MMM - Release week!!! + September Favs
no i'm NOT freaking out!! compilation out on friday & best songs i heard this month.
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. If you do, you can follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :) Your paid subscriptions go towards supporting the artists you read about here too!!
It’s here… we’re now DAYS away from my first ever compilation. I’m stoked, I’m grateful, I’m nervous, but more than it all I’m so happy. So happy to be sharing such incredible music with you, and so happy to be a part of bringing it to life in my own way. You bet ur ass I’ll be back on Friday to tell you more. But here’s one last teaser of a few tunes. Enjoy a few moments of demos from Quiet Light, Annie-Dog, and lavender <3 <3 <3 more on Friday.
can you even believe…. can’t wait for you to hear these in full. I’ll send you the bandcamp link including deals(!) on annual subscriptions to help support these artists and this newsletter even more <3 Can’t wait to deep dive into these songs with u.
Until then…
What I’ve Been Listening To This Month
Max’s Music Mondays is committed to the best and most exciting new artists. The fewer monthly listeners the better imo! But that’s not all I listen to. I like popular stuff too, SUE ME!!! This playlist is of course, Max’s Music All The Other Days.
So each month we come back to the artists who have filled that playlist, filled my time. Special artists, special records, something for everyone. This month, enjoy the September Recap. MIDWESTERNERS STAND TF UP WE ARE EATING THIS MONTH!!!!
Petey - Family of Six // USA
boy oh boy this album is great. hmmm sweet boy from chicago moves out to LA and considers life’s questions. yeah i’m probably gonna relate to that!! Anyways, I really love Petey, his writing is so vulnerable and sweet and earnest and self-depricating but in a making fun of myself because ya know, looking back, I do need to be better way and not a pity me way. This record is a big step up from past projects, so full and rich (ty to my friend andrew for helping me figure that one out, couldn’t find the word lol). Just sonically stuffed with big synths, bold guitars, ridiculous drums. Makes me wanna dance, makes me wanna SOB. An album about growing up, reckoning with adulthood, making your life what you want it to be. It’s a great one too.
Family of Six checks all of these boxes in one sick sick tune. His ability to be so damn funny and heartbreaking at the same time… A few of my fav lyrics in chronological order:
‘Cause if you never showed me Bambi
I could breathe instead of panic, I'd provide for a family six
I’d like to think I could have
Fought in Vietnam if I was told to
You just gotta believe me
If I tell you anything, I haven't told a lie (In a really long time!)
It’s all funny, it all makes me smile, and it all rings deeply true and genuine.
Chappell Roan - Coffee // The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
This album is also a triumph. Roan takes on every pop trope with a cutting, fresh, delightful new perspective. Femininomenon is both a perfect send up of “pop music” but is also just a flat-out incredibly great song. You hear all the influences across the record - but all appear as a piece of this massive and exciting NEW thing that Roan is doing. A sum greater than its parts etc. etc. All the singles are smashes, Casual is my early fav. This is what other pop artists wish they could be doing, wish they could be saying. But Roan actually has the courage to do it.
Coffee was the song I was most excited for - after Matt Rogers’ HIGH praise on Las Culturistas recently. A ballad that lived up to the hype. Just DEVASTATING. Setting a crucial boundary because SO MUCH is at stake if she doesn’t. A deeply touching song, you can really feel everything that’s on the line. Nowhere else is safe, every place leads back to your place. Emotional, mesmerizing, sheesh.
Medium Build - Cuz of U
ugh. what. i mean. Life happens, people grow apart, time passes, and this song reflects all of that back. We all have our own paths to follow and they don’t always run together, but god is it great when they cross down the line again. So much love in this song, in this chorus, for those who made MB’s path possible to follow.
But if I don’t leave now I never will lands like a DAGGER, into that first chorus. Leaving me raw for when I see myself in this second verse. Far from home, far from my family, far from my day ones. That friendship everlasting and meaning so much to both sides. Ugh!!! UGH!!!!! tearing up at the damn coffee shop just savoring it all.
If you can, please go see Medium Build on tour. Something so special happening here.
Sampha - Only
He can do no wrong. His sound further refined only so it can be further fucked with. Still here only God knows way literally shoving me back into my chair, head KNOCKING. The first verse is so sick - expert production, Sampha’s perfect voice sitting dead center the mic in his hand singing right in front of us, can hear the eye contact. Has me JUMPING up and down as that chorus hits. It’s wild how much energy he infuses with such a simple arrangement and generally pretty chill music. The drums hit so hard, those tiny brass flares spitting out at just thr right moment. I just love it.
Mitski - I Don’t Like My Mind
Mitski.. you gotta back off… we’re getting a LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME bud. This album... Oooooh. my goodness. One I’ve been savoring, drowning in, and loving. A Mitski record is a scary thing. It might change your life forever and it might/will make you cry. But take the risk on this one, it’s so stunning and beautiful, worth every painful lyric and touching revelation.
This song swirls with a impressive full band and a classic Mitski-is-so-damn-good vocal performance. I love cake what can I say. This is one I’ll be digging into more. I know it.
Deep breaths deep breaths the compilation is gonna be great, I’ve worked hard on it now it’s just time to enjoy it. Whew whew ok ok ok I’m good I’m chill I swear. I’m normal!!
Hope you enjoyed these songs and can’t wait to share more with you soon.
See you Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Max
We love music. We love Max. We love Fridays.