Salutations to all you Monday Mixtapers! This mixtape is surrounded by Big Wild, a newly discovered electro-pop band that I’ve been digging. Their instrumental, “Pale Blue Dot,” might be my favorite track of them all.
If you didn’t catch the Band of Skulls track on last week’s Mixtape, here’s another gem. Despite the misfortunate terrible band name, these guys (and girls) rock. Been enjoying this album.
Have a great week all!
Apologies for my absence, it’s been a hectic few weeks, including a trip to NYC and a new puppy! Her name is June. Anyhoo, I got some great music for you, starting with the one, and truly only, Colter Wall, a young man of just 23 years with a voice of syrupy bourbon and bass. WOW when you hear this guy. Definitely check his new album out.
There’s an indie supergroup named boygenius comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridges, and Lucy Dacus, and their album has little tinges of all of their sounds while being led by Baker’s (her looooooooooooNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!! words that she’s known to sing can stretch for over 10 seconds and the scream just gathers steam as it goes (listen to “Stay Down” at 3:11 where “down” is clocked in at about 11 seconds), it’s an equivalent “wow factor” to rappers who can do a verse on one breath because they’ve mastered how to breathe into through their nose while rapping) vocals and craftsmanship. The two tracks I put on this week’s mixtape were my two faves.
I’m so happy with Young the Giant, they just released their fourth album, and it’s got to be their second best album (it’s going to be VERY hard to ever top their first album which was close to flawless and had JAM after JAM and my fave YTG song, “Islands"). There isn’t any letdown on this album, it’s paced well and has a distinct sound and numerous great songs. My favorite might be their last track on the album, “Mirror Master,” what a catchy tune.
Fleet Foxes technically just released “Icicle Tusk." As you might be able to hear, this sounds like early Fleet Foxes, and sure enough, it was made back in 2006, two years before they even released their debut album. Beauty of a song. Robin Pecknold’s voice is in my Top 5 right now.
Empress of’s sophomore album is MUCH more poppy than her debut, a somewhat disappointing surprise. That’s not to say these aren’t good songs, but I’m disappointed because her last album was so weird and unique, whereas this album (and the song on this week’s mixtape “When I’m With Him”) could have be sung by so many different pop vocalists.
Finally, The Belle Game is a band I discovered years ago because their debut album, "Ritual Tradition Habit, was this somewhat dreary, reverb-soaked, distorted sound with beautiful vocals. I’m listening to “Wait up for You” right now, and what a song!
Have a great week all!
This week’s mixtape comes with little writeup, so listen up!
A Moon Shaped Pool is a dark confessional, most likely about the ending of his relationship with his girlfriend of 23 years. This album is a mini-orchestra with horns, cellos, violins, who knows what else. It all starts with the first notes - the strings - of the album on "Burn the Witch. "
It's further explored on "Daydreaming" and all of the orchestral elements come to an unforgettable crescendo on the most delicate song of the album, the wandering "Glass Eyes":
And the path trails off and heads down a mountain through the dry bush. I don't know where it leads and I don't really care.
Read MoreThanks to Memorial Day, there is quite a backlog of great music for you. Overall, I’ve been pretty disappointed in the music that’s been released this year, it just seems to me like a down year. But, there are a ton of bands I love (Local Natives, Blind Pilot, Young the Giant) still to release theirs.
I’m particularly excited for Local Natives’ new album. I’ve had three favorite bands in the past decade - Local Natives, US Royalty, and Tame Impala (while Radiohead being the all-decades favorite) - and they’re all on their third album with only Tame Impala to release the masterpiece Currents. Third albums are huge for bands that garnered a lot of recognition for their first album because the sophomore release is always allowed to be a regurgitation of the first since the first was so good. (And for the record, Local Natives second album was not like their first, but it just wasn’t as good.) Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys are great examples of that. Their second albums were pretty darn good, it sounded like the first, so no one complained.
But the third is a different story. It shows whether a band has “it” however one may define it. My definition: a sound and structure that is unique and original and a dedication and labor of love that is apparent that it all makes for an unforgettable album, something to be remembered because it sounds like nothing else. Currents did exactly that for me. So did Vampire Weekend’s third masterpiece of an album while Arctic Monkey’s third album went a little too far off field and gave too much sound control to Josh Homme (producer of the album and lead singer/songwriter of Queens of the Stone Age). Though “Cornerstone” is still one of my faves by them.
SO WHAT I WAS TRYING TO GET AT: there’s a lot riding on this album for Local Natives. And that being said, their new single provides hope. I still think Taylor Rice’s vocals sound a bit whiney, but I just LOVE the sounds they get out of their drums and guitars. How awesome is the drum-off starting at 2:17 which leads into some serious kick-ass electric guitar lick? That is Local Natives' specialty, a messy conglomeration of harmonies and other sounds that bleed like waterfalls. It’s beautiful. So maybe I’m getting more excited for their new album now!
A few other notes:
I though Post Malone was a joke - BECAUSE I LOOKED AT A PICTURE OF HIM - although I loved “White Iverson,” but I obviously couldn’t take him seriously. And though on his track on this Monday Mixtape he’s talking about flexing with gold grills and all sorts of other shit about his squad and sending “Snaps” to his girl, “Go Flex” has a great hook and even a little acoustic guitar in it!
“Something to Believe In” is Young the Giant’s sultriest song yet. Sameer Gadhia is the modern day Brandon Boyd (of Incubus) - he has one of the best voices in the business, but I think Young the Giant is mainly disrespected by critics. Have they listened to “Islands??” (Yes, I know Incubus is still making music).
The beat that starts the song by Allan Rayman sounds like it should have been on a Montell Jordan tracks. Love it. I don’t know too much about this Allan Rayman guy nor an I sure how to describe him, but this is one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard all year.
“Feel No Ways” is one of my two favorite tracks from Drake’s new, somewhat disappointing album. I think there are some good songs, but a lot of not so good songs which is not usual for Drizzy.
I am heading to LA on Saturday for two weeks, but I will try to post something for next week’s mixtape because there are a lot more songs I want to share.
After listening to music on Spotify for 101,976 minutes this year (I will forever remember that number!), I was able to whittle down my list of top tracks of the year from roughly 240 to 100. It was a tough process. A lot of great songs got left off, but what I love about making these lists is that all 100 songs I truly enjoyed and listened to many, many times. In fact, “last place” at #100 was Theophilus London’s “Do Girls,” a song that I played constantly over a two week span.
Read More1. Local Natives - Guerilla Manor
2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
4. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
6. Young the Giant - Young the Giant
7. Beach House - Teen Dream
8. Gary Clark Jr. - Gary Clark Jr.
9. Best Coast - Crazy for You
10. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
11. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
12. The National - High Violet
13. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
14. Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
15. Robyn - Body Talk