A Thorough Friday
Em's Fresh Fridays
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Fresh For The Holidays
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Holidayzed
Happy Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, all. I hope you managed to find friends, family, or at least food to get you through a week that's often rough and complicated for those of us who try to practice radical love. It was a hard one for me, but it's nothing that 10mg of THC can't solve.
Exclusions
I know it needs to be addressed, but no, I'm not including the new David Bowie posthumous record, given that I haven't decided how to confront the stories of him having sex with underage girls back in the 70s. It's hard to see someone you admire being accused of statutory rape, but here we are. I hope he grew in the decades after that. I like to think that he did. Either way, I'm not including him on here because I just feel a little gross about it still.
The Playlist
I'm not at work today, so it's a good time to run back to my roots and just go track by track again. Listen along and keep up.
We open today on Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA's anticipated third studio album. I've been waiting for this one, personally and I hope it hits you the same way. We've also got a new album from Alan Walker. It's a bit of an odd bird, since it's primarily intended to be a visual album and was designed around a series of music videos that convey the concept of the record. That said, what else would you expect from the largest YouTuber in Norway?
I regret to announce that Mura Masa is exactly the type of producer that catches my attention consistently. Yes, it's another white English producer who's worked with Charli XCX. Yes, I'm electronic-pop trash. Shut the fuck up. Here, I'll offset it with 16-year-old Claire Rosinkrantz's new single, which is making me feel very unaccomplished in life right now.
Following some line-up changes, Years & Years is now the solo project of Olly Alexander, who was recently rumored to be a possibility to take on the role of The Doctor. This has been debunked, but it's still mildly interesting to me. Here we find him paired with Swedish dance-pop producers Galantis who bring Sweet Talker up to an energetic frenzy that will challenge you to shake off the holiday blues.
At this point, I assume you are all sick of AURORA, but we're back with a song from the final season of Amazon Prime's Hanna. I really like this kid and will not stop sharing her music. Following that, I found that midwxst has a new track out that's basically all about a bitter and messy break-up. Not really my speed lyrically, but I get it.
Sipper has a new single out. If you don't know Sipper yet, don't worry. Joe Beerman is still a very fresh face in the industry. If you like this type of lo-fi, understated indie, run back and catch his album Pink Songs, which I missed earlier this year. daine has given us an emo-pop single from her upcoming debut mixtape, which I'm personally extremely excited for, given the high profile collaborations she's worked on recently (Bring Me The Horizon, 100 gecs, Charli XCX).
TikTok viral superstar TOKYO'S REVENGE has a deft new track out today that left me slack-jawed. I'm extremely excited to see what this guy's capable of if he ever releases a full length mixtape or studio record. If you're like me, though, you're far more interested in the news that Bloc Party has announced a new record! Hymns came out in 2016, so getting another record from them is going to be refreshing to say the least when it comes out in April.
I don't have much to say about Dylan's You're Not Harry Styles, except that it's catchy as hell and pretty much exactly captures what I want from this style of roséwave pop. Allie X just released the deluxe version of her alt-pop record Cape God which came out last year. An album inspired by the opioid crisis, it's got a good amount of heft to it, which we see reflected in the four new tracks that came out today. It's a track that feels like navigating life wide awake in the middle of the night. It's vaguely dangerous in its peaceful hum.
Lowell is an artist that's possibly best known for her collaborative writing (Madison Beer, Hailee Steinfeld, Bülow, Icona Pop), but here we get a single all her own, full of layered vocals reminiscent of boygenius's Ketchum, ID. I haven't been paying attention to the lyrics, but the vibe is really fucking hitting me today. Excuse me while I have a good cry.
Okay, I never did the work to dive into the whole Wu-Tang library, but you don't need to know much to know that a new track from Ghostface Killah and Raekwon is exciting. We've also got a new album from Remedy, titled Remedy Meets WuTang. Remedy's been working with Wu-Tang for the past twenty years, and here we see him pulling in as many collaborations as possible on a solo album that tries desperately to be anything but solo.
God damn, I hate that I love this, but... Dionne Warwick and Chance the Rapper have a new single and I fucking love this shit so much. Chance is corny as hell and I'm just fully bought in. The vocal processing on Dionne's part is really good and it just feels like a warm hug. It's a fundraiser single, so head over to Kind Music Group and drop a dollar in the hat.
This one's a mouthful, so bear with me as I introduce a nearly ten minute long rap track from 3d Na'tee, Grafh, KXNG Crooked, Locksmith, Mysonne, Page Kennedy, Ransom, Royce Da 5'9", and The Game. It's a bear of a track, but it stays alive throughout and keeps you interested for the duration. What a grouping of voices.
You heard me talk about The Wonder Years' vocalist Dan Campbell last week, but this week we've got something new from the full band. It's a Christmas single, but I didn't realize that when I added it to the playlist, so it gets to sneak onto both playlists. I love this shit so much.
There's a cool new MOSSY remix done by Banoffee, whom I adore. I guess they're calling it a re-work, not a remix? Idk what the difference is, but it's still good. Speaking of remixes, Serengeti's gentle fall just got remixed by composer/producer/member of the greater Bon Iver family, Andrew Broder.
