Fluxblog
August 27th, 2019 3:10pm

Take It From The Top


That Dog “If You Just Didn’t Do It”

Anna Waronker’s voice has a very “90s cool girl” quality – exceptionally good for conveying sarcasm, low-key bitterness, and carefully guarded sincerity. That all comes to play in “If You Just Didn’t Do It,” her first song as the singer of That Dog in over two decades. The band’s particular aesthetic of raw alt-rock dynamics contrasted with delicate flourishes mostly contributed by Petra Haden hasn’t changed, but Waronker’s lyrical perspective has shifted somewhat. This song is nothing but tough love, and it opens with her explaining that this is basically a message to someone to whom the best way of getting through to them is through a song. She’s not pulling any punches here – she’s not outright attacking them or calling them a toxic person, but she is making it clear that their self-destructive impulses have made them impossible to be around. The song hits its main point with blunt force: “If you just didn’t do it, then you wouldn’t do it, and you wouldn’t be here right now.” It’s not sensitive, but sometimes the only rhetorical trick that works is a tautology.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 26th, 2019 12:07pm

Piece This Together


Black Party featuring Anajah “4AM in NY”

“4AM in NY” unfolds as if it is bracketed by ellipses on both sides, a formless melancholy state that seems infinite in the moment. The guitar tone is sleepy and the groove is gentle and low-key, but the lyrics sung by both Anajah and Malik Flint are restless and angsty. The song sounds like a breakup scenario split between two perspectives, which each not fully understanding how invested the other is in the relationship. Anajah is tearing herself apart trying to get a handle on why her love feels so unrequited, but comes to a conclusion that she’s done with it on the chorus hook. Flint, on the other hand, is just as attached but can’t seem to stop sabotaging the relationship out of insecurity and fear. The song plays out like watching them both in real time in split screen, highlighting the irony of their feelings, but also showing us exactly why these two can’t get on the same page emotionally despite their affection for one another.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 23rd, 2019 1:57pm

Darling You Hurt Me


Ala.ni “Sha La La”

The melody of “Sha La La” is warm and familiar to the point that I get a sort of deja-vu feeling when listening to it – where exactly have I heard this before? It sounds very ’60s to me on down to its arrangement, which feels a lot like when Studio One players would adapt American girl group music into ska and rocksteady. Ala.ni’s arrangement leans heavily on a cappella with just a bit of subtle percussion and organ to bolster the architecture of the song. Her voice is sweet and sad as she sings very direct and plain spoken lyrics about a breakup. It’s not angry or bitter, just honest in what she needs her former partner to know about her feelings. She just misses the connection and affection – “someone to hug and trust,” as she puts it. She feels betrayed by their initial promise not to break her heart, but it’s hitting her now that no one can ever guarantee a thing like that. It happened and she’s feeling it, and she’s moving on, sha la la, sha la la.

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August 21st, 2019 2:04am

A Different Type Of Freak


Teyana Taylor featuring King Combs “How You Want It?”

“How You Want It” is an exceedingly horny song in which Teyana Taylor is like a waitress listing off the day’s specials off a menu of sexual action, and suggests a few of her favorite house specialities. The acoustic guitar groove is low-key and the beat is fairly subtle, with a lot of room in the mix for a sultry atmosphere. Taylor sings “what’s the quickest way to turn you on?” over the best melodic hook in the song, and the line leaps out – she’s earnest in her desire to please, but there’s also something a little bit funny and a tiny bit sad about the focus on expediency. Kinda odd to be so urgent in a song that sounds like it’s in no hurry at all.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 20th, 2019 1:32am

Can I Ease Your Mind?


Snoh Aalegra “Toronto”

Snoh Aalegra spends most of “Toronto” spends about 75% of “Toronto” trying to invite herself over for a hook up, and the remaining 25% wondering if the other person is also horny. Given how much work she seems to be doing here to get things going, this just might be a coupling of mismatched libidos. But either way, this is a fabulous sexy and sensual piece of music with a sleek, low-key funk bounce that reminds me a bit of late ’80s Prince. Aalegra’s voice is impressively versatile too, singing her verses at the bottom of her register before seamlessly shifting up to the top for brighter notes for a flirty chorus that seems to float up on a breeze.

