Swet Shop Boys “Birding”

My favorite thing about Heems as a rapper is his playfulness – he makes rapping sound like a fun game without tipping so far into nerdiness that he negates the swagger essential to nearly all great hip-hop. He seems to take great joy in finding a way to make a convincing rap out of any topic, not just to prove his prowess as a lyricist, but to display the remarkable elasticity of hip-hop as a form. In this case he is literally rapping about birdwatching, and gradually shifts from braggy, horny wordplay to just straight-up working in as many shout-outs to bird species as he possibly can on a three minute track. It’s ridiculous and wonderful, and I don’t think there’s anyone else who could’ve pulled this off while still sounding very cool.

Buy it from Amazon.

Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie “In My World”

The new album attributed to Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie is a Fleetwood Mac record in all but name. The rhythm section is John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, the music was intended to be a Fleetwood Mac record until Stevie Nicks opted out of the project. But there are post-’75 Fleetwood Mac records that don’t include Lindsey and others that don’t include Christine. Mac logic can be strange and volatile, but the constant seems to be that people must appease Stevie at all costs. I get it. But if this was a Fleetwood Mac record and you added a few good-to-decent Stevie tunes, it’d be the best thing the band had done since Tango in the Night.

“In My World,” a Buckingham composition, has the atmosphere of a classic Fleetwood Mac tune – melancholy, quasi-mystical, vaguely Californian. The hooks are immediate even if the feeling is subdued, with the strongest emotions caught somewhere between Buckingham’s finger-picked guitar notes and Fleetwood’s distinctive pocket groove. The chorus is a major earworm, but whereas you’d expect Christine to cover the harmony part, it’s instead the echo of a multi-tracked Lindsey knocked out of phase. Thematically, this checks out – he is singing about “his world,” so of course it’s insular and self-reflective.

Buy it from Amazon.

Rainer Maria “Lower Worlds”

I never paid much attention to Rainer Maria in their first run. I was aware of them and definitely checked them out a few times and decided it wasn’t for me. So it came as quite a surprise that this song, from their first new record in 11 years, completely blew me away. “Lower Worlds” sounds enormous, like Jane’s Addiction in “Mountain Song” mode but with Dave Navarro replaced with the organ player of Clinic. I love the overdriven organ tone on this – the chords sound distressed and saturated, and connect with the beat to create this crushing mechanical noise. Caithlin De Marrais’s voice cuts through the treble with a mostly staccato melody that seems to punch up through the din, like she’s trying to break out from beneath it. It’s an incredibly cathartic sound, and greatly amplifies the emotion of an already dramatic piece of music.

Buy it from Amazon.

Showtime Goma “Chug”

Showtime Goma’s arrangements are incredibly busy, to the point that the swirls of notes, beats, and textures rapidly moving in, out, and around the track can obscure or interrupt the melodic through line of the songs. The central vocal melody of “Chug” is strong enough to withstand the self-inflicted onslaught of sounds, and is in some ways improved by this hectic, overloaded presentation. This approach to arranging can make songs feel anxious and confused, but the bright, assertive tone of the vocal mitigates that somewhat. It feels cluttered but light, and the zippy, shifting feeling conveys excitement more than apprehension. It’s like being overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings, but finding inspiration in that mental chaos.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Roger Waters “Déjà Vu”

It really is too bad that Roger Waters can’t call Is This the Life We Really Want? a Pink Floyd album because musically and thematically, it belongs in that body of work much more so than any of his other solo works or anything that’s been labeled Pink Floyd since he left after The Final Cut in the early ‘80s. The sound of it, the feeling of it, the particular odd combination of theatrical grandeur and dialed-down English bitterness. It’s all there, except for David Gilmour’s soaring guitar parts and more pleasant vocal tone. I like the rawness of Waters’ voice on this record, though – he sounds like a broken man, and it makes his overwhelming contempt and disappointment for the world as we know it now seem less haughty or preachy. He spent all those years in Pink Floyd being the most successful Cassandra in the history of music, but he doesn’t sound remotely pleased to have his dim opinion of humanity be validated by a post-Brexit and Trump world. “Déjà Vu,” an acoustic ballad that perhaps deliberately echoes “Mother” and “Wish You Were Here,” sounds more fragile and miserable than either. It gestures towards grandeur, but Waters sounds too weary to get there, and is too disillusioned to allow an easy catharsis. It’s as sad and lovely, but also tragic and pitiful.

