Max's Music Mondays Back from Summer Vacation
A little mid-July refresh. I missed everybody :)
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, follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :)
Well well well… listen, sometimes, you just need a little break! And these past few weeks have offered a nice summer reset for my writing. I love MMM so much, and haven’t taken this much time away from it in the nearly five years I’ve been at this.
But it had to happen and so it did, and now I’m back. Back from camp and ready to do some dang writing.
Where do we even start… I visited home, went to Bonnaroo, went back home, flew to LA, then Chicago, and now NY, and also was lucky enough to catch some of this novel coronavirus and lay in bed for a couple weeks. Folks… things have been intense and busy and beautiful, and I am happy to be back.
This is such an important part of who I am - the space for creativity and the space to document and gush about the music I love. I’ve felt the void of not writing, and even stepping back in with this intro has felt entirely grounding to write. I’m glad to be back and can’t wait to share more soon!!! This week I’m just dipping my toes back in, remembering what it feels like, and updating you on all the jaw-dropping, life-changing, good-as-heck songs that have been holding me during my summer vacay :) Next week I’ll be back with some real deal MMM picks and more. Hope you enjoy and hope you’ve all been well.
Here’s what else I’ve been listening to.
Saya Gray - WISH U PICKED ME….
The album is out and the album is a work of DAMN art. Holy shit. This song has entranced and devastated me time and time again over the past month. In this song in particular, it immediately comes spilling out, a flood of beautifully orchestrated sounds, soft human sounds, harsh tech sounds, it’s got it all. Just instantly transporting me to somewhere entirely unreal. Gray cuts it with the first lyric, layers piling up and dragging out the suspense of her words for moment after moment. The world drops out, a simple but unique guitar loop finger picks on through, and the poetic reveal is a gut punch. The drama arranged so creatively. Gray keeping it real and giving the statement time to swell in your mind. As it forges on it is all perfectly Saya Gray - experimental, utterly original, moving (emotionally and sonically). Listening to this album is such a journey, where anything could happen at any moment, the only guarantee is that it’s gonna sound good as hell. This song is a standout from the release, and a song that just calls my name time after time.
Medium Build - comeonback
Is this the song of the year???????? NOT SAYING JUST SAYING. I absolutely adore this song, so full of life and emotion and love. And I AM IN TEARS BY THE FIRST CHORUS.
The production is impeccable, the guitar tone just so perfect, the percussion so messy, somehow sensible in its mess. I adore the writing, Medium Build offering the perfect push and pull between silly and serious. Riding that balance so well. His performance is incredible, the emotion so palpable, the grounded presence sitting solid in the song.
I love the second verse, a scene from the bar, friends reconnecting, the love coming through so passionately. The chorus rocks and is also so gorgeous I can barely take it. The grit on the vocals ugh. Just SO dang good. The echoey/reverbed layer like a ghost under it all. MB with a killer!!! It’s a hit!!
Soft Streak - Smithereens
You know the deal… if Soft Streak drops a song I WILL write about it. I adore this one so much. It’s bending and warping as it starts, pulling you into this dreamy world. The piano tone itself delivering a lot of character. A warm bass holding close to the drums. A great canvas for the vocals to come. The writing is my favorite kind of Soft Streak writing (and fav in general if I’m honest), it’s succinct moments of humanity, served up with ease, their emotional heft instantly felt even if they’re delivered with a sense of levity. The emotions feel serious even when the lyrics are playful, this impressive and hard to pull off balance that Soft Streak always manages to pull off.
As it drops into the first chorus, I’m dancing!! Grooving with this flowing, shining, guitar as it swings its way through the song. The second verse comes to play “swore off gossip for a year / but it was so juicy you had to hear”. The crows signaling the start and end to the moment. From there it soars off with a great bridge, the writing clear and effecting.
Flash to a hundred years from now
I’m still wondering why i said it then
I can’t dig it out of my stupid little head
oh well, I guess
What a feat to deliver a song so fun and bouncy, while able to share a crushing and familiar message. Ugh, love it all. The instrumental run → instrumental break beyond two minutes is so dang good…
Beyoncé - BREAK MY SOUL
Timeless powerful fun. Beyoncé obviously rules and just once again proving just how true that is. The main loop is catchy as could be, the keys somehow feel corny and breathtakingly elegant?? It’s been a validating, empowering song for me, and my god it has such a good damn groove I can barely stand it. Beyoncé’s delivery twists and turns, stunning in every moment. Whether it’s that gnarly Outside scene, or the harmonies that follow. Seeing Beyoncé continue to evolve as an artist and deliver every time is so inspiring and exciting to me. Both for the fact that she can do anything but also for the knowledge that any artist I love could still be pushing their own boundaries this deep into a career.