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August 19th, 2019 7:32pm

In A Love Denial


Anna Wise “Nerve”

“Nerve” contrasts a clicky impatient beat with a vocal performance by Anna Wise that’s soulful, serene, and certain. The incongruity is the point – knowing what you need and what you want, and feeling an nagging anxiety and desperate urgency about making it real. The rest of the arrangement is all shifting planes of melody and texture, all of it feeling ephemeral and unsettled. There’s other fragments of vocals in counterpoint – background chatter, a few declarations that break into the course of the verses – but it’s just more distracting thoughts and feelings circling the calm center of Wise’s voice. Hearing her speak the words “but I got to do this for me” doesn’t sound half as confident as hearing her sing any other emphatic statement in the song.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 18th, 2019 10:27pm

This Close Forever And Ever


Taylor Swift “Lover”

I’m not surprised that Taylor Swift would sound so good in a song that spends about a third of its running time sounding quite a lot like Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” but I am a little surprised that it actually happened. “Lover” is Swift at her most tender and romantic. It’s a full-hearted love song with only minor levels of Swift celebrity meta-narrative to get in the way of being a perfect track for wedding playlists for years to come. As usual her lyrics thrive in specificity of details (“we could leave the Christmas lights up til January,” “with every guitar string scar on my hand”) and pithy aphorisms that nail extremely relatable feelings (“I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you”). But aside from those Mazzy-ish verses and the ultra-swoony chorus, the peak of this song comes in a perfectly structured bridge in which Swift shifts from a low-key vibe to high-key Swift-iness in both melody and sentiment. The line about taking “this magnetic-force-of-a-man” to be her lover is delightfully extra, and when she swears to be “overdramatic and true” for him, she’s simultaneously winking to the audience and being extremely earnest. This is not someone who’d ever be chill about this sort of thing and bless her for it.

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August 15th, 2019 1:54pm

Can’t Find The Thrill Anymore


Sleater-Kinney “Can I Go On”

I don’t have a problem with Sleater-Kinney trying new things, since trying new things have served them well in the past. But it’s funny how “new things” is a very relative notion. Sleater-Kinney are indeed experimenting with “new things” on their 9th album The Center Won’t Hold, but to my ears, it mostly sounds like musical ideas that have been cycled through and chewed up by many lesser bands over the course of their existence. The elements of these songs that sound fresh and vital are the types of melodies and dynamics that have been with Sleater-Kinney all along, and the bits that feel “new” or at least unlike classic S-K sound a lot like drab major label radio rock from the past decade or so. In some cases, like “Ruins” or “Bad Dance,” the production moves work for the songs, albeit in a vaguely cheesy way – you know, like how if you wear certain clothes it will look more like a costume on you than an outfit? On other songs, like “Reach Out,” you get fabulous verses that are weighed down by an uninspired chorus that sounds too much like the bland hooks churned out by pro songwriters to blend in with the overall dynamics of contemporary radio.

Of all the new songs, “Can I Go On” is the one that best connects the particular spirit of classic S-K to a glossier studio aesthetic. It’s fairly light and boppy, and with its tone and processing, it comes out sounding a bit like a song that could’ve been used in an Apple iPod ad circa the mid 2000s. (You know, back when they were busy splitting the planet in half on The Woods.) Carrie Brownstein’s voice is bright and enthusiastic as she sings about feeling grim and drained, approaching the album’s theme of crushed hope and disconnection from a more personal and low-key perspective. It’s a song that answers is its own questions in music as they are expressed in lyrics – she sings “maybe I’m not sure I wanna go on,” but her voice and the energy behind the music make it clear that she very much is, despite it all.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 15th, 2019 1:43am

Blood On My Clothes


Poppy “Voicemail”

Two years ago Poppy was largely a meta deadpan art project largely spun out of the stranger and more surreal bits of YouTube subcultures. These days Poppy has taken a darker turn, but one that still in many ways mirrors trends in both music and visual art. It’s all very post-Billie Eilish now, with more of an emphasis on a goth-y industrial sort of pop minimalism. The satire of the earlier work is still in there, but dialed down to the point where it can function just as well as fully sincere music. “Voicemail” sets up a dark mood with self-consciously scary lyrics, but winks at us with odd lyrical turns – “I called up the police, their voicemail was full,” “Poppy is your mommy, Poppy is your mommy,” and a bit about feeling embarrassed randomly sung in Japanese. These odd bits only emphasizes the overall uncanny creepiness of the song.