Buy it from Amazon.

The Heliocentrics “The Silverback”

The Heliocentrics’ A World of Masks is a record rich in texture and atmosphere, and though it holds together musically and thematically, the songs feel like worlds unto themselves. You get jazzy incantations, skronk horns over kraut psychedelia, funk mysticism, stoner polyrhythms, and hypothetical Isaac Hayes spaghetti western soundtracks. The most obvious influence is tipped off by their name – this is a band of Sun Ra heads, and his cosmic jazz aesthetic binds it all together. It was quite difficult to pick which song to feature here, but I chose “The Silverback” because I think it’s the most immediately accessible. It was the first one that caught my ear, anyway. That simple vibraphone hook pulls you in right away, but the rhythm is the truly seductive element. I love the way the music sounds as though it’s descending into some secret world, and at some point you can’t even hear that vibraphone part because you’re in too deep.

Buy it from Amazon.

Cigarettes After Sex “Apocalypse”

Cigarettes After Sex is a good name for this band, if just because it so effectively conveys the aesthetic of their music. Every song on their debut record could accurately be described as “dreamy,” “hazy,” “romantic,” and “languid,” and the guitar parts often sound like the stuff Beach House and Mazzy Star forgot to write. The familiar vibe is more a feature than a bug, particularly as their sparkly/drifty guitars and slo-mo beats are often contrasted with a vocal melodies that are closer to contemporary pop in the vein of Lana Del Rey than anything Beach House has ever been up to. Greg Gonzalez’s voice isn’t totally androgynous, but his tone and phrasing can be off-handedly feminine in a way that suggests gender fluidity more than gender-bending. I particularly like how his voice is mic’d and mixed on “Apocalypse” – it sounds like a whisper very close to your ear, and it exaggerates the intimate vibe of the music.

Buy it from Amazon.

Future featuring Kendrick Lamar “Mask Off (Remix)”

So yeah, here’s two rappers who are nothing alike on the same track. Future mutters through the song liked a stoned zombie, and though I don’t find him particularly charismatic, that “Percocets, molly, Percocets” mantra has an undeniable gravitational pull. Maybe it’s because he sounds like he actually needs those drugs. The original “Mask Off” stays in this lane, and while it works well enough, the song is definitely improved by switching gears with the Kendrick feature. The contrast really pops – Kendrick’s arrival jolts the song out of its hazy stupor, and he packs a lot of action in a verse that lasts a little over one minute. His lines are more densely packed at the start, but that’s Kendrick-by-numbers at this point. I’m more into the climax, where he’s so in control of the beat that it stops and starts around his rhymes as though he’s willing his surroundings to bend to his will. He sounds supremely confident here, and that’s before he even gets to the bit where he says that Prince lives on through him.

Buy it from Amazon.

This is the sixth in the 1990s survey mix series, which will come out monthly in chronological order through this year. You can find the previous mixes here.

I realized pretty early on in this project that 1995 was very special to me, and that I needed to present it a bit differently than the other years. I usually make an effort to mix up the genres throughout the surveys, but it was important to me to take up the entire first “disc” of this set to highlight what I’ve come to call Alt-Utopia – the creative and commercial pinnacle of alt-rock, indie, and Britpop in this year. I love the energy of this period. Everyone sounds so ambitious and energetic, and anyone playing rock music seemed to truly believe in the power of the genre. There was still a sense in the music industry that anything could be popular if marketed as “alternative rock,” and the definition of what could qualify as “rock music” was extremely broad in a way that opened up a lot of creativity. I have a lot of sentimentality for this period because I was a teenager at the time, but I truly believe this was a unique moment – the optimistic, fun times just before the alt-rock bubble burst.

