MMM with Elora & Eyas
Back again. Your new favorite songs plus instant classics from jerod, spill tab, and this phenomenal TRANSA compilation <3
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
Back from NY! Back at my desk! Back to writing about songs I am loving and deeply, genuinely believe you’ll love as soon as hear em too.
What a beautiful thing that is. It’s thanksgiving week so of course I’m feeling grateful. I think it’s reached cliche to say “i don’t really care about the holiday” but that is true… but the lifetime of gratitude in the fall has burrowed it’s way deep into my psyche.
That, plus being too tired from traveling, plus getting to see so many important friends… I’m feeling mushy!!! Which probably explains why our first song made me cry. But more on that in a sec.
First, just have to say thank you to all of you for being here. It is such an honor to write and share with y’all every week <3 What a lucky thing I’ve stumbled into.
I hope you get a lot out of these posts too - primarily, great music. So excited for The Maxies right around the corner and SO SO much planned for next year. Thank you from the bottom and the top of my heart.
Oh and I’d be deeply grateful if you checked this out…. still have some redbrd cassettes left!! Scoop one up for the perfect gift for the music lover in your life.
It’s the first release on my label, Mendel, and your support goes a long way. Appreciate you!
Elora - Belly Laugh
Clean guitars welcome us in, echoing vibraphones creating so much depth. As the guitars circle around a second time, a new guitar walks through a slow riff, a synth pops in and out sounding like a shooting star across the sky.
Elora joins after this dreamy intro. She’s nostalgic from the very first lyric, keeping this dreamy, glowing, vibe alive. I love her voice, it’s so rich and warm and easy. This soulfulness, or maybe it’s just an honestness that offers so much heart? Idk, but there is something that feels genuine and unique about her tone. You were playing my favorite song to calm me down gets draped gently over the comfortable chord progression, some quiet harmonies on either side as we go.
She’s able to slide so easily from note to note. Bending, almost traipsing, around, you have to listen close to catch every move. It just all comes natural to Elora. It makes these memories feel so cherished and pure. We nearly reach the 0:50 mark and suddenly see the reason she’s holding this all so dearly, It’s not fair we said goodbye / I wanna sleep in your bed one more night lands like a dagger to the heart.
This brutal reveal has me welling up with every listen, the next lyric pushing me to my breaking point, wishing for just one more chance to be together and laugh. Thankfully, the band is there to catch us and give us a break. The drums developing, the bass steady, as a warped radar of keys echo out through this solo. It’s a sweet moment, even the solo feeling full of love. As if each note is a memory popping up somewhere new, not totally sure where to go next. With its resolution finally feeling like acceptance, the song ready now to keep moving.
Another guitar finds a home in this second verse, as the band dials it back again, the guitar gives the moment a new shape and I love it. What I don’t love is how devastating the verse is (jk I really do, holy moly). Your home became my own lands with this epic-beyond-time/adrianne-lenkerness, only to be yanked back to the present moment as she stops crying. There’s such a powerful universalness to these feelings, going to a ‘hometown’, having hard conversations in cars. Whether you’ve lived it or seen it in a movie, it just hits.
As the band ramps up again, ready to fly, a synthy harp sprints towards the sky. But, Elora reels it all back in. Heads swing back, belly laugh landing so intimately. Brilliant encapsulation of such a particular relationship, such a particular feeling, but delivering it in a brand new phrase. After a few repetitions, another layer or two join and continue the meditation. The harp sound sprints back to the sky again, the band ready for us to arrive. Elora powers through this bridge, this deep desire coming through so earnestly as she opens up her voice even more. And I’m floored. Whew.
It closes back on the repeated phrase, and it’s a beautiful end to a beautiful song. So excited about this one, and look forward to more from Elora <3
Follow Elora on Instagram // on Spotify
Eyas - Undercurrents
Yuuuup. That’s great.
Some keys hidden behind a cobweb of a filter, with the drummer back there too, sounding like it was recorded to tape just to sample beautifully. A real strong groove to the samples and how they’re arranged here, so much depth, even in their thinness.
The piano breaks through the filter, into the room, into the present. Eyas is there waiting. Conversation’s getting heavy / doesn’t seem like I can hold it anymore. Her voice so gentle, but sharp in its delivery, knifing right into the rhythm of the song, keeping the groove in tact even when the band drops out. Delivery aside, the line is so smart the two cliches smashed together with clever wordplay. Connecting the dots in a way my brain never had before.