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August 13th, 2019 5:19pm

Complexity Should Be Your Excuse For Inaction


The Quiet Temple “Shades of Gemini”

The Quiet Temple draw on a lot of psychedelic, jazz, and film music influences but my major reference point for this particular song is Herbie Hancock’s Sextant record from 1973. Hancock’s songs are little more sophisticated but there’s a similar sort of sinister cosmic funk feeling to the music, and a sort of lurch to the groove that makes the entire composition seem tilted or drunken. “Shades of Gemini” leans more on psychedelic rock as it moves towards its climax, building to a heavy crescendo that delivers a musical payoff a bit closer to the realm of Godspeed You Black Emperor.

Buy it from Bandcamp.



August 12th, 2019 2:09pm

The Elephant In Every Room


Alessia Cara “Rooting for You”

“Rooting for You” comes from a remarkably healthy place, in emotional terms: Smart enough to know when it’s time to cut a toxic friend out of one’s life, but kind and generous enough to not be especially angry or dramatic about it. Alessia Cara sings no-nonsense lyrics with a lot of warmth, and focuses on a feeling of disappointment when her friend’s issues get in the way of honest communication. The tune has a sunny lightness to it and nods in the direction of a ska groove without fully committing to the genre. The song doesn’t fit into any particular genre, really – it’s that sort of mutt pop that’s a bit of everything and produced with a gloss that makes it difficult to peg down to a particular year. This could be 1998, it could be 2003, it could be 2008, it could be any time since then. As such, it gets to have a vaguely nostalgic feeling about it without recalling any time in particular or feeling at all dated.

Buy it from Amazon.



August 8th, 2019 4:09pm

She’s Happy Like My Birthday


Metronomy “Salted Caramel Ice Cream”

“Salted Caramel Ice Cream” is a crush song, but it’s specifically about being into someone who is just a bit out of your league. She’s fancy, she’s a bit posh. She’s aspirational. Joseph Mount sings the song with a cheeky tone – he’s a bit breathy in a campy way, but not enough to make his lust a joke. (Though he’s certainly laughing at himself there.) The song is as light and bubbly as the Perrier he references at the start, and his vocal spikes the sweetness of it all with a salty kick of self-awareness, just like the treat that gives the song its name. It’s so fun and flirty that you can sort of miss that for a good portion of the song he’s stressing out about making eye contact with her and screwing it all up.

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August 7th, 2019 9:52pm

Figure It Out


Battles featuring Sal Principato “Titanium 2 Step”

The best Battles songs seem exaggerated and surreal, pushing commonplace sounds like drum hits and guitar strums to odd extremes that make you wonder if a human could really play what you’ve just heard. “Titanium 2 Step” does this trick mainly in a bit that sounds like the end of a riff has been suddenly and drastically pitched up before returning to the base tempo. There’s also a cartoonish springiness to the track, like it’s this big bouncy castle of chords and beats that Liquid Liquid vocalist Sal Principato is bopping around in, shouting with incoherent glee the whole time. What a weird and joyful song.

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August 6th, 2019 3:29pm

Isn’t This Fun?


Jarina De Marco “Identity Crisis”

“Identity Crisis” is an ALL CAPS song – bold and bright and loud and so overbearingly catchy that it might drive you a little crazy. There’s no holding back here, it’s all maximalist oomph and pizzazz, and that carries over to its extremely colorful and slyly political music video. The music needs to be this hyper and saturated to match the character and intensity Jarina De Marco brings to the table. She’s all flavor and zero timidity, and her lyrics approach the complexity of colorism within Latinx culture, particularly in her native Dominican Rebublic, with an appropriate blend of anger and pointed irony in order to put a spotlight on a poisonous absurdity. The lyrics and video lean hard on parody, but the song goes way too hard to be either a joke or get too serious.

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August 4th, 2019 6:54pm

The Skyline Askew


The New Pornographers “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile”

“Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” relies more on groove and atmosphere than most New Pornographers songs, and places John Collins’ bass – an easily overlooked element of the band – at the foreground of the arrangement. It works well in gently shifting the listener’s expectations of their music going into their eighth record but also establishes a feel of just-off destabilization that carries through the entire song and its lyrical themes. Carl Newman positions this as a sort of love song, but eliminates all traces of sentimentality and affection in his words and vocal inflections. The song starts with him making a pointed clarification – “you look just like a starmaker / that is NOT like a star” – and the rest of the lines signal calculation, cynicism, and mistrust. The chorus still has a slight love buzz to it as Kathryn Calder sings about a disorienting feeling that wipes out balance and reasonable interpretations of events. You can’t help but be passively manipulated by this person. In the words of another great song, it’s “fate up against your will.”

