of what’s to come on their new album. Check them out, go deep!

Speaking of underrated, Spoon is one of those somewhat unsung heroes of rock n’ roll. They’ve kept the torch alive for all the new bands to take rock forward, and they’re one of the most consistent bands in all of music.

Whitney’s debut album was really good. I can see how they’re divisive since the lead singer’s voice, is, um, a bit high, a bit weird, a bit whiny, and maybe VERY annoying to some, but it works for me, and they’ve developed a pretty big following. I compare them a bit - at least via the relaxed vibe - to Real Estate, though I’ll take Real Estate over them any day of the week.

Omar Apollo sounds like a mix between Gary Clark Jr. and Leon Bridges. Need I say more?

Faye Webster. If you didn’t read my earlier stuff, her album this year is easily one of my favorites, it might still be sitting at #1 today. SO LISTEN.

AND HAVE A GOOD WEEK.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 74

My love of Cousin Stizz dates back to 2015 when he released his debut album, Suffolk County, a pure and sincere rap album with no gimmicks, features, or pop songs, just raw as hell Stizz. He's been getting some buzz recently which would explain how he got Offset (from Migos) to feature on this week's opener. What a beat and a catch hook. 

I'm not exactly sure who Ron Gallo is, but if this song - the first track on 2017's HEAVY META - is any indication, the guy is a throwback. "Young Lady, You're Scaring Me" sounds like a song destined for a scene in a Scorcese movie when someone has done entirely too many drugs - as always happens in his movies - and is on a hotel balcony, teetering on the balcony, their life in the balance.  

Whitney just makes great background music. I put them in the same genre as Real Estate but with a bit more pep and soul. Love these guys. 

Spoon has once again released another really good album. I spoke about this a bit last week, but they are one of the few bands that adapt their sound a bit here and there and continue to make quality music while staying relevant over a timespan that any musician would strive for. 

If you forgot who Taleb Kweli was well shame on you! How could you forget one of the best rap albums of all time, Mos Def and Taleb Kweli Are Black Star, and one of my favorite rap songs:  

Kweli released an album with Styles P and this is my favorite track. Glad to hear he's still after it.

Don't know who Soulwax is, but this is one funky electro song. As for John Mayer making his way back on to the mixtape, I just thought "In the Blood" was a great song on what we have instilled in us from our parents and everything we've been through: Will it wash out in the water or is it always in the blood? 

Finally, Slowdive hasn't made an album since 1996, so we'll say they were due for some new music. If you can't hear their influcene on DIIV, well listen to DIIV again!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 73

Oh man, oh man. Kendrick. Let's start off with the fact that he released one of my favorite songs of the year, The Heart Part 4:

A song with three different beats that Kendrick destroys with a confidence and abandon that no other rapper alive could think of doing. This man KNOWS he is the greatest rapper alive. "Don't tell a lie on me, I won't tell the truth bout you," he threatens to all the shit talking rappers with little to back up against Lamar. 

This track was released prior to Lamar's album, DAMN. released on Friday. Because of the quality of The Heart Part 4, I was amazed by its absence on his new album. I thought, "Ruhroh. Either's he gone mad to not include something this good or his new album is so great he doesn't even need this track." 

So yeah, it's the latter. 

DAMN. is the astonishment of everyone hearing this album for the first time. DAMN. is the thought when Lamar announces on the first real track, DNA, aside the bass rattling, "I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA. Cocaine quarter piece, War and Peace inside my DNA." DAMN. is the realization that Lamar is now one of the best rappers of all time. There are too many damns that you almost stop giving a damn. But, really, DAMN!

I'm going to try to do an album review sometime soon of DAMN. because it's an astonishing piece of art. It's already getting crazy love on the interwebs, and as I am typing this, I am counting down the minutes until Kendrick headlines Coachella which can be watched (and almost all of Coachella, for that matter) for free on YouTube (God Bless America)! 

There's so much other great stuff going on in music right now, some of it included on this mixtape. Little Dragon released a pretty great album, Spoon released a quality album (they just don't make bad records - I don't like this one as much as They Want My Soul - probably because it doesn't have a track like Inside Out, but it's still a damn good listed), John Mayer released his best album since Continuum (more on this next week though I've written a ton about most of the songs on the album already since they were released in EPs before the whole album - this is some new gimmick thanks to Spotify and all the other streaming companies), Joey Bada$$ released a damn good sophomore album, and Father John Misty released an album which starts great but quickly falls off a boring ass cliff of regurgitated songs from his last two (great) albums. 

So this is a good one. Enjoy!