1995 is also notable as a major boom time for rap and R&B, and lot of the very best of that is featured on the second disc. That stuff sounds kinda optimistic and utopian too, even the grimy prime era Wu-Tang music. This is also the year alt-country became a thing, which is kinda interesting as an American parallel to Britpop. But while those Britpop bands had mostly existed for a while before this major cultural moment in 1994 and 1995, almost all of the alt-country acts released their debuts within months of each in this year.

Thanks to Rob Sheffield, Eric Harvey, Dan Kois, Sean T. Collins, and especially Paul Cox for their valuable assistance in putting this set together.

DOWNLOAD PART 1

Pavement “Grounded” / Helium “Pat’s Trick” / Archers of Loaf “Harnessed In Slums” / Yo La Tengo “Tom Courtenay” / Guided by Voices “Game of Pricks” / Sonic Youth “Skip Tracer” / Thurston Moore “Psychic Hearts” / The Flaming Lips “Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles” / PJ Harvey “Down by the Water” / The Smashing Pumpkins “1979” / Elastica “Car Song” / Pulp “Common People” / Blur “The Universal” / The Verve “History” / Oasis “Wonderwall” / Radiohead “Just” / Spacehog “In the Meantime” / Garbage “Only Happy When It Rains” / Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know” / Stereolab “French Disko” / Fugazi “Target” / Pearl Jam “I Got Id” / Foo Fighters “This Is A Call” / Belly “Now They’ll Sleep” / Veruca Salt “Number One Blind” / Weezer “Say It Ain’t So” / Everclear “Santa Monica” / Green Day “Brain Stew” / Mike Watt featuring Eddie Vedder “Against the ‘70s” / Scarce “All Sideways” /Juliana Hatfield “Universal Heart-Beat” / The Caulfields “Devil’s Diary” / Monster Magnet “Negasonic Teenage Warhead” / Chavez “Break Up Your Band” / Royal Trux “You’re Gonna Lose” / Home “My Friend Maurice” / Flying Saucer Attack “Standing Stone” / St. Johnny “Scuba Diving” / Liz Phair “Animal Girl”

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Björk “Hyper-Ballad” / Tricky “Hell Is Around the Corner” / Raekwon & Ghostface Killah “Heaven and Hell” / The Notorious B.I.G. “Big Poppa” / Adina Howard “Freak Like Me” / TLC “Waterfalls” / Brandy “Sittin’ Up In My Room” / Mariah Carey featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Fantasy (Remix)” / Montell Jordan “This Is How We Do It” / Junior M.A.F.I.A. featuring The Notorious B.I.G. “Players Anthem” / Method Man & Mary J. Blige “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By” / R. Kelly “You Remind Me of Something” / Seal “Kiss From A Rose” / The Jayhawks “Blue” / Collective Soul “December” / Sheryl Crow “Strong Enough” / Joan Osborne “One of Us” / Natalie Merchant “Carnival” / Jewel “Who Will Save Your Soul?” / Bush “Glycerine” / Hum “Stars” / Sunny Day Real Estate “J’nuh” / Mad Season “River of Deceit” / Neil Young “Scenery” / Portishead “Glory Box” / The Bucketheads “The Bomb” / Total featuring The Notorious B.I.G. “Can’t You See” / Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” / Beastie Boys “Root Down” / GZA “Liquid Swords” / Da Brat “Give It 2 U” / Jodeci “Freek’n You” / Three 6 Mafia “Da Summa” / LL Cool J “Doin’ It” / Mary J. Blige “Not Gon’ Cry”

