Max's Weekly Music Roundup
This week?? Music is good!! Big Thief, Jensen McRae, Jockstrap and more :)
Live from New York, it’s me writing my weekly roundup!!! *crowd goes absolutely bonkers. Crazy, actually, how bonkers they’re going*
That’s right, the rare east coast edition. It’s been special to feel how music changes its shape with a new backdrop. Being in new surroundings hasn’t been the most common experience lately, and even when I’ve gotten the chance to travel it’s usually with specific people for a specific reason. But here I am in the damn big apple itself for no real reason. Meaning plenty of quality for me and ol’ spotify.
It’s fun to really consider how the world around me influences the music I’m hearing and how I connect with it. How that relationship might feel different for the songs I’m meeting here. Knowing how old songs transport me to old places, and wondering which of these songs and albums might forever be intertwined with this trip. I try not to put too much pressure on it, there’s no use in trying to create memories in real time. But amidst a period when time has felt so vague for so long, it is exciting to at least know those gears are turning.
But being in NY isn’t all good… It does ruin my big West Coast Advantage: being able to listen to all the new releases at 9pm Thursday night. Staying up until midnight?? On a weeknight?? Who do you think I am?? Which does mean I haven’t had the chance to listen to so many sure-to-be incredible releases yet. Sorry Adele and Kaytranada. Next time.
What I’ve Been Listening To This Week
playlist #2, every song is so good, this really is what i’m listening to most hours of most days. If you like what you hear (very likely) or read (less likely, but hopefully still likely?!) please share it all with your nearest and dearest.
The New Stuff:
Big Thief unbearably beautiful as usual.
Love me a confounding intro. Those plucks just so sporadic and weird, it’s charming. Beautiful to see them find a place underneath the band as everyone else joins. Filling the cracks left open by the arrangement. The way it all falls, feeling almost random, gives the song such a swirling sensation. Wind blowing leaves around and around, everything moving up and down simultaneously. From start to finish the band is on a mission to put us in a trance. The only thing keeping me out of that trance is Adrianne Lenker. Obviously Lenker has the voice of all voices, as obvious here as ever before. Its tone is one of a kind, carrying so much emotion and life with every word delivered. It’s poetry as always, and the brave and bold ways she delivers these lines is mesmerizing. The “Lavender, nettle, calendula” in the second verse, the “everything, everything, everything” of the third verse, it’s a refusal to settle and fall into comfortable places. Pushing the song to bend in unfamiliar ways and it’s captivating.
Jensen McRae continues to write gorgeous thought-provoking stories
Is it rude to run Big Thief →Jensen McRae? Well, maybe not rude, but certainly not good for my little heart!! Another devastating hit from McRae, ugh. Simply cannot miss. She played this one opening for JWR and my goodness have I been excited for the release. McRae’s voice just obliterating me from the first verse on - that gentle break on “swim” is as good as it gets. Her writing is poetic and personal and it hits. The sadness in those tried to/could not lyrics, sheesh. The production is simple, drums and guitar holding things down while that bass really comes through, a warm and supportive addition. The chorus comes naturally, the biggest change is McRae showing off the range, a melody that refuses to stop reaching higher. A tasteful little guitar riff to carry us back down. Some gorgeous harmonies bring us back to the verse, again tried to’s and could not’s bowl me tf over. More emotion pouring through, not just sadness but a small anger punching through too. 2:16… what a second of this song… Wow. Listen, the whole song is great and I hate to elevate one moment so singularly, but that one second… It’s just one word, really. But it gets the most stunning flutter, gently running through so many notes, it’s graceful!! It is not fair to generalize an artist based on one second of their music, buuuut this is great example of Jensen McRae’s power - breathtaking vocals to punctuate such earned and vulnerable wisdom. Well now I’m running out of time, so I’ll keep it short: the rest of the song rocks so much.
St. Panther is back!!! So dang unique and groovy
This drum loop is undeniable, layered with a groovy little guitar, feels like a light chill in the air, sun still coming in. The vocals are going full-on from the first line. St. Panther has a way of layering and stacking vocals that no one else is trying, let alone coming anywhere close to pulling off quite like this. With effects to make them feel wobbly in a charming (and really good!) way. When we find that first verse, the two vocals feel like equal counterparts. Two voices telling the same story, each putting on their own show, exploring their own great melody. Back into the chorus and the additions to the production are A+, extra credit, just so good. Those keys nice and warm, almost aged, the strings subtly swelling right when they’re needed. And a chorus (and song) that is filled with reflection and growth, moving forward and opening up. It culminates with St. Panther proclaiming the need to do just that, with all the effects stripped away. The most human moment, refusing to dance around things any longer. It’s an inviting song and this a well earned and impressive end. It also comes out with another single, Greatness, which is sick as hell too.
