Doom In My Stomach

Mermaidonmars “Cognitive Dissonance”

How’s this for cognitive dissonance – a song about reckoning with self-destructive impulses in relationships that sounds sexy and triumphant. Even if Shanna van Loozenoord is describing abject feelings of shame, fear, and loneliness, the point is that it’s all fueling the thrill of making her love life more tumultous and dramatic. You can sense the undertow of doubt in the music, the pushback of knowing she’s longing for the wrong men and making bad decisions, but it’s not enough to overcome the affect of chic misery.

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Jae Stephens “Him&Him&Him”

The most striking thing about “Him&Him&Him” to me, at my age, is how much the groove sounds like early 90s New Jack Swing. It’s a very formative sound for me, but one that’s largely been bred out of R&B as the genre has continuously mutated over the past few decades. The song doesn’t even feel particularly retro – the melody sounds more 00s to me, the bass and lyrics feel more contemporary. But that snappy post-hip hop groove is there, and it lends this song about being extremely boy crazy an extra bit of swagger. It makes you believe that Jae Stephens can have whatever and whomever she wants.

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