Max's Music Mondays with Doud and Amie Blue
great names, great songs, great time!! come listen and hang out in here!
Can you believe it’s already been a week since I talked about those pilot youtubers? How’s everyone doing? Lives changed, stuck on youtube for hours every day, I get it, me too. Anyways, this week I’m ready to move on. Not from the videos themselves, still endlessly fascinating for a still tbd reason. But to move on from talking about them here (for now).
But that’s one of the hardest parts about writing this newsletter for me. We’re constantly moving forward, week after week, and to be frank, life doesn’t move that fast for me. Something I’m grateful for, but just means in some moments, I’m searching for the next topic to write about when in reality, I’m still stuck on last week’s. It’s something I envy in music (and other mediums for that matter). The chance to stay in a moment, a feeling, and pin down every corner of it. The fitted sheet of the idea fitting snug and sound, able to revisit it anytime you need to remind yourself. Meanwhile, I often hit send feeling like I got two or three corners down, just sleeping on an unmade bed of thought, waking up to find a new sheet to wrangle with this week. But the envy comes, as it often does, from an aspirational appreciation. Impressed and inspired that musicians can do just that. And this week, they’ve done it incredibly well, can’t wait for you to hear ‘em both.
This Week’s Songs
Please please follow along here ^^ for this week’s and every week’s songs. They’re all really good I swear!!! <3 Please like and enjoy and send to someone you like and enjoy!!
Doud - AHA
Just listen to that intro, goodness gracious. The bass so full, that tiny bit of edge as it gallops from note to note. A playful guitar poking its head in to ask what’s up? The two a charming balance - heavy and light, dark and bright. The vocals arrive in a group too. Orbiting each other, even in just this brief moment they seem to shapeshift before my ears. One vocal plays it straight, another leaping for that falsetto, a third splitting the difference. Find out what it takes / You’ve got to create it. What a powerful opening thought. Feedback building to a major sigh, and the band keeps cooking. I love this little moment so much. The cheeky do-do-do climbing alongside that quiet guitar. You can feel the grin between band-members and it puts a grin on my face too. A dirty guitar steps into the light, soloing through its own versions of similar themes. A hot choice so early into this one. Vocals return for a verse, one that continues the song evolutions moment to moment. Singing of boredom and the monotony it can bring, but I’ve never been less bored. The song refusing to settle into any one shape for too long. We’re rewarded almost immediately, adding more layers of vocals making the whole thing float with those harmonies. And before you can even recover from enjoying that we’re struck with horns!!! Horns!! A surprise for me, and a delightful one at that. Really building on that heavy and light balance from the first moments. Suddenly ripped from that chugging indie rock sound and tossed straight into this timeless soulful and jazzy scene. The do-do-do’s become ah’s feeling entirely new alongside horns instead of guitar. But just as quick as they came, they’re gone, that shredding guitar reminding us where we came from. We break for a moment at 1:52 - The vocals taking on the perpetual internal monologue telling yourself you could be doing more, doing better, instead of being bored. The feedback from the guitar honing in on that tension in an explicit and itchy way. All teeing up for that simple question, to avoid the anxiety, Why don’t you do it? The band taking the hint and absolutely doing it. Boy oh boy what a wonderful decision. It’s familiar pieces slightly tweaked, all beautiful together as we chug into the end of the song. A momentum carried through that three minutes that makes the song fly by in a flash, I’ve loved it. So creative, with just the right amount of weird to always keep it interesting.
Follow Doud on IG / Spotify
Amie Blu - Another Lifetime
The stuttered start like ripples from the water as you dip your toe in. The vocals and bass catching you as you slide the rest of the way in. So warm, so smooth. A perfect entrance from every part of the band in those early moments - the vocal, the bass, that snare, the guitar chord, the echoing organ twinkling not far behind. It’s all so beautiful of a moment you might’ve missed that first lyric. And it’s too good to leave behind. Good enough to fuck / But what about to love? Setting an immediate tone, that sense of despair and heartbreak palpable throughout. The delivery of everything but *talk* seconds later is heart-on-the-sleeve disappointment and frustration. But even through the emotions, Amie Blu’s vocals are stunning. Fluttering gently in shining moments, her tone is just so spectacular, a voice you can’t forget. As the song moves into the chorus we’re generously given some background vocals too - picking and choosing their spots, adding so much texture as they push and pull the melody into new places. The whole thing floats on, this Stay for one more night plea echoing out, reaching out, with such longing optimism. Coming to terms that in another lifetime, things would be just fine does mean that in this one, they won’t be. Or maybe can’t be. Blu reckoning with that tender truth in the second verse. Naming her fears bravely, and still delivering an incredible performance. The whole band has toned things down, giving so much space to focus on the singing. I’m feel I’m losing you landing and blowing my mind. Background vocals sticking around to punctuate the moment. And apparent again as they bounce around from love to love in the lyric right after. The relationship seems to be a hard one to negotiate. Good but getting worse, Blu still dreaming of better. A painful crossroads to witness, but Blu makes it all worthwhile. I’m so taken by this one, almost a mystical quality to it all. It feels so lush, and I love every second.
Follow Amie Blue on IG / Spotify
Another week, another two brilliant songs. Grateful as always for reading, please share the songs, the playlist, the newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it. Sincerely goes such a long way.
Enjoy the week,
Max