November 2024: Hearing Things Launches, MJ Lenderman Saturation, Stellar Laura Marling Review
Howdy folks!
A wonderful thing happened this past month: Andy Cush, Dylan Green, Jill Mapes, Ryan Dombal, and Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - five extensively experienced music writers who worked for Pitchfork, The Fader, and many other publications - launched Hearing Things, a worker-owned, algorithm-free “bulwark against all the bullshit” dedicated to “honest, authoritative interviews and reviews that decode the work of artists from a wide variety of genres.”
I’ve been voraciously consuming all of their stories throughout October. Folks, it’s the real deal. An honest to God site dedicated to music you can bookmark and look forward to reading regularly.
The first section of this month’s newsletter covers some of the best pieces from their launch month. Below that, you’ll find some more writing on MJ Lenderman and a wonderful review of Laura Marling’s latest.
The Best of Hearing Things (So Far)
Hearing Things introduced themselves with “100 Songs That Define Our Decade So Far.” Lists get derided as the lowest form of music writing, but the founding crew took a smart approach: Each of the five picked 20 songs that they felt represented the 2020’s and what was meaningful to them. They listed them alphabetically and wrote brief, compelling descriptions of why each song is interesting. They also include both Spotify and Apple Music (THANK YOU!) playlists so you can listen along. It took me a few weeks, but I made it through all 100 entries and I discovered a great deal of new-to-me favorites as well as fresh looks at songs I already cherished.
Hearing Things has a focus on artist profiles and examinations. An early favorite of mine is this profile of Mk.gee, “How The Hell Did Mk.gee Get This Big?” by Ryan Dombal. Given that I’d never heard of Mk.gee, I was curious, too.
Dombal does an excellent job of bringing a new audience in and helping us understand what’s so compelling. Mystery can be a powerful tool in music and its promotion (see: Orville Peck, Sia), but Mk.gee is not playing with identity, he’s “obscuring the typical trappings of popular music” and leaving listeners mystified.
I’ve probably pressed play on the album more than a hundred times by now, and I still don’t feel like I’m able to grab it, to really know it. So I just keep listening. In our era of soul-obliterating puzzle-box music marketing—What is Taylor Swift trying to tell us about her next deluxe reissue in this Capital One commercial?!—the casual inscrutability of this project feels like sweet relief.
The last piece I’ll call out for now (and there are so many I could pick) is Jill Mapes’s track review “Haley Heynderickx’s “Gemini” Is Reminder to Stop Hating on Yourself” from Hearing Things’s “Must Hear” section (their version of Pitchfork’s “Best New Music”).
The opening paragraph here is personal, insightful, and immediately connected me to the vibe of the music.
“Gemini,” a new song from Portland singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx, took me back to that dorm room while also speaking to the self-sabotage inflicted by so many of us creative folks.
We’re Reaching MJ Lenderman Saturation
I’ve linked a few pieces on MJ Lenderman in previous newsletters and you’re about to get some more. I’m not trying to push an agenda. He is just inspiring many writers and this newsletter is about great writing, not music discovery.
Jewly Hight gave him the classic profile treatment for The Bitter Southerner. He seems to be so reserved that you can feel Hight trying to pull more out of him with every quote. “It strikes me that he speaks the way he writes, casually deliberate and deliberately casual,” she writes.
Once again, we get Lenderman’s cameo on Waxahatchee’s “Right Back To It” inspiring some great descriptive writing:
Crutchfield’s singing is reedy. She bears down on her words with intention and releases her lines artfully, like ribbon curls. When she climbs to her upper register, Lenderman’s singing sounds stolid by comparison. Their voices meet in a way that feels close but not cozy, and the intervals between their notes conjure ineffable yearning.
Marianela D’Aprile on Laura Marling
I had not read anything by Marianela D’Aprile (New York Review of Architecture, Bomb Magazine, The Immense Wave) until I read her review of Laura Marling’s new album, “Making Patterns”, but this one piece will ensure I keep an eye out for her byline in the future.
It is not easy to describe music. If you just list instruments and musical terms, you come off academic. If you’re heavy on metaphor, it can be meaningless. D’Aprile finds a perfect balance in a nimble and deft review.
It’s lengthy so I won’t quote it in full, but check out the 3rd paragraph as she lists out the different ways in which Marling adapts and plays with the constraints around her.
Bonus: Amanda Petrusich Interviews Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
I have linked enough of Petrusich’s writing now that I feel like a broken record. So I won’t say much more. Just read.
Thank you for reading!
See you next month!