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The Cardigans “Carnival” / Suddenly, Tammy! “Hard Lesson” / Ben Folds Five “Jackson Cannery” / The Rentals “Friends of P.” / Soul Asylum “Shut Down” / Black Grape “Kelly’s Heroes” / U2 “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” / Gene “Sleep Well Tonight” / D’Angelo “Brown Sugar” / The Roots “Proceed” / The Pharcyde “Drop” / Redman & Method Man “How High” / Folk Implosion “Natural One” / R.E.M. “Tongue” / The Presidents of the United States of America “Lump” / Del Amitri “Roll to Me” / Blues Traveler “Hook” / Tim McGraw “I Like It, I Love It” / The Waco Brothers “Bad Times (Are Comin’ Round Again)” / Dwight Yoakum “Nothing” / Emmylou Harris “Wrecking Ball” / K’s Choice “Not An Addict” / Ani DiFranco “32 Flavors” / Heather Nova “Walk This World” / Mary Lou Lord “His Indie World” / Matthew Sweet “Sick of Myself” / Velvet Crush “Hold Me Up” / Echobelly “King of the Kerb” / Red Red Meat “Chain Chain Chain” / Bone Thugs N Harmony “1st of Tha Month” / Mobb Deep “Shook Ones, Pt. II” / Luniz “I Got 5 On It” / Cypress Hill “Throw Your Set in the Air” / Future Sound of London “The Far Out Son Of Lung And The Ramblings Of A Madman” / Massive Attack vs Mad Professor “Radiation Ruling the Nation” / Dirty Three “Kim’s Dirt” / Nine Inch Nails “Hurt”

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Morrissey “The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils” / Marilyn Manson “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” / Prick “Animal” / Rammstein “Rammstein” / Ned’s Atomic Dustbin “All I Ask of Myself Is That I Hold Together” / Rancid “Ruby Soho” / Less Than Jake “Liquor Store” /Mudhoney “Judgment, Rage, Retribution, and Thyme” / Green Apple Quick Step “Los Vargos” / Live “All Over You” / Filter “Hey Man Nice Shot” / Cornershop “6 a.m. Jullandar Shere” / Autechre “Dael” / Aphex Twin “Ventolin (Video Edit)” / Moby “Feeling So Real” / Rob Zombie “More Human Than Human” / KMFDM “Juke-Joint Jezebel” / Siouxsie and the Banshees “Stargazer” / Red Hot Chili Peppers “Warped” / Whale “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe” / Cibo Matto “Know Your Chicken” / Dionne Farris “I Know” / Faith Evans “You Used to Love Me” / Dr. Dre “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” / Shania Twain “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” / 16 Horsepower “Shametown” / Tarnation “Two Wrongs Don’t Make Things Right” / Tracy Chapman “Give Me One Reason” / Sleeper “Inbetweener” / Luna “Sideshow by the Seashore” / S.F. Seals “Ladies of the Sea” / Alan Jackson “Gone Country” / Brooks & Dunn “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” / Kenny Chesney “All I Need to Know” / Boyz II Men “Water Runs Dry” / All-4-One “I Can Love You Like That” / Deborah Cox “Sentimental”

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Annie Lennox “No More ‘I Love You’s’” / Whitney Houston “Exhale” / Michael Jackson “You Are Not Alone” / Selena “I Could Fall In Love” / Outhere Brothers “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” / Scatman John “Scatman” / Skee-Lo “I Wish” / Big L “Put It On” / Smif-N-Wessun “Wrekonize (Remix)” / Coolio “Gangsta’s Paradise” / Alice In Chains “Grind” / Silverchair “Tomorrow” / Wax “California” / Spiritualized “Medication” / The Passengers featuring Luciano Pavarotti “Miss Sarajevo” / Goodie Mobb featuring Andre 3000 “Thought Process” / Prince “Pussy Control” / No Doubt “Just A Girl” / Better Than Ezra “Good” / Ruby “Tiny Meat” / Supergrass “Alright” / The Boo Radleys “Wake Up Boo!” / Deep Blue Something “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” / The Rembrandts “I’ll Be There for You” / Hootie and the Blowfish “Only Wanna Be With You” / Lenny Kravitz “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” / Garth Brooks “She’s Every Woman” / Toby Keith “You Ain’t Much Fun” / Trisha Yearwood “Thinkin’ About You” / George Strait “Check Yes or No” / Gin Blossoms “Til I Hear From You” / Wilco “Box Full of Letters” / The 6ths “San Diego Zoo” / Smog “Bathysphere” / Steve Earle “Nothin’ Without You” / Elliott Smith “Needle in the Hay” / Jale “Wash My Hands” / Freakwater “South of Cincinnati” / Scud Mountain Boys “Glacier Bay” / Palace “Gulf Shores”

