hello everyone! happy sunday evening, i hope you had a wonderful weekend! i had a busy day of clothes shopping (UNIQLO ❤️) and re-watching Whiplash in theaters for the 10th anniversary. earlier this week, i saw American Football and they were AMAZING! also saw Remi Wolf and she was epic as expected. up next this week is Charli tomorrow and then Sarah Kinsley on tuesday. busy busy weeks ahead.
honestly, i’m fairly tired so i don’t have a ton to throw in the intro this week. the main thing i’d like to highlight is my buddy David’s EXCELLENT INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE STEWART, FRONTPERSON OF XIU XIU! he did not ask me to include this but i want to because it’s a great interview. i love David and i love Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu. please check it out and send David some love and also listen to the new Xiu Xiu album; i didn’t include it here because we did Xiu Xiu here a few weeks ago but it’s really excellent!!
short intro this week but lots to talk about below. i loved a bunch of albums over the past two weeks. here are five for you! i hope you check them out and love them as much as i did. unfortunately, one of the albums below is not on spotify but i highly encourage you to seek it out on another platform. it’s also a fairly weird mix of music this week so hopefully you’re also into that. let’s go let’s go!
favorite first listens this week
The Residents - Meet the Residents (1974)
i thought it would be fun to start this edition with something bewildering. this week, i went down a bit of a rabbit hole with The Residents, an anonymous and avant-garde collective known for subverting traditions of music marketing, composition, and release. Meet the Residents, their first album, is a surreal whirlwind of experimental tape music that is often frightening, beautiful, eerie, and thought-provoking all in the same breath. these compositions are often short but impenetrable, like a baffling dream that seems to last only for a few minutes then, after only a few minutes awake, refuses to be recalled. the pianos on “Numb Erone” and “Guylum Bardot” sound like a clanky old piano in a saloon lost to time, and the gritty bassline adds a helping of intrigue to the noisy, musique concrete-inspired “Breath and Length.” there are a few more straightforward tracks too, which are no less compelling; i love the experimental rock sound palette of “Smelly Tongues,” and “Rest Aria” is a gorgeous piece of modern classical twisted through the lens of avant-garde jazz. while i prefer the first half of Meet the Residents, the second half does present some excellent and lengthier compositions, like the surprisingly funky “Infant Tango” and the clattering, if-Christmas-was-demonic “Seasoned Greetings.” what a bizarre album, one that somehow evades feeling representative of any written description i can put on the page. it’s like they put a fever dream to tape then threw the tape machine out the window. it made me feel a little wacky all week.
8/10
for fans of: night terrors, experimental music, collages, exploring abandoned factories, haunted player pianos
key tracks: Numb Erone, Breath and Length, Smelly Tongues, Rest Aria, Infant Tango
Colin Stetson - The love it took to leave you (2024)
i don’t love the cover but i love the music! i didn’t know who Colin Stetson was before hearing The love it took to leave you, but i’ve since learned that i’ve heard his work in other places (the Hereditary soundtrack, as well as records by Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, and Bon Iver). on this solo outing, Stetson creates swelling, post-minimalist soundscapes with nothing but the saxophone - even the percussive elements here were generated by placing microphones close to the finger keys, and some vocal textures were captured with a “dog-collar device on his throat” (courtesy of Bandcamp description). the results, performed live with no overdubs, are stunning. i’ve never played a saxophone but, for my money, these tracks stretch the physical limits of his chosen instrument; i love the ebb and flow of the opener and title track, where Stetson’s flurry of sax lines flood the sonic field then swirl away into a vast expanse of delay and reverb. “The Six” is ominous and just plain masterful, especially when you remember that he’s a one man band of sorts, performing those haunting vocal stabs while maintaining a percussive rhythm and playing those lead melodies. i love the arpeggios on “Malediction,” especially with how they occasionally sync up tonally with the vocal melodies underneath the storm. while i do find it a little long, i’m still blown away by the core ideas in the 22-minute centerpiece “Strike your forge and grin” - man, that sax just BELLOWS in a way that is so unique, almost cinematic. on the whole, The love it took to leave you is dense and may feel slow to those who lean away from drone; however, its atmosphere is like nothing else that i’ve heard this year. further, when i consider the technical ability and recording system required to capture these pieces of music, i can’t help but be amazed. highly recommend checking out this video of him playing “The Six” so you can see the one man band setup.
