🎶 Max's Music Mondays with jaythehomie & Mal Not Bad
it's MMM after dark, watch out! (jk it's normal, sry I'm late)
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. Your subscriptions go such a long way. Free subscribers help these artists get the audience they deserve, paid subscriptions help keep this thing running and also PAY THE ARTISTS!!! 2/3 of every subscription goes right back to the artists I write about. Please consider supporting independent music and music journalism(?) here today <3
Y’all I am excited about this week’s music (which like, i guess is evergreen, but still!). It feels weird to be sending this so late, but the truth is I felt bad all day! And I still kind of do! The heat is getting to me. So, there will be no meandering but possibly brilliant intro this week! Sorry. Next week I’m sure.
Also was going to do a joke about how the big earthquake in LA was actually just me jumping up and down to these songs but then I realized most of you aren’t in LA and didn’t experience the earthquake so here we are.
Ok SOS get me out of here, lets just get to the music.
jaythehomie - sugar
I don’t know if there’s another song on my radar that gives me the same sense of pure relief when pressing play. This intro is so sweet. It feels tender and beautiful and nostalgic. As I shuffle through my playlist, I fall on this song and the deep, easy breathing begins without a thought. We can all use music like that.
The crackles from the vinyl, the way you feel the filter suck the song up and release it back out. The song breathing with you. And as that flute returns, the drums kick in with force. They hit so hard, a punchy contrast with the smooth as possible instrumental. jaythehomie joins with the drums too, wish I had known stretching out with this lightness, the gentle fondness. This high melody stands front and center, some lower octaves sitting in the back to support the moment and give it even more heft. The scene is so simple but feels so full.
jaythehomie’s singing feels just right on this beat too. This reflecting, almost regretfulness, as we look back on what could’ve been. The phrases stretch out forever, giving you time to really feel it, to really consider it. All of this first 30-some seconds is amazing, without the drums it’d feel like a timeless soul song. Their presences giving the sound a new life. One arpeggio underneath it all that sparkles and helps give the whole thing a dreamy, almost surreal feeling.
And the second you get swept up in it, the second you feel yourself floating, jaythehomie flips the script and shows up at full strength. Right there at 0:36, proclaiming, almost shouting, our way through this section. Playing call and response with the track itself, he marches through these lyrics, leaving space for the band to finish his sentences. The balance between harsh and gentle really works here. It’s a surprise when it begins but ten seconds later it feels so natural, like there wasn’t any other way for this song to go.
I thank god that I made it this far, these lyrics hitting hard and ringing true. An powerful earnestness in the way he breaks through. In the way he stands tall.
He punctuates the section with that Oh! Oh! Oh! and we ride, drum-free into the night. A swirling section that just feels soaked with moonlight. Maybe it’s the cover art planting the thought, but I really do hear it and see myself on a walk home late at night.
As we fall back into the opening section again, Wish I had known, it feels even more loving and honest here. The contrast pendulum swinging back to softness, you can feel his heart on his sleeve. Again, so sweet, sung with a little remorse but also a little smile on his face.
Beyond 1:45 the instruments speak for themselves, a new tempered trumpet running alongside the flute. The two teaming up for a great little solo. The production is great all over, but that tiny stutter during the solo is a treat. Once again, grabbing your ear and waking you up the second you got comfortable. We ride off on a molasses-y underwater outro, a calm close. What a tune!!
Follow jaythehomie on Instagram // on Spotify
Mal Not Bad - Far Gone
Yeah yeah yeah I know I’ve already been yelling about how special these Mal Not Bad songs are for a while, but the album is out and these songs deserve the full MMM treatment and your full attention. One of my most anticipated records of the year, Mal Not Bad has built such a stunning, bold, and exciting musical universe with this thing.
My love for Mal began the second they took the stage opening for Al Menne at Bob Baker Marionette Theater last September. Placing padlocks on a keyboard to hold chords for their vocoder as they sang and played guitar. Something I’d never seen before, and something I found so deeply brilliant and charming. As the record rollout began, that same creativity was so obvious in everything they did. Each song, artwork, video all speaking the same language. A language of intention, of beauty, and of exploration. These songs just sound like nothing else. But I’ll write about the whole record soon enough I’m sure. Today we gotta stay focused. What better place to start than at the top of the album.
Over a sparkling spinning cloud enters one of the sickest fucking guitar riffs of recent memory. Crazy tone, the way it slides up, the unexpected rhythm, the funk of the final few strums. It’s all so sick, an amazing sign of all that’s to come. The building scene dissipates, leaving Mal Not Bad (led by Mal Hauser) singing out over some rippling guitar chords. Clearing the space for Mal to shine, that first lyric so visceral - It’s like lying in the gutter, feeling so washed up. Hard not to feel that in your heart. Mal’s tone is so devastatingly good, they’re often (like here) singing at this conversational level, even-tempered and intimate. It makes the way these big emotions show up really impactful. A humanity and honesty to it all. It’s hard enough barely sneaking out is exactly how I imagine I’d say it in real life. They’re big truths and sometimes those are the hardest to share.
The main riff picks us up from this point at 0:37, refueling Mal to keep pushing. The band breaks again, Mal + Guitar back together, centerstage. This time there’s a few more strums, some ghostly background vocals giving it even more ambiance. The moment just slightly bigger than before. A measured and controlled growth, it’ll sneak up on you. The titular lyric caps it off and the moment slips into a new dream.
And the new dream is so beautiful. Again, guitar tones that feel so novel and so perfect. The whole band is So Perfect tbh. You’re mourning a past time / you’re morning a past life. So hard to come to terms with that. But Mal offers it so clearly and compassionately. An honest acknowledgement. Harsh clarity but it feels sweet. Then that riff comes back and I’m absolutely geeked.
Light percussion on top, oh baby I am SMILING. Holy moly I love this song.
Into another verse over bright strumming acoustic guitars. A snapshot of personal change and self-perception that is really special. Something I know well. Exploring yourself, learning yourself, finding yourself. But this change takes time to realize and share. Knowing myself better has often made me feel more inauthentic - struggling to externalize what I now know about myself. Scared of embracing this truer self, grieving the change from comfort.
The chorus appears again and that mourning feels even more real. With the new vocal stack giving it more weight. The bass line adding more depth. The arrangement is gorgeous. And as hard and scary as it can be to start to move on from who you were, what life was, there are better days ahead. Right there at 2:52 we slide into a new chord, the resolution between each chord feels happier and more optimistic as Mal looks ahead and sees the same. Absolute sick one. Enjoy the album.
Follow Mal Not Bad on Instagram // on Spotify
Last Week on All The Other Days:
I’m still Seed of a Seed-pilled rn. This song is addictingly beautiful, its form so perfectly lending itself to multiple listens. New Nala Sinephro is always reason to celebrate, the numbering system has me optimistic and salivating for more. The debut songs from Deloyd Elze are here!!! Been so eager for these, and so glad to have them in hand. A whole new kind of country music, I think you’ll love it.
Enjoy the week, enjoy the music. I’ll see you again soon <3
Max