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The Chemical Brothers “Leave Home” / BT featuring Tori Amos “Blue Skies” / Mouse on Mars “Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber” / Buju Banton “Only Man” / Shaggy “Boombastic” / Master P “When They Gone” / Tha Dogg Pound “Let’s Play House” / 2pac “Dear Mama” / Souls of Mischief “No Man’s Land” / Guru “Watch What You Say” / Black Moon featuring Smif-N-Wessun “Headz Ain’t Ready” / Real McCoy “Come and Get Your Love” / Ace of Base “Beautiful Life” / Shampoo “Trouble” / La Bouche “Be My Lover” / Everything But the Girl “Missing (Todd Terry Club Mix)” / The Magnetic Fields “All the Umbrellas In London” / Tina Turner “Goldeneye” / Sparklehorse “Someday I Will Treat You Good” / Poe “Trigger Happy Jack” / The Geraldine Fibbers “Dragon Lady” / that dog. “He’s Kissing Christian” / Throwing Muses “Bright Yellow Gun” / Catherine Wheel “Waydown” / Letters to Cleo “Awake” / The Muffs “Sad Tomorrow” / Babes in Toyland “Sweet 69” / Free Kitten “Harvest Spoon” / Ramones “I Don’t Want to Grow Up” / Pennywise “Peaceful Day” / Superchunk “Detroit Has A Skyline” / Aimee Mann “Choice in the Matter” / Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories “Do You Sleep?” / P.M. Dawn “Downtown Venus” / Dishwalla “Charlie Brown’s Parents” / Faith Hill “It Matters to Me” / Clint Black “Summer’s Comin’” / Old 97’s “Doreen” / Whiskeytown “If He Can’t Have You” / Long Fin Killie “(a) Man Ray” / Cat Power “Rockets” / Jane Siberry “Maria”

DOWNLOAD PART 7

Pizzicato Five “Contact” / Luscious Jackson “Here (Squirmel Mix)” / Eve’s Plum “Cherry Alive” / Squirrel Nut Zippers “I’ve Found A New Baby” / Plush “Found A Little Baby” / Papas Fritas “Guys Don’t Lie” / Mercury Rev “Everlasting Arm” / Scott Walker “Tilt” / Tindersticks “No More Affairs” / The Sea and Cake “The Biz” / Zumpano “The Party Rages On” / Tripping Daisy “I Got A Girl” / G. Love and Special Sauce “Nancy” / Southern Culture on the Skids “Camel Walk” / Primus “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” / Rocket from the Crypt “On A Rope” / Deftones “Bored” / The Offspring “Self Esteem” / 311 “Down” / Dog’s Eye View “Everything Falls Apart” / Bruce Springsteen “The Ghost of Tom Joad” / The Goo Goo Dolls “Name” / Jars of Clay “Flood” / Seven Mary Three “Cumbersome” / Son Volt “Drown” / Money Mark “Hand in Your Head” / Ice Cube “Friday” / Tha Alkaholiks “The Next Level” / Goldie “Angel” / Blind Melon “Galaxie” / The Mighty Mighty Bosstones “Hell of a Hat” / The Pietasters “Something Better” / Butterglory “The Skills of the Star Pilot” / Holly Golightly “Wherever You Were” / Brian Jonestown Massacre “That Girl Suicide” / The Dandy Warhols “Ride” / The Upper Crust “Let Them Eat Rock” / Teenage Fanclub “Sparky’s Dream” / The Dambuilders “Drive-By Kiss” / The Charlatans “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over” / Slowdive “Miranda” / Cassandra Wilson “Love Is Blindness”