Caroline Polachek - Bang Bang - From ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Soundtrack
Ahahahahahah ok yes I do unironically love the damn minions. And I also do love a good soundtrack, and I also do love Caroline Polachek. Holy moly this one is a treat, Polachek in an unfamiliar setting, but her insane tone and texture coming through all the same. It’s really fun to hear her in such a transported sound, and a great one at that. The band absolutely came to play here, the horn section highlighted throughout, punctuating phrases and moments with delight. Jack Antonoff going wild on the production, giving the whole thing a wild other-worldly feel and landing it with grace. Meanwhile I can’t stop picturing Bob and Kevin walking down the street to this song. Fucking love those guys. and I love this song.
Ginger Root - Loneliness
Ginger Root is really creating some special music. Is there anyone more creative???
His sound continues to get more singular and more developed, clearly carving a (very big) place for himself in the pop music landscape. His sounds and arrangements feel so elevated and timeless and just gorgeous!!! A treat to savor, every instrument offering so much, each moment full of beautiful details. Just a song I could soak in forever.
Plus his creativity blossoms outside the record too - a string of promo detailing a collaboration with a Japanese artist and a tiktok to show how he made it all up and executed in mind-blowing vintage fashion. He is so fun and smart and talented and also creative and as if it couldn’t get any better, also makes great music. What a joy to be a part of the Ginger Root Universe.
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Jockstrap - Glasgow
What an unexpected gem!!! I cannot get enough of Jockstrap. Those weirdos are able to make some of the strangest, shocking, yet stunning music around. I will never shake the feeling of the first time (and every time for that matter) that I heard the drop to 2018’s Joy. So of course their latest release is unexpected in an entirely new unexpected way.
The straight-ahead, HAIM x Joni style guitar drives on. The constant kick keeping us steady. The sparking music box and siren-esque bellows the only thing proving we’re still in Jockstrap Land. The verse winds down and spills into the chorus, a dark release with those familiar and emotional strings. The delivery on the vocals now swerving from HAIM to Saya Gray so you know I am in heaven. The percussion comes further alive, the whole song unfolding like a popup book, bigger and bigger with every page. Some masterful effects on the second verse, and the popups continue to grow into the next chorus, that rolling percussion really scratching an itch.
The second chorus ends and gives way to a MASSIVE moment. Vocals and strings pushing each other on over a BIG ol bass. The outro holds a timeless yet innovative melody as the train comes ringing down the track. I’m obsessed with this band and cannot wait to see what comes next.
Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet
Hey!!! Don’t forget how much this slaps!!!!! After her incredible Bonnaroo performance, my first chance to see JB live, I am back in the death grip of this record. Top to bottom, no skips, all beautiful music and art and humanity. But Be Sweet remains the unbeatable track for me.
Produced so remarkably, it just doesn’t get old. When that massive chorus hits, there’s nothing I can do but smile and dance and feeeeeeel. This shit speaks to me!!!! BACK ON THE PLAYLIST IT GOES!!!
Big Thief - Spud Infinity
I’m back in Brooklyn *Half Waif Voice* so you know I am BANGING DNWMIBIY. An album so full of life and wisdom and joy. I haven’t really ever stopped listening to this one, but being back in NY has me in my Big Thief bag once again. When I was here in March it was the only thing I could listen to, and found myself feeling it SO deeply. So the second I landed I remembered how special it was and got it right back on repeat.
Spud Infinity is a special one and one I could never shake from my head. The third verse could be verse of the year for me.
When I say celestial
I mean extraterrestrial
I mean accepting the alien you've rejected in your own heart
When I say heart, I mean finish
The last one there is a potato knish
Baking too long in the sun of Spud Infinity
When I say infinity, I mean now
Kiss the one you are right now
Kiss your body up and down, other than your elbows
'Cause as for your elbows, they're on their own
Wandering like a rolling stone
Rubbing up against the edges of experience
It’s poetry, it’s philosophy, it’s Big Thief at their best. And it’s me bawling as I scream out OTHER THAN UR ELBOWSSSSS. Love this band and this record.
WE DID IT!!!! We wrote again, we edited again, we published again, we made a silly little fool of ourselves in front of all of our cool and nice and good-taste-having readers again, and we got to share some music we love again.
It’s a special honor to share this space and time with you and I missed it a lot.
Talk soon,
Max