Max's Music Mondays
A real deal review & everything I've been listening to this month!
Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays. My ~music discovery newsletter~ where I get too excited about songs I love. I hope you love them too. If you do, you can follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :) Your paid subscriptions go towards supporting the artists you read about here too!! Incredible, I agree!!
Happy Monday :) Happy May 22nd :)
We’re almost six months into the new MMM era, and I’m in the weeds. Continuing to tweak and grow this project to make it more impactful for everyone involved. One thing that is always on my mind is how to grow our paid subscriber base and how to deliver more for their subscription.
This past week that need has felt more clear than ever before, so I’m continuing to focus and experiment and brainstorm and continue to make that subscription worth your while. A friendly reminder that you can subscribe for $5/mo and two thirds of that money ends up in the hands of the artists I write about!!!
Today is a taste of that, although there’s plenty more to come (another live performance cooking up as we speak!!!). Sometimes I get the craving to do some “real” music writing i.e. not me going “AND THEN THE TRUMPET COMES IN AND I GO TO MUSIC HEAVEN THANK YOU” and more going like, Pitchfork Mode. Not better, just different. This week a song has really struck me and inspired me, so I went for it. Beyond that review, you’ll find another three songs and two albums that I’ve been holding dear this month, more in our traditional MMM style.
I hope you enjoy it all <3
An Earnest Review
Switch It On, Switch It Off - Chartreuse
It’s coming up on four years since Chartreuse’s EP Even Free Money Doesn’t Get Me Out of Bed came out. Boasting an opening track that cast such a spell on me. Everything about it was compelling. Exceptional tone from the keys, bass, and drums. Then add the pair of vocalists, Michael Wagstaff and Harriet Wilson, and instantly you recognize the power this band can have. Three Days feels so earnest and genuine, so intimate, you can’t look away.
Since then they’ve only continued to grow. 2020’s Keep Checking Up On Me is a devastating number, watching as someone balances independence with loneliness, reflecting on losing their sense of self. You can hear the band tightening and finding their own sound amongst one another. The sum greater than its parts, especially as the song reaches emotional peaks. 2021’s Is It Autumn Already was another moment of clear growth and evolution. Their songs becoming more refined, their sound establishing itself. The songwriting continues to feel personal and detailed, and Wagstaff and Wilson blend so magnificently with each other. Swedish Water and Deep Fat both prime examples, songs that have stayed close to me ever since, their messages and passion finding their way to my heart just when I needed them.
And now back again, their new single Switch It On, Switch It Off is proof of something somehow even more special on the horizon.