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Kyuss “One Inch Man” / Dub Narcotic Sound System “Industrial Breakdown” / Jonathan Fire Eater “The Spanish Fly” / Sleater-Kinney “The Day I Went Away” / Tsunami “Flameproof Suit” / CIV “Can’t Wait One Minute More” / Citizen Fish “Can’t Be Bothered” / Dance Hall Crashers “Don’t Wanna Behave” / Blink-182 “Carousel” / Toad the Wet Sprocket “Good Intentions” / The Apples in Stereo “Glowworm” / Guv’ner “Baby’s Way Cruel” / Golden Smog “Radio King” / Gloria Estefan “Everlasting Love” / Tina Arena “Chains” / Diana King “Shy Guy” / Mack 10 featuring Ice Cube “Foe Life” / DJ Quik “Safe + Sound” / Leftfield “Original” / The Orb “Oxbow Lakes” / Scarlet “Independent Love Song” / Gov’t Mule “Mule” / Ben Harper “Burn One Down” / Cornelius “Moon Walk” / DC Talk “Jesus Freak” / Insane Clown Posse “Riddle Box” / Atari Teenage Riot “Speed” / Bowery Electric “Out of Phase” / Opeth “Under the Weeping Moon (Orchid)” / Low “Stay” / Enya “Anywhere Is” / Take That “Back for Good” / Brian McKnight “Crazy Love” / Nicki French “Total Eclipse of the Heart” / Bryan Adams “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” / Wet Wet Wet “Somewhere Somehow” / Blessid Union of Souls “I Believe” / Reba McEntire “Ring On Her Finger, Time On Her Hands” / The Pretenders “I’ll Stand By You” / Sarah McLachlan “I Will Remember You”

Post Malone featuring Justin Bieber “Deja Vu”

I was in a car in Los Angeles last week with my friend Daniel and he decided it was a good time for me to hear some Post Malone. For whatever reason, I just hadn’t listened to Post Malone. I had no preconceived notions or bias against the guy – all I knew was that he was a white rapper and fairly popular, and that I didn’t know of anyone who really cared about his music, so I didn’t feel compelled to seek it out. My immediate impression upon hearing a few tracks was that he sounded kinda like Future, but with more vulnerability in his voice.

Daniel hyped up “Deja Vu” before playing it for me, saying that it sounded like Stereolab, but with Justin Bieber as Laetitia Sadier. I am always wary of people saying things sound like Stereolab because publicists are always sending me things like “sounds like Stereolab!” when maybe, at most, there’s just a keyboard on it and not even a type of keyboard Tim Gane would own. (This is kinda weird thing for publicists to do since Stereolab is not actually a popular band and most writers under 35 are not familiar with their music.) But you know what? I totally get it. The central keyboard part in this song absolutely does sound like something that could’ve been on Dots and Loops, and Daniel is right that Bieber’s part would’ve sounded better he sang it in French. The rest of it is still much closer to stoned Future-esque rap, but it’s musically a lot more interesting and Post Malone’s voice is richer and more melancholy. Bieber sounds great too – unapologetically soft and feminine, and notably unguarded compared to other tracks where he’s trying hard to seem cool.

Buy it from Amazon.

Bobo Swae featuring Rae Sremmurd “Rowdy”

What a great example of making the most of two chords. “Rowdy” is in a state of musical stasis for nearly five minutes, but it still feels dynamic in the way these two bell tones seem to move slowly from left to right. Bobo Swae sounds drowsy on the beat, and he delivers his lines in a breathy, soft-spoken voice just shy of a full-on Ying Yang Twins “Wait” whisper. The members of Rae Sremmurd aren’t that much more energetic, but I like what they do here. Slim Jxmmi is a bit more aggressive, while Swae Lee’s voice is slow and stoned, but also playful in how he dodges some easy rhymes in favor of more flamboyant inflections. This is exactly what I like to hear in a posse track – a steady center supported verses that contrast nicely and complement each other.

Buy it from Amazon.