The drums are so tight, the piano tone so elegantly beautiful. They make that sunny chord switch at 0:27 feel so natural. The song’s tone shifting, Eyas sounding just as special here. Riding the breezy melody, the bass running around, it’s all lovely. The piano pulls us up into another key shortly after, the bass remaining right at home, Eyas once again holding it down. This new melody, background vocals included, break into a this jazzy feel. It’s thrilling and so enjoyable to hear her so effortlessly slide between moments. Tying such distinct sounds together in a way that feels effortless and natural.
Another new scene coming! Breaking past the minute mark, everyone still refusing to revisit familiar sounds. Instead, braving forward into something new yet again. Starting to head back to the heavier sounds, the drums find an irresistible pocket, the bass really magnificent as it cascades down through chords. Add the piano too, and wow, it’s really sick. But somehow Eyas manages to float above it all, still the star of the song. She forges an unexpected melody and shows off with some riffs on that disappointed repetition.
Stripping things back to square one, Eyas commands your attention here, giving the song a quick reset as she faces a hard moment. Reaching out for help, but the thoughts and anxieties taking her further from herself. Some cool layers as the moment ends, warped vocals that feel almost underwater, light harmonies rippling out from there. We’re right here in the water with her.
Things take a brighter turn from there, again back to that breezy summer feel. It’s a welcomed relief. But don’t you dare get too comfortable!! Just when things feel familiar again, we get some wild vocals to pull us into that next section. Eyas is there, but so is some other voice - another octave higher maybe? It feels surreal, only partly human. Even though the moment flies by quickly, the two voices seem to dance together, twist around each other. It’s a great little flourish. We’re also treated to, what I’d consider, an extended drum fill. From that 1:41ish point, really cutting through the mix and building us up for the lush peak at 1:50 and on. We ride the rest of the song out, just sitting in the midst of all this magic. It’s a real treat.
Eyas is an amazing vocalist, great writer, and is really showing off a lot of versatile talent across her 6-track EP, Quiet-loud. Moments of dance, of DnB, of jazz, of indie rock. Somehow all perfect together. The project was produced by Bartees Strange (how i found Eyas to begin with months ago) which makes the un-pin-downable-genre-but-it-all-works-well make even more sense. An awesome collaboration between these two, and everyone else involved. Fantastic stuff.
Follow Eyas on Instagram // on Spotify
Last Week on All The Other Days:
signal; - jerod
He’s done it again. I can’t even guess how many times I’ve listened to this song already. It’s so damn good.
I know I’ve talked a lot about jerod over here already - and there’s more to come this year, just you wait - so I’ll try to keep it brief.
His voice is ridiculous, so smooth, so intimate, but still has a lot of power when he wants it.
The production is crazy. Every sound is perfect, the ebbs and flows of the arrangement are perfect, the background vocals, the messiness, it’s all so perfect.
The writing???!!! Are you serious?? My top three lyrics from this song:
memory is only just the way we wanted everything to stay
i could never read a book that tells you how to live / your life
if you see me in your dreams at night / i promise you that i won’t stay.
what more do you want, this song is good as hell.
H.B.W - Saya Gray
Saya Gray continues to leave me speechless. Every song is so magical, so intoxicating, so inventive, it’s a thrill to hit play.
This one is dark and heavy and sexy. It really holds the empty space, the anger, all of the emotions of a Heart Break Wave.
Love the production, especially in the final moments - the gentle keys, the harps, the spinning guitars, the muted bass, the brass. Forever cooking up special music.
PINK LEMONADE - spill tab
Hahahaha this one is CRAZY!!!! Big sounds, big distortion, big fun. Somehow spill tab navigates the chaos with ease, sounding so calm in the center of it all. Smiling as she sings through the chorus: Pink lemonade and berry stains / I'm all out of juice, I'm dry as cake / Pass me the crusty bandy-aid / And rush me to Kaiser Permanente.
It’s joyous and serious, it’s messy and intentional, it’s a sick one. Repeating it all back before the 1:40 mark switch-up, a whole new daydream of a scene. All of it coming together beautifully. Love love love.
TRANSA Compilation
It’s out!! And it’s incredible.
It was created and compiled by Red Hot Org who says: TRAИƧA marks one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by Red Hot - a spiritual journey across 8 chapters and 46 songs, spotlighting the gifts of many of the most daring, imaginative trans and non-binary artists working today. It softens the edges of the world we know, and invokes powerful dreams of the futures that might one day thunder from its cracks. The album's instantly memorable cover speaks to the tension between nature and constructed environments, and the tension of transness in the western gender binary. (emphasis mine)
The music is absolutely incredible, I guarantee one of your favorites is featured somewhere in here (Faye Webster, Moses Sumney, Andre 3000, Perfume Genius, and literally 100 others), and if they aren’t… maybe you need new favorites??
So many exciting songs and stories shared across all genres. Unexpected collaborations. It’s all special. Please check it out.
XOXO,
Max