Max's Music Mondays with mui zyu and golda may
two very contrasting sounds but same result, good freaking music.
Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays - a ~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 respectfully smash that subscribe button. Let me know if you do, I’ll send you my favorite bus and train lines (stops included) or send you a thank you note or something.
I’ve felt stretched in one hundred directions these past few weeks. Just a lot of life happening at once. So while I’m grateful for each of these directions (I’m getting very flexible!!), I’ve become even more grateful for these songs and these write-ups. My process is pretty straightforward. I listen to a bunch of songs, see which ones I like a lot then play them over and over and over as I smash on my keyboard as hopefully useful/interesting thoughts pour out. But it’s that meditative focus of digging into each song, of really sitting and listening to, and often typing out, the lyrics. Hearing a new sound on play number 5 and deciding to write another few sentences just about that one little choice. But it’s in those moments that I really ~feel~. That I get lost inside these songs completely sheltered in this Good Music Bubble I’ve built for myself. As life has started to stretch me and I slowly turn into Mike Teavee, I’m finding myself seeking out songs that require/demand/deserve this kind of attention and letting myself live in them even longer. It ups the stakes for me, and have found the listening process more emotional than usual. Why am I saying all this now? Mostly, 1) it’s on my mind and 2) I wrote this week’s thoughts and found them coming out more serious than usual and was curious why. Anyways….. I hope these songs can meet whatever needs you have right now too.
This Week’s Songs
Follow along here ^ for this week’s and every week’s songs, each song is perfect and that is a objective fact and in no way my biased opinion i promise.
pour a brain - mui zyu
Let’s absolutely go. Just dirty and grimey and nasty and so so good. That bass threatening to melt your speakers, the snare a perfect attempt to battle back this beast. It almost reminds me of Tkay Maidza’s Syrup? But in totally new context. Driven, in large part, by mui zyu’s vocals, so gentle and human. This is a very creepy song already, but something about its simplicity and steadiness is captivating. A brief pause, only to pull in a pure horror movie level orchestral yearning, growing feedback only making me more scared and more in love with this song. It’s truly like nothing else I’ve heard. Not to mention the perfectly aligned lyrics, “Horror seeps before it lingers / Creeping slowly under tables”. Too spooky!!! The next pause welcomes a guitar and all-but-buried keys, that dark growl braves its way into some new notes. It’s fun to find such a nice groove in such an interesting place. A shimmering violin joins for the chorus, like we are stepping out of a cave, sun beating across our face for the first time. There’s warmth but still coated in some level of mystery, of darkness, of uncertainty. It’s just a little uncomfortable in the best possible way. As we cross the two minute mark, we’re left with only those keys and vocals. Our first breath of relief from the bass, and while this certainly feels light and easy, I gotta say, I miss that nasty growl. The band returns with some subtlety, leading us on into this twisted guitar solo. It’s another perfect compliment, expertly messy and purposefully lost, bending towards more suitable notes, sounding like they walk off before even finishing the take. Another brave move done so well. For this last chorus, I had kind of hoped I could really sit with these words and pull some insight, some impressive observation, but I just can’t. Like the rest of this song, the lyrics work incredibly well but refuse to fit into any preconceived expectations. The short lines read like one part Alice in Wonderland, one part poetry I’m not smart enough to process, and one part that brilliant and compassionate friend wise well beyond their years helping you clear the fog of life. This tune feels like a beautiful combination of all three, welcoming you deeper and deeper into the world with every listen.
Follow mui zyu on IG / Spotify
Rotten - golda may
Basically every golda may release lands on my '“i should write about these songs” playlist. Each creating worlds within themselves, I can never quite find the words to really speak to just how full of life they really are. But today is the day I’ve just accepted that as a fact, and am pledging to do my best because this song is so beautiful and I needed to share it. The riff seems so simple, but when you break out the magnifying glass you start to see the beauty in every detail. At the end of the riff, those last few notes, it sounds like the same note is being played on two different strings with two different techniques. The two nearly identical, their slight difference sending me reeling. It’s intoxicating. A wonderful foundation for these vocals. Which are just fantastic, reminding me of Perfume Genius. Sharing this fragile feeling, with so much emotion dripping off every note, if they pushed any harder it might all explode. The way that ‘fucking it up’ stretches out is just so dang good. Like it physically pulls me in. At the end of this first verse, that filtered echo seems to shake the song free, drums finding their footing, a smattering of keys around the edges. There’s some heaviness in the lyrics, the second verse explicit from the first line. But it’s what gets held back that really gets me. “joking that i am too scared / i’ll get killed if you leave me here” the second line landing like a ton of bricks after that ‘am too scared’ barely even sneaks out into the world. There’s so much fear and vulnerability expressed with the performance I’m just loving every moment of it. The chorus is a strong scene for the whole band, a full sound but still so much space for these vocals. That last line so beautifully devastating. I love the harmonies strung across this next verse, unpredictable and fascinating. They quickly hand off their spotlight to this rising string line, the perfect ride, swelling right into the chorus. And it’s what we like to call a Good Chorus. Post-chorus, the whole outro moment feels so real and intimate and stunning in a casual way. Like oh yeah let me just throw this together really quick and also it’ll be perfect but really it’s no big deal. It ends before I’m ready, and I keep coming back.
Follow golda may on IG / Spotify
How about that? Two songs, too many words, from me to you. I had to use another to.too.two just for fun there, but really, those songs both rock and I’m desperately hoping you think the same and play them a bunch. Speaking of… Business time: If you want to play them a bunch… you can do that on the playlist!! Please follow it and please please pass it along to anyone you know who might be in need of new music!! The more people here, the more people hearing these amazing songs.
Until Friday,
Max