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August 1st, 2019 1:01pm

Under The Freeway Overpasses


Haim “Summer Girl”

“Summer Girl” sounds a bit like Haim trying to figure out how to play Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” but ending up somewhere else entirely. The feeling of it is extremely LA in the way Reed’s song is extremely NYC – a little more slack to the rhythm, a lot more implied space and sunlight in the mix. It’s also a lot more hopeful than cynical, as Danielle Haim wrote this an expression of love and empathy for her partner Ariel Rechtshaid when he was being treated for cancer. A lot of the lyrics are just her observing him in his lowest moments of fear and anxiety, and doing her best to be strong and selfless. She references Joni Mitchell at one point, calling back to her old line “laughter and crying, you know it’s the same release,” but putting it into a new context where it’s no longer coming from a place of isolation and insecurity. The saxophone part, written by Rostam Batmanglij, adds to the atmosphere without dipping into kitsch or pushing the song too far into retro pastiche. As much as the song is indebted to the past, it’s firmly present in the moment and focused on its message of unconditional love.

Buy it from Amazon.



July 30th, 2019 1:00pm

Hold Your Flashlight Up


Pieces of A Man “Nothing to Lose”

“Nothing to Lose” is a gospel pop song with a slightly tilted arrangement – not enough that it disrupts the grace and beauty of the harmonies or subverts the gospel-ness of the music, but in the way the electronic production and vaguely trap-ish drum programming shift expectations in subtle ways. It’s a gorgeous piece of music from the chord progression on up to the particular vocal inflections of the singers, which shift from joyous moments of unity to smaller, more personal declarations of love and faith. There’s an odd sort of gravity to this song – it feels so rooted to the earth, but it some moments the music seems to levitate.

Buy it from Bandcamp.



July 29th, 2019 1:28pm

Velvet Chains


Goldroom featuring Mereki “You’re Incredible”

Goldroom’s track is built around a repeated groove of what sounds like a chopped up sample of mallet percussion – maybe a marimba? It sounds very clear and “live” but just off enough to feel uncanny, so the metallic clangs sound lovely enough to have a lovely, luxurious feeling but also communicate a slight unease. Mereki’s vocal doesn’t get too deep into lyrical details. She sketches out a scene of being at a show and watching a performer with awe and affection, but wisely keeps things focused on a gorgeous repeated vocal hook: “I think you’re incredible, oh oh.” She sounds like someone in love with someone who isn’t fully real, someone who is more beautiful and idealized because you can’t get up close to them. Goldroom deepens the sound of the track with a painterly sort of guitar noise and beachy synth tones, but never takes focus off that mesmerizing percussive chord vamp. If you let it go for just a moment it would break the spell.

Buy it from Amazon.



July 28th, 2019 3:32pm

It’s America, Right?


Chance the Rapper featuring DaBaby and MadeinTYO “Hot Shower”

A lot of Chance the Rapper’s fourth record – actually his debut album if you ask him, but that’s just a discography combover if you ask me – is heavy and soulful, signaling maturity and stability. But “Hot Shower,” the record’s standout track, is a total goof that gives him space to be silly and extra playful with his always expressive voice. The song owes a lot to the cadences of Valee and Jeremih’s hit “Womp Womp” from last year, but the tone is different – less hypnotic and aloof, and way more overtly comedic as Chance shouts out DUDE and NUDES with cartoonish over-emphasis in the second verse. MadeinTYO’s verse is significantly more chill, but it’s just a palette cleanser before getting to DaBaby’s verse, which is dazzles with low-key confidence as it tips from bragging about cars to a section about going to court that’s both defiant of and paranoid about the racist legal system.

Buy it from Amazon.



July 26th, 2019 2:15pm

We’re Done With Music


Shura “The Stage”

“The Stage” is about the liminal time just before the tension between two people tips over into physical romance, and in this case the backdrop of the scene is a concert, making the title both literal and figurative. Shura sings with a flirty soulfulness that doesn’t totally obscure her nerves, and the music does about the same thing in the way it’s smooth, sexy groove is nonetheless built around a vamp that suggests a quickening pulse and anticipation. The main thing here is the sweetness of it all – the delicate bounce and sway of the chords, and the way Shura’s lyrics focus on little romantic details and sentiments like “I can’t see the stage because I’m looking at you.”

Buy it from Amazon.




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