The Steoples “From the Otherside”

“From the Otherside” sounds as though it’s suspended mid-air, but not quite floating. This effect mostly comes from that old The Field trick of a stuttering ambient sample that sounds just like a skipping CD, but is somehow soothing rather than jarring. There’s no solid floor to this track – the keyboards and vocals are just as weightless, and the only thing holding it together is the relatively tight structure of the vocal melody, which incidentally sounds like “Eleanor Ribgy” reworked as an R&B slow jam. The overall effect is lovely and sexy, but also vaguely ghostly and unnerving. The singer’s lyrics are all about the present or what’s to come, but the music and the tone of his voice suggest it’s fading or already gone.

Buy it from Stones Throw.

Nick Hakim “Bet She Looks Like You”

Nick Hakim’s vocal style is firmly rooted in R&B, but his music is very much in the same aesthetic mode as contemporary festival-circuit psychedelia – Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Living, maybe a touch of MGMT. As it turns out, that’s a very natural formula, and a stoned vibe just makes the vocal performance seem more plaintive and nostalgic. The reverb on this track is so wet that it sounds like Hakim is singing in a public bathroom and the guitar notes sound like they’re literally dripping out of a leaky faucet. It’s a bit much, production-wise, but the sound is immediately ear-grabbing and the emotion in his voice feels very raw and immediate.

Buy it from Amazon.

Temple of the Dog “All Night Thing”

Grunge wasn’t a very sexy genre. This was somewhat by design, since the major artists involved were deliberately distancing themselves from the casual sexism and corny bro antics of the previous generation of mainstream hard rock acts. And besides that, these guys were all way more interested in singing about depression, trauma, grief, discontent with society, and general existential dread than anything else.

The major exception is Temple of the Dog’s “All Night Thing,” which stands as the sexiest and most romantic song in the grunge canon. It’s only grunge by default; there’s no guitars at all and it’s much closer in sound and sentiment to a Prince ballad than anything you’d reasonably associate with early ‘90s Seattle. Chris Cornell’s voice is the center of the song from the very start, as he opens with this perfectly vivid line – “she motioned to me that she wanted to leave” – that has him spinning off into various scenarios of what’s about to go down. The entire song is in a liminal space, and even if it’s fairly obvious that Cornell is about to hook up with this woman, he sings each line with such commitment that the anxiety and anticipation feels entirely authentic. The timbre of his voice is very post-metal, but the nuances of his performance comes closer to the hyper-emotive R&B of Otis Redding. This is part of what makes the song feel so romantic – it’s hard to imagine he’d be singing with this much feeling if he was just trying to get laid. “All Night Thing” sounds like the beginning of something special.

It’s worth nothing that “All Night Thing” is, in its low-key way, a song about consent. The entire drama of the song hinges on what she wants to do, and being totally OK with whatever she decides. You don’t get a lot of that these days.

Buy it from Amazon.

Marika Hackman “Boyfriend”

I’m a big fan of songs sung from the perspective of “the other woman/man” because they unavoidably mix sadism, delusion, vulnerability, and insecurity in interesting ways. There’s always some justification, and in this case it’s the implication that the “boyfriend” in question deserves to have his girlfriend secretly hook up with another woman because he’s sexist. Or, like, probably sexist. The odds are pretty good, right? But regardless of that, you can tell that it’s just a smokescreen for the envy, hurt, and frustration that’s really driving this song. The music mirrors the lyrics nicely – sexy and sly and funny on the surface, but coiled up and tense at the core. It’s a thin grin concealing grinding teeth.

Buy it from Amazon.

Cornelius “If You’re Here”

“If You’re Here” is slick and awkward at the same time, and deliberately so. It sounds like a slightly broken lounge or yacht rock tune, with these clean, gorgeous chords that fall between beats that stagger as though they’re buffering between clicks and hits. There’s a feeling of regret and disappointment in this music, as though you’ve planned something beautiful that hasn’t quite worked out, but the tone isn’t depressing. It’s more like — baby, we can work this out, let’s make the best of this, and besides it’s so beautiful here! I have no idea what he’s singing in Japanese, but I’ve got this whole story worked out in my mind.

Pre-order it from Amazon.