Rico Nasty & Flo Milli want some money and we should all be giving it to them.
MHM YES PLEASE. These two… too powerful of a combo. Two of my favorite rappers, a collaboration is such a gift. Both have their own sound, both make anything they touch feel so specifically theirs. So it’s fun to hear it over this beat. Obviously a familiar sound and yet the two still go off and make it feel like it was meant to be theirs all along. Rico is always so fun, this verse delivered with a big cheeky smile the whole way through. An admirable level of self confidence and transparency. Flo Milli shit. She rocks as always. The first half delivered with this sway that I love. The beat is rigid but her flow breaks out of that trap and finds its own way. It picks up pace and feels entirely new in that triplet section. But all in all this one is just so much fun, a good old party song. Irresistible. And thanks to this song I’ve listened to Flo Milli’s May I three times in a row and am feeling amazing. A heck of a way to start the weekend.
Jockstrap is so damn weird and good, I am forever blown away
Ah Eh Oo Ee Ah, Ah Eh Oo Ee Ah!! We’ve all been saying it!! The perfect Jockstrap intro, weird and jarring, somehow made beautiful in its uniqueness. Rattling into a quiet four on the floor, digital vocals barely decipherable. I see you leaning in towards the speaker trying to understand, but don’t get too close, they’re about to steam roll you with some twisted drums. Post-steam roll, the vocals are angelic, belting out in clear contrast. Again, right before you get comfortable, Jockstrap pulls the plug. A stuttering vocal sample, pitching down and landing on an easy breakbeat. Unexpected and oh so satisfying. We get some good vocals here, the group in the back shouting out “she’s 50/50!!!” is a delight. We reverse back out, until the ah eh oo ee ah’s are back, synths rolling and holding them above the drums. It’s all beautiful and all still crunchy as hell. A song relishing its refusal to take the easy way. The final minute continues to wild out, a real masterclass is dance production imo! Including an ending that feels like it could burst at any moment. But instead, it fades, and I’m left with my heart racing instead.
The Less New Stuff:
Dijon - Absolutely
Just because I don’t have anything big to say this week doesn’t mean it wasn’t still the most captivating thing in my headphones all damn week. Had to leave it here, just so you knew.
Magdalena Bay - Prophecy
Thank you to my sister (hello to my sister!!) for sending me this one and reminding me that Magdalena Bay’s album dropped and that they are so dang good. This one is falls into a dream world. Those fairy tale, hollywood strings shimmering and shining and warming my dang heart. The melody is so soft, but gives a modern indie r&b feel to such cinematic production. A juxtaposition that they’ve pulled off so well. The rest of production doing some of that same work. Great drums and a simple bass that feel like they’d be a sick song on their own, let alone alongside the orchestra. Both elements holding and showing off the other. It launches out to space with that synth solo, a beam shot into the sky. And on top of all that, the song is so loving, it’s sweet as hell. Got me smiling and saying “awwww” <3 <3
GOLDSPACE - Let It Flow
Finding its way to me mere moments after sending last week’s roundup, this one has been stuck on replay. Those vocals are impeccable as we get rolling, so strong and in control. Bouncing around this verse, sharing the story and feeling every bit of it. Then we rock out for a minute?? An unexpected twist, a heavy band chugging on, the vocals expanding out. Rug pulled out from under us, back to the beginning. The vocals feel more intimate after that rock moment, written and sung right at you. A wonderful new melody popping into the spotlight. Getting your attention so we can rock out again. Hitting that falsetto really elevates the moment too. Impressive to make both sections work so naturally next to each other, it keeps me coming back.
That’s gonna go ahead be it for this week. So much good music just pouring out day after day after day. I can’t catch it all but am trying my best to share the stuff that really moves me. If there’s more you love, please send it my way <3
And also, big favor to ask!!! Would you mind liking/subscribing/sending to twenty friends for good luck etc. etc.?? Thank you as always.
Have a great weekend,
Max