Max's Weekly Roundup
Samia, Kathleen, and me listening on multiple devices just to keep up
Dear friends,
I am overwhelmed. Music gods, are you serious?? This week… All of my favorite artists dropping music??? Aaaaand all of it is so good??? I’m finding myself slowly returning to parts of my life that have been missing for a while now, and I’m so grateful to have all this beautiful music to soundtrack it, and carry me through.
Hope you all have a good weekend,
Max
What’s New This Week:
wahoo! that’s right it’s my other playlist!! my little baby, I love this one so much, it’s really good and I’m genuinely always listening to it myself. I cannot stop adding to this one, please enjoy!!
New additions to MMATOD:
Show Up - Samia
Beautiful and simple and specific storytelling, subtle blink 182, the scene of movie where a character walks into a bar and all of their friends are there and just so happy to see them
Samia’s last album, The Baby, absolutely captivated me. Slowly sliding down the tracklist, obsessed with every song as I reached it. So obviously I am thrilled to get another tune. Some songs just have an ambience of emotion, and this is one of em. The texture and tone of those first moments just have me in my feelings!! The specifics in the storytelling are breathtaking and heartbreaking, a real choice to sprinkle in gems like “and listened to MUNA at dawn”. The chorus hits hard, fuzzy and wide guitars, those thick drums methodically going off. And the lyrics are so beautiful.
Nothing could ever stop / my ass from showing up / to sing another song for the people I love
That’s friendship, that’s love. And that’s a good song.
San Andreas’ Fault - Kathleen
A desert at night, a quiet anger, a dark pop banger but it’s full of secrets.
Woah. WOAH. I’m freaking out about this one. As a huge Kathleen fan, I feel lucky to get a single that seems to come from and access another side of her sound. Her songs, happy, sad, or anywhere in between, are often these beautiful expansive songs. Like looking out from a mountain top, endless horizons in every direction. But this one… THIS ONE. OKAY. It’s dark, it’s mysterious, it’s contained in this perfect way. Maybe restrained is the better word. We might still be on that mountain top but under the cover of darkness, the moon’s gentle light forcing us to be intentional with our movements. This tension mounting, the sense that if the song can’t contain this bubbling emotion we could all lose our footing. My favorites parts of her work still deliver here - vocals as stunning as ever, songwriting taking on massive and intimate topics with grace all at once. Writing about land and climate personified, aaaand speaking to the human experience, it really is moving. As the song closes, it feels like a sunrise over our mountain, starting to appreciate the warmth and light we’ve taken for granted.
Kinney - Rostam
The world moving one million miles per hour around you while you just sit together inside, Saxophone riffs over breakbeats.
ROSTAM oh man oh man I have been waiiiiiting for this one. The breakbeat has my heart racing, those floating chords a nice balance. The baritone sax going fucking off, I simply must ask, is this heaven? My goodness. That riff is amazing, the tone just pristine. Looking forward to the 10 minute instrumental version (plz). Rostam meets the urgency in this first verse, a new love blossoming unexpectedly. The performance is perfect, as it always is, and generous autotune gives the whole thing this memory/nostalgic/dream-or-real feeling. Like this bubble could pop at any moment. He’s talked about that ‘half-light’ feeling before, but no one can deliver it with sound quite like Rostam. Then the dang waterworks start flowing with that final stanza over a thrashing band:
Isn’t it just like life to tell you that your
Not who you thought you were
It’s not what you thought it was
And you should feel free
This album is about to get played so many times I can’t even begin to estimate.
Liz - Remi Wolf
Dancing down the sidewalk, sun beating down on your smiling face, some nice summer funk, like when the sun is setting at the barbecue
Remi Wolf finally letting this one live in the world and I am grateful!!!! A jazzy number she’s been playing live for a while, this version does it so so much justice and breathes a new elegance and breeziness to it. Normally, when Remi cranks the up the ‘Weird’ knobs on her other songs, I am ecstatic. The excitement of never knowing what you’ll get, of going from '“what is this” to “WHY ISN’T EVERY SONG LIKE THIS” in a matter of minutes. But sometimes lost in that masterful mayhem is the plain fact that Remi Wolf can FUCKING SING. Liz is a nice reminder, a tender jam where Remi can really shine. Still groovy, still good as hell, still sprinkled with a delightful bunch of sounds. Ugh, my heart.
Hot N Heavy - Jessie Ware
Fresh disco, whispering in someone’s ear at the club, explosive dance music.
The follow up to her underrated as all heck 2020 album, Jessie Ware is back with another sexy disco smash hit. The beat is instantly infectious, straight ahead with that bass offering some attitude. Ware’s vocals come floating in, elegant and intimate, “lets give this crowd something to talk about”. The pre-chorus really pulled me in, that kick drum fading as the band builds. But when the chorus hits, it’s not a full out wave of power from the band, but Ware herself turning up and letting loose, the choir appearing to describe how she feels and dang it’s sick. The back half just offers more space to keep dancing and I’m loving it. Ware has the magic formula to timeless dance songs right now and I’ll take every single one she’s willing to share.
Six songs that just dropped that I bet will be good but I haven’t listened to enough to actually write about. Give ‘em a try! I think you’ll like them.
Everything Channel Tres does is cool, and working with Polo & Pan very much is too, on a dance music kick lately and this is just what I needed. The debut album from Joy Oladokun is here!!! King Princess continues this banger-after-banger genre-after-genre hot streak. Whatever this next project becomes is going to be special. The Marías with a Nice Life release, love the feel of this one, such an intimate chorus. The Japanese Breakfast album is here too!!! All these singles rocked I can’t wait to dive in. Georgia Greene always brings it, such a loving song and no one has a voice like her’s. A GREAT week of music.
What’s crazy is how much hit the cutting room floor on this one. I’m sorry Billie, I’m sorry Allie Crow Buckley, I’m sorry tomThide, I’m sorry BROCKHAMPTON, I’m sorry Cautious Clay & Saba, I’m sorry Jungle??? See this is just my sneaky way of still getting to acknowledge some of the other massive releases this week ok that’s enough. ((((((also sorry to Wallice, Jake Wesley Rogers, Q, Bulow, Cosima, OK OK I’ll stop I’ll stop))))))
So much good music here I hope you’ll share with anyone else you know who might be looking for new music, everyone is welcome! plz + ty.