Perfume Genius “Just Like Love”

Sometimes it helps to know the backstory of a song. Here’s Mike Hadreas explaining the initial source of inspiration for “Just Like Love” in an interview with NPR:

“I saw this Facebook video of a boy, probably around seven, wearing a dress he had fashioned from a blanket, sashaying through his house while his mother applauded and cheered him on. He was so proud. It was such a beautiful thing, but bittersweet because I knew his spirit would change soon, that he’d become self-aware and ashamed, at some level. The song is about how divine he is, then and always — that he was born perfect.”

I didn’t need to know that to immediately click with the sound of this song, but knowing this has deepened my reaction to it quite a bit. The beautiful thing about this is how Hadreas seems to be willing himself into this boy’s effortless grace, trying to shed every hang-up and societal obstacle that’s kept him from being this pure in his adult life. And it’s not sad, or motivated by regret. The boy is a beacon, an inspiration. I think in channeling this beautiful moment into graceful, elegant music – for me, the most impressive composition of his career to date – Hadreas has become that as well.

Buy it from Amazon.

Chastity Belt “Caught In A Lie”

Chastity Belt’s first two records were more lo-fi than their forthcoming third album, and the primary casualty of this aesthetic choice was that Lydia Lund’s crisp, elegant lead guitar parts usually got crowded out in the mix. I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone has a cleaner sound and the mix doesn’t feel nearly as cramped and claustrophobic. They haven’t really changed much about how they play, but the implied negative space in the recording makes everything feel much more relaxed, and much closer to the lovely low-key melancholy of Real Estate than a standard punk band. This suits them very well, and the sad-but-pretty tone of the music serves as an interesting frame for the unpolished angst in Julia Shapiro’s voice. I love how the sound of “Caught In A Lie” is mostly quite drowsy, but Shapiro sounds alert but exhausted, like she hasn’t slept for days because this uncertain feeling has been burning a hole in her brain.

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Fin “Pike”

I have listened to this closely several times over and I am not fully confident this woman is singing words throughout this song. Well, aside from when she says “no shit” a couple times. That’s totally clear. But regardless of what she may or may not be saying, the repetitive murmuring has a pleasingly hypnotic effect. Fin’s approach to layering beats, synths, and vocal parts is rather similar to that of Grimes, but trades off Claire Boucher’s typically bratty/perky tone for a more subdued and vaguely mystical vibe. “Pike” sounds like it could plausibly be music associated with some techno-utopian cult, or what might happen if you asked a computer program to create spiritual dance music. The track has the feeling of not quite being something or somewhere, but knowing that it must be something and somewhere.

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Maggie Rogers “On + Off”

“On + Off” is built upon a network of interlocking rhythms, but somehow never feels particularly dense or even all that busy. The beats and clicks imply a shifting space around the lead vocal melody, which seems to hover just above the rhythm. Maggie Rogers’ voice is striking in the way it’s emotive in a very pop sort of way, but also a bit aloof and serene. She’s singing about finding a state of emotional stability with someone, and then yearning for it when they’re apart. The interesting thing to me is that she’s singing from that safe place, reporting live from the peaceful equilibrium. She’s already anticipating the yearning to come.

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PWR BTTM “Now Now”

“Now Now” is a self-directed pep talk that extends to anyone who hears it. It’s very simple and direct, with Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce singing lines the verses about wanting to punish themselves for being so hard on themselves, and choruses that resolve to do it NOW NOW NOW! Setting aside the irony of admonishing oneself for other self-admonishments, this is a lovely sentiment and written from the perspective of people who know damn well that deciding to change ingrained behaviors isn’t as easy as simply deciding to do so. The trick of this song is making the act of letting go sound so cathartic and fun, and emphasizing that the barriers you create for yourself as the main thing keeping you from the happy life you want. I love how playful Hopkins and Bruce sound on this, and the way their willingness to get silly and excited sends a message to the listener that it’s OK to let yourself be ridiculous and vulnerable. Most PWR BTTM songs are in some way about self-acceptance and breaking out of restrictive social norms, but this is the one that makes the most effort to pull the listener out of their hangups and into their better, more glamorous world.

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