Hey y’all,
I cancelled my Spotify subscription last month after the latest round of headlines announcing the platform’s layoff of 1,500 employees. CEO Daniel Ek equated music to “content creation”, and the value of the creation of that content to be “close to zero”. The company is no longer paying artists for songs with fewer than 1,000 streams. Meanwhile, the price for using Spotify is going up.
In general I notice myself drifting away from the discussions of every new album/song that comes out, more interested in re-listening to beloved records in my collection, or new music with something special to say. I am a music critic, too, now, somehow. I’ve been spending time with records I’ll have to write about. This is less about the music itself and more about how I’m working to improve my writing, thesis-building and presentation. Developing, if you can believe it, a focus.
So when it comes to this newsletter I find myself having less news to share and more desire to bring you into my real world, my final weeks of being 30, the life of a former news reporter now married and working a job, deeply invested in observing the near world around him, taking notes, asking questions.
What is most important to you about music?
Is it the lyrics, the instrumentation, the path or evolution of the artist?
Or is it the socializing aspects, the freedom music can bring? The dissociation?
The worries of whatever shit you had to go through earlier in the day, earlier in the week, coming up tomorrow or the next day, lifting off of you and condensing into fog?
Or is it just the discovery, the idea that new music can intrigue simply by a quirky sound, a gripping album cover, a fit of fashion, a glimpse at another lifestyle, at home or abroad, and a desire to know more?
This is a much better idea and value of what music is than whatever Spotify and its CEO want you to believe and pay for. Isn’t it? You deserve better.
Below are the new albums that’ve caught my attention over the last couple of months. The ones I’m playing regularly over the summer have a little ☀️ next to them. Links lead to Bandcamp when possible, where you can stream and cop that.
What am I missing? Holler in the comments or reply at liveloveloops@gmail.com.
a&d bindery — A&D Bindery (MELODY GARDEN)
Wide-eyed hip-hop from the Upper Midwest, a sharp and poetic collaboration from dh porter and Alex Kollman. MELODY GARDEN says all proceeds from sales go toward “no-cost produce and grocery markets in the Twin Cities.”
Actress — Statik (Smalltown Supersound)
Another abstract and cryptic record from the electronic savant, where the shape of his ambient, minimal instrumentals are less important than their improvisation, happening in what seems like real time.
Charli xcx - BRAT (Atlantic) ☀️
What’s the ceiling on four-on-the-floor party tracks made up of trance synths and chrome-textured drums?
I was surprised by Charli’s candid writing and the c’est la vie attitude of Brat. When you notice yourself being pulled from the dark corners of the club and out into the street where life happens. Charli, I presumed from the bubblegum flair of “Boys”, “Boom Clap” and “Vroom Vroom”, didn’t touch material like this. But of course that was never the full picture. The depth of her writing has featured on other projects, like her tenderly earnest debut True Romance and the conceptually tight how I’m feeling now from 2020.
The catalog is indeed stacked, but Brat ranks high above the rest. The production satisfies in depicting Charli’s neon wonderland. (Another pleasant surprise: Gessafelstein had a hand in the best songs, the ballad “I might say something stupid” and “B2b”.) Charli’s maturation has greatly shaped her artistic philosophy. Instead of choosing between innocence and escapism, Charli sets on a path of wisdom.
Chief Keef — Almighty So 2 (43B) ☀️
Hardest beats this side of the Mississippi, all but one produced by Chief Keef himself. Anyone still playing “Not Like Us” in their car should be bumping this instead.
Mabe Fratti — Sentir que no sabes (Unheard of Hope)
Tone-perfect baroque pop in the vein of Fiona Apple or Joanna Newsom from the excellent Mexico City cellist and songwriter.
Mach-Hommy — #RICHAXXHAITIAN (Mach-Hommy) ☀️
A sonically adventurous project by the bandanna-covered rapper, whose insidious verses, Creole slang and political banter — none which you can find on Genius, by the way — leave an international trail scattered with clues. Where in the world is Mach-Hommy?
Mdou Moctar — Funeral for Justice (Matador)
A fiery follow-up to Afrique Victime, with passion in every guitar lick and verse admonishing the extraction of Africa’s precious minerals and cultures.
NxWorries — Why Lawd? (Stones Throw) ☀️
The songwriting and production by Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge evokes the hot and sticky drama of my youth to uncanny accuracy. A song like “Daydreamin’” has me practically reaching out for the air in front of me for the real thing. It’s Knx’s beat, a sample of a hot and horny slow jam, touched perfectly by synths and a schlocky electric guitar solo, a whisper from the soft-rock station heard from the backseat of a vintage car. Paak fits seamlessly in the pocket, as does H.E.R. on the knx-cking “Where I Go”, and the other featured guests. This is real inspiration, not simulation. (Sorry, Silk Sonic.) The sleazy NxWorries persona has aged like a bottle of cognac. That is to say, it’s seen a lot of hurt.
Jessica Pratt — Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer) ☀️
Another wonderful wrinkle to Pratt’s rich and melodic folk discography, including some of her best songs yet.
Various Artists — IYKYK (Air Texture) ☀️
This compilation is top-to-bottom spectacular, a warm and joyful celebration of house music styles both old and new. What unites these 17 songs (a total 1.5 hour runtime) is a key sense of the soulful and emotional virtues of dance music. It comes in the form of jumpy garage ("Special Technique" by Introspekt), smoldering dub (Russel E.L. Butler's fantastic "LIVE (DUB)"), fast-paced house ("CHECK" by Tokyo DJ Haruka), disco (Tammy Lakkis' "Kitty Cat"), and several tracks that bring the communal transcendence of classic house.
VARSHA and 4AM NYC deserve a nod for their curation here, and more partiers deserve to hear these tracks this summer. This compilation brought me back to my own weekends dancing in New York City, at Nowadays or MoMA PS1. That feeling of summer abandon, growing only stronger as the sun set and the evening cooled.