8/10
for fans of: unique recording techniques, arpeggios, imagining an alternate Dune soundtrack (credit to someone on RYM for saying that), saxophones, that one Pixar short
key tracks: The Love It Took to Leave You, The Six, Malediction, Strike your forge and grin, Bloodrest
Orchid - Orchid (2002)
after listening to this fantastic (and final) release by Orchid, i had some thoughts and wanted to relisten to their entire discography so i could confirm my assumptions. this was not much of a feat; Orchid is the third album and their longest, clocking in at a whopping 24 minutes! so, after spending less than an hour sitting with their entire body of work, i’m pleased to report that while this is probably my second favorite Orchid record, i do find it far and away their most interesting. here, they move away from pure emoviolence (a flavor of screamo characterized by short songs and extra noisy textures) in favor of a more typical style of screamo. however, i’d like to hang tightly onto that word “texture” because Orchid has it in spades, more than any other Orchid album to date. there’s room to breathe on these songs, even when they oscillate rapidly between screamo, post-hardcore, and emoviolence; best of all, they do so without losing their fury. take the dynamic changes on “Loft Fury” and the following “I Wanna Fight” - hell, even “Trail of the Unknown Body” is just a post-rock song with a heavy emo sheen. i love how “Tigers” takes its sweet time (especially for an Orchid track, lol) before a quick blast of emoviolence, then a… field recording! that track is the perfect example of why i found Orchid so enthralling. sure, the sheer non-stop fury of their previous two records is fantastic in its own right. however, this album is so textually rich and leaves room for sounds and styles that couldn’t possibly have jammed their way into Chaos is Me or Dance Tonight! Revolution Tomorrow! - it makes for what i find to be the most sonically fascinating Orchid release, one that seems particularly concerned with push and pull, tension and release. maybe i’m just not emoviolence-pilled enough to listen to such an extreme style and not need a few breaks. however, i don’t feel bad about that, because Orchid themselves were clearly interested in stretching these sounds into something more nuanced while still retaining their rage.
8/10
for fans of: whiplash, flurries of drums, philosophy (it pops up on a few tracks), calling screamo skramz, short songs
key tracks: Loft Fury, I Wanna Fight, Trail of the Unknown Body, No We Don’t Have Any T-Shirts, Tigers
Jim O’Rourke - Eureka (1999)
well, i owe you two apologies. the first is for putting this album cover on your screen, and the second is for the fact that this album won’t be appearing in the spotify playlist this week - it’s not on spotify! many such cases. if you’re a spotify user, i highly recommend you seek Eureka elsewhere (apple music / youtube) because it’s quite special. here, Chicago legend and one-time-Sonic Youth-member Jim O’Rourke dives into singer-songwriter with a heavy helping of chamber pop. these songs are absolutely beautiful - i’ve felt moved all week by opener “Prelude to 110 or 220/Women of the World,” a stunning and melancholic piece of chamber folk. a desperate plea for women to take over the world (“because if you don’t, the world will come to an end”), the track is showstoppingly gorgeous and its main vocal melody rattles in your head through the beginning of the next song. not for long, though - the following “Ghost Ship in a Storm” is a mellow and moving chamber pop anthem with shades of bossa nova, jazz pop, and americana. there’s this little rush of instrumentation at the end which almost reminds me of the great Sufjan Stevens (quite a comparison for me). these tracks are just so, so pretty and take up a quarter of the runtime on Eureka; however, not a moment on the rest disappoints. i love how the hushed “Movie on the Way Down” recalls some of the lounge-y post-rock leanings of fellow Chicagoans in the band Tortoise, and the horns at the end feel so wistful. “Something Big,” a cover of a Burt Bacarach track, leans fully into bossa nova with an absolutely gorgeous hook, one that feels like learning the neighborhood streets after moving to a new city. finally, i was absolutely floored by the title track; it is so sparse, so affecting, so full of both acoustic and electronic textures which meld together with ease. on the whole, Eureka is unbelievably lush; the songwriting is fantastic, the textures are gorgeous, and the longer songs unfold in ways that leave me staring off into space, jolted by even the most mellow sounds that introduce whatever song is next. i found it to be utterly transporting and inspiring.