Two tracks today from the soundtrack for Arcane League of Legends. I've heard good things about the show, but honestly the music alone has kept me excited. The first one we've got is a blazing rap track from Denzel Curry, Gizzle, and Bren Joy, with the second being alt-rock joy from MIYAVI and PVRIS. Christ, what a handful of incredible musicians.
My friend Jess introduced me to Dear Other about a year ago, commenting that I'd probably like it as someone who's perpetually Christ-haunted. Well, they were right and I've been anxiously watching them ever since. This new track is pretty much exactly what I want from whatever genre of acoustic indie you want to consider this.
Yes, there's more BADBADNOTGOOD, but this time they're with VANO 3000 and Samuel T. Herring, so technically it's not exactly the same as what I've been plaguing you with for months. We've also got Fifth Harmony alum Normandi being remixed by the inimitable producer KAYTRANADA.
This next one's interesting to me, since it's... a thirteen year old named Nell Smith who caught the attention of The Flaming Lips after regularly attending their shows in costume. This record is entirely Nick Cave covers, at TFL vocalist Wayne Coyne's urging. Basically, she recorded the record and then The Flaming Lips came in and recorded all the rest of the shit over top of her parts. What a fucking trip to imagine having happen to you at such a young age. I hope you enjoy this.
EELS. GARAGE ROCK. SPRING REVERB. NEXT!
Grunge and shoegaze merge with Softcult's new song about "changing for other people and losing ourselves in the process." Not gonna say that I don't have a lot of feelings on this topic recently, but that's another blog post. In the meantime, Jim Perkins has an ambient instrumental track to take us floating before we get to a few Japanese tracks.
If you know the name Hikaru Utada, I'm just going to assume it's because you were as obsessed with Kingdom Hearts as I was. Well, she's back with an A.G. Cook produced track that kinda just makes me want to smack the shit out of some Heartless while screaming at Goofy for being a shitty party member. Math rock band tricot has a new one this week, too.
It's a quarantine record from Thank You Scientist, as they deliver a new prog-rock EP that somehow comes in at exactly 20:20 long. A year late, friends, but I'll forgive you this time.
Catie Turner's song God Must Hate Me is kinda hitting me hard today. This whole thing's a vibe.
I don't know what I believe
But it's easier to think
He made a mistake with me.
And we've got a new EP from Aaron Gillespie. Pop quiz to see if y'all have been reading along with these: who is this and why do I care so much? I love this, though, as he pulls out the acoustic guitar and embraces a lot of what made The Almost's first record so captivating.
Christina Perri has a heartbreaking new album out that celebrates and mourns her stillborn daughter, who was delivered in late 2020. I can't recommend this one for fragile hearts right now, but if you have the stomach for it, you'll be richly rewarded through the listen.
In surprising music news, we've got a track from La Roux covering Gang of Four, which feels really good to hear. I don't know why this one feels healing to me, but it does. Oceanator just dropped a new track with JER (Skatune Network, We Are The Union), an unsurprising collaboration given the fact that both have collaborated on Jeff Rosenstock's Ska Dream project and are currently both on tour with Jeff as he performs that record live. This isn't a new song, necessarily, but it is a new version of the song and it's notable enough to be worth calling out.
Thyla keeps teasing their debut record, out next month, with today's single Flush bringing us a lush indie pop/rock track that builds into a huge wall of sound so quickly that you'll be swept off your feet before you even knew it was an option.
A Tap On The Shoulder is a new album from David Grubbs and Ryley Walker, two legends who have come together for the second time this year for an album of instrumental pieces. I kinda regret that I can only put one track on this playlist, since the record goes so many more places than a single song can contain. I highly recommend throwing this on and getting lost for 45 minutes. Once you've done that, you can listen to Jonny Greenwood's (Radiohead) haunting title theme for Paul Thomas Anderson's new Alana Haim-starring film Licorice Pizza.
I don't know much about ML Buch, but Twitter this morning seemed to think that this new song was important. I think I agree, which is why I'm letting it lull you into a sense of safety before smacking you up the head with grind supergroup Lock Up (Napalm Death, At The Gates, Pig Destroyer). It'll be okay if you skip this one.
The Soundcarriers are back with their first new music in seven years. If you don't know them, I recommend them to fans of Stereolab and Broadcast. Weirdly, they're only releasing music again because AMC started using their music for Lodge 49, which led them back into the studio to re-record existing material in a way that would make it appropriate for the TV series. Who'da thunk that TV could be good.
Finally, I leave you with the free jazz screamo of jpunk band Quiqui as they take you on a ride that is frankly not at all what I'd expect from the term "screamo". Don't turn it off too quickly.
Christmas Note
I'm not feeling particularly Christmassy yet this week, so Fresh For The Holidays is pretty ill-maintained. I don't think that's a playlist that I can make without having my heart in it, but I do keep tossing tracks in as I find them, so give it another look.
Okay, until next week.