it has been far too long since the introductory post. i am clearly failing at the "self-help" thing i originally started this for, but i've been failing at a lot of those kinds of things lately. i'm going to try to give myself some grace here, especially knowing that i have several future posts planned that aren't in this style.

on loop

beabadoobee's Beaches (listen on youtube)

beabadoobee is just so good at 1990s chick rock. i do not mean that pejoratively; i just don't know how else to put it, except maybe "lilith fair" instead. in 2020-2021, from songs by artists like soccer mommy, i had really hoped for a sort of revival of this sound. that, clearly, never happened, save for the arrival of beabadoobee.

the second i heard care, i immediately knew what beabadoobee was going for. i haven't paid too much attention to her since that 2020 album, but, having recently gotten into beaches, i can safely say that she's still got this sound in her.

please forgive me for the pun i'm about to make, but beaches crests and crashes in waves. between bea's soft voice and the fuzzed-out guitar on the chorus, and the self-reflective verses, every lyric sung with such stunning certainty and vulnerability.... it's liz phair. this is so liz phair, but with an added touch of twee pop/rock, with that twinkling sound in the background from an instrument i'm unable to identify.

bea brings a flowery, almost whimsical touch to songs like this, and it's what most memorably characterizes her takes on this '90s sounds; it's what saves beaches from becoming a forgettable pastiche of chick rock.

also worth checking out, before i move on, is bea's cover of bic runga's sway, which, and if you follow me anywhere you know i keep repeating this, but i have to immortalize it here because i know i'm right, is such a god-tier, perfect artist-to-song match-up, that it still leaves me in awe, long after i heard she covered it.

RAYE's WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! (listen on youtube)

RAYE has been steadily trying to make it in the industry. not that i know much about this, of course, because i had first heard of her with escapism. that's a song i haven't heard much to remember, so i'm sure when i revisit it, that's about when it'll stick with me, possibly enough to show up in a future post in this newsletter. but, the bottom line is, when WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! came out, i reached a point where it was all over my recommended videos feed on youtube, and i never clicked and listened until last fucking week.

of course, that is a moral failing of mine and i am deeply ashamed, because, holy fuck, this song is phenomenal and RAYE is a once-in-a-generation talent. her vocals, her performance— the sheer manic energy she brings to her performance on the recording of HUSBAND is outstanding— and her ear for classic big band sounds as heard on this song makes for a massive impression left on me. i adore everything about this song, but most of all, RAYE's presence alone is what makes it. i can't wait for her upcoming album; hopefully, more like this.

new releases

XG's HYPNOTIZE (listen on youtube)

XG did the thing, you guys. they did the fucking thing after GALA and went full-on fucking 1990s house. i am so stoked about this, you have no idea.

where GALA was hip house to the max, vogue and high-fashion influences worn proudly, HYPNOTIZE embraces the soaring vocal house of the '90s with scarily accurate authenticity. the piano stabs in the chorus and chisa's woah-oh-oh's alone had me writing an informal thread on bluesky linking to songs that this track brought to mind. (those songs were by kiesza, DAISHI DANCE, and even lisa shaw, by the way.)

i have yet to listen to the rest of the full album this was released with, and i am not accepting secondhand opinions on it from others, so i have no thoughts on it, but i know for sure that GALA and HYPNOTIZE are fucking excellent.

dodree's Just Like a Dream (listen on youtube)

i'm offended on behalf of dodree that this song isn't bigger than it is. KPop Demon Hunters continues to ride the wave of its sudden fame, and yet, a group concept & song drawing on similar ideas of south korean tradition gets fucking crickets? shame on all of you!

if you are unfamiliar, which i wouldn't entirely fault you for: dodree are a new girl group— a duo, specifically, which we never fucking see and is another reason why i'm so giddy about them— formed on a survival show of some sort, to my knowledge. i don't need to know the specifics of their formation to know that their concept fucking rocks. their whole deal is fusing k-pop dance music with traditional korean sounds/genres, such as gugak.

that influence is clear on just like a dream, which fuses these sounds in a way that sounds so natural that i'm almost surprised that this had not been done before (to my knowledge). these girls, by the way, are incredible vocalists, made immediately clear by the way their voices glide through the song's melody, their tones mature and deeper than the typical female idol vocal.

just like a dream is delicate instrumentally, but performed by the girls with a firmness and confidence that i found... authentic, i guess? based on their backgrounds and what they've said about the concept, they seem more than enthusiastic about this concept; it was made for them, in the sense that they are the only idols right now that could perform a song like this.

i'm very excited to see where dodree take this concept. i will be banging the dodree drum until they get their flowers from western k-pop fans, even if it means i will be banging that drum forever.