9/10
for fans of: Sufjan Stevens, extended chords, gentle touches of brass, bittersweet beginnings, bossa nova
key tracks: Prelude to 110 or 220/Women of the World, Ghost Ship in a Storm, Movie on the Way Down, Something Big, Eureka
Mustafa the Poet - Dunya (2024)
sometimes you listen to something and it’s so great that you just don’t know how to talk about it. an even smaller number of times, that album already has a fantastic write-up that expertly situates so much context, it doesn’t even feel worth it to regurgitate. you can read here to learn more about Mustafa the Poet, and you can read here (the newsletter) to learn how moved i’ve been by Dunya. how could i not be gripped by someone with this voice, these melodic sensibilities, these narratives? in many ways, Dunya might not feel revolutionary at first glance; we’re not in a shortage of singer-songwriter or folk music. however, something about these songs wiggles into your brain after a few listens. on one go-round, it might be the lush yet subtle sound palettes of tracks like “Name of God” or the Clairo-assisted “Hope is a knife” (was “Sympathy is a knife” just Clairo shade all along???). on another, it might be Mustafa the Poet’s utter command of heartwrenching and thought-provoking lyrics (“And when you left me waiting, I thought / Did you do it in the name of God?” or “The love that you give is the love you should take / what good is a heart that will not break?” or “And if they ever kill me / Make sure they bury me next to my brother / Make sure my killer has money for a lawyer”). for me, five or six listens to Dunya have revealed how Mustafa the Poet weaves his narratives with often minimal arrangements, such that the two almost begin to speak for and with each other; finger-picked guitar accentuates the stores spun, filling in the gaps for Mustafa the Poet when he delivers a devastating turn of phrase then takes a pensive moment before singing the next. on top of that, these songs are just catchy; “SNL” has an irresistible la-la-la chorus, and the strings on “Imaan” play a particularly agile melody that’s been rattling around in my head. i could talk about Dunya for hours but before leaving you with it, i’d like to call out “Gaza is Calling,” a beautiful and eventually glitchy track about a childhood friend who left Palestine only to be met with violence in their new home of Toronto (music video filmed in Palestine here). Dunya is utterly fantastic and sure to be one of my favorite singer-songwriter albums this year. i’m not too sure about the 9 yet but i’ll let it stick for now. and, i’ll end with this Mustafa quote from the article linked above: “Hope is a critical part of our re-imagination — of every system and community. And I hope that (listeners) hear that — that they hear a thread of hope, even on this record and on my way forward beyond it.”
9/10
for fans of: lyrics that twist the knife, contemporary folk, sparse arrangements that grow slowly, mediations on religion and violence, choruses that stick
key tracks: Name of God, What good is a heart?, Gaza is Calling, Leaving Toronto, Hope is a knife
loosies
yay!! hope you got some good stuff outta that. time to lay out some random tracks that i loved over the last two weeks:
Xiu Xiu - “Maestro One Chord”
new Xiu Xiu album rips!! lots of cool psych rock influences. this song, however, is TRIP HOP!!!! i love xiu xiu!!!
Madonna - “Drowned World / Substitute for Love”
debating bumping this album to a 10, like genuinely wtf
The Wicked Farleys - “Love Squats”
so raucous!! love it
John Cale - “Andalucia”
didn’t know he had game like this! so beautiful so ornate
Tindersticks - “A Night In”
proto-The National in a really neat way, love the strings
Prolapse - “Autocade”
so catchy!! adore the guitar tone and the rhythm section
Lola Young - “Conceited”
you know, i thought this album was good and not great. but they were playing it in Coffee and Tea Exchange yesterday and it reminded me that i really appreciate a lot of the songs here. really like this one!
Broken Social Scene - “Stars and Sons”
it was in the 60s/70s outside this week you know what that means
The Microphones - “II. Solar System”
good heavens
Tom Waits - “Dirt In The Ground”
what a weird vocal tone he adopts on this song. what a weird little ballad. so somber and gothic. love
cheek to cheek (recommendations from friends)
thanks for another round of recommendations! keep them coming please! i love the things y’all send <3
[from Taylor] pageninetynine - Document #7
whoaaa this rocked. i’ve heard Document #5 and loved it, but i probably liked this one just as much! just so crazy. i don’t really understand the sludge metal primary on that page but hey whatever. love how our screamo journeys are happening in parallel
[from Taylor] Neurosis - Souls at Zero
this was also cool! i think i preferred the album above, just because i don’t tend to like sludge metal that much. however, i thought a lot of the stuff here was great, especially the first track. i’m a little split on the vocals but liked this overall!!
[from Xavier] Labi Siffre - Crying Laughing Loving Lying
this was so lovely!! wow!! i loved the guitar playing and the songwriting was so fantastic. the rhythm and slide guitars on the title track are SO COOL and and i loved the sentiment of “My Song” - just wonderful oh my goodness
[from Anne] Soccer Mommy - “Driver”
whoa i totally forgot to listen to this, thank you for reminding me! i LOVE Soccer Mommy and i think you feel the same but correct me if not… love this new song, not as sonically surprising as some of the Sometimes, Forever but just like a damn good Soccer Mommy song so i’m happy
[from Jake] various singles by Cashier
these are actually crazy? thank you for telling me about these last night… i love the vocals, how fuzzy the guitars are, the songwriting… it’s kinda exactly the sorta music i want to write. which is like oh i wish i wrote that but also it’s too sick to really be bummed about lol. the guitar tones at the end of “Beginner” uhhh?? the melody on “Angels All Around” whoa. i will be looking for their album when it comes out! hopefully? i don’t see an announcement or anything but hopefully soon
thank you all for reading! i’m off to get some rest before attending the sweat tour tomorrow night. please continue to provide recommendations and i’ll see you in two weeks!
hoping this is your tempo,
nate