Sleigh Bells “Rule Number One”

Casey Kasem used to end his Top 40 broadcasts by telling listeners to “keep your feet on the ground, but keep reaching for the stars.” In other words, be ambitious, but also pragmatic. Alexis Krauss offers a more impatient and aggressive version of that thought in “Rule Number One,” belting out “RIPPING DOWN STARS WHILE I STAND ON MY TOES!!!” over a Derek Miller riff so severely processed that it sounds more like it’s being played on grinding gears instead of guitar strings. I can’t understate how much this moment of the song thrills me – I rewind the bit and play it back all the time, just trying to tap directly into this extraordinary willpower and self-belief.

No contemporary rock band has devoted as much of their energy towards making their music sound AS HYPE AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE, but “Rule Number One” is a new peak for this duo. Krauss used to rely mostly on head voice, but here she’s as brassy and bold as En Vogue circa “Free Your Mind.” Miller’s riffs and beats have the raw energy they’ve always had, but they’re refined and reinforced. They’re both pushing themselves to their limits, and seem defiant in a way they haven’t seen before Treats came out. And that makes sense, right? They’re the underdogs again, and this is a song about breaking yourself, reinventing yourself, and willing yourself into greatness. It’s inspirational as fuck and I can’t get enough of it.

Buy it from iTunes.

Mitski “Once More To See You”

“Once More to See You” is built upon the “Be My Baby” beat, an easy signifier of aching romance in pop music. But it’s slowed just enough that you hang on every hit, anticipating something that you know is coming but still somehow feels slightly too far away. That theme carries over to Mitski’s words as she sings about a passionate love that’s being kept secret, and the agony of biding time until they can be alone together again. It’s a very melodramatic sentiment, but the song is rather understated overall, with the strongest feelings expressed in the spaces between words and sounds.

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Beck “Wow”

“Wow” slots into the Odelay/Midnite Vultures/Guero wing of the Beck discography, but it doesn’t feel quite like anything from those records. This song, along with last year’s “Dreams,” finds Beck exploring a vibe that’s so chill that it’s nearly vapid. There’s a void at the center of most of his late period material, and while the sadder songs stare into that void, “Wow” is like diving gracefully into it while wearing comfortable but extremely expensive clothes. A lot of the lyrics here are intentional cliches – “it’s your life / you gotta try to get it right” – but there’s a lot of old school absurdist Beck-isms in the mix too. “Girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini shih tzu” is a silly yet vivid line worthy of Midnite Vultures, but my favorite bit is when he raps “my demon’s on the cell phone to YOUR demons.” It’s a funny image, but it suggests an alienation from his own negative feelings so intense they’re removed from himself. This is Beck’s version of “YOLO” – live your life, do it right, have fun, and distance yourself from all bad vibes.

Buy it from Amazon.

Ariana Grande “Moonlight”

Ariana Grande’s major hits tend to be uptempo and sorta blaring, or force her into pairing up with pop rappers who seem arbitrarily selected and artificially forced into the song. I much prefer her in ballad mode, particularly when she aims for nostalgia and innocence, as on “Moonlight.” The song is extremely sweet and sentimental, and though she subverts the old-fashioned qualities of the tune with some contemporary slang, it’s pretty clear that she’s whole-heartedly embracing the naive romance of it all. Grande’s voice is lovely on this, and nicely balanced between straight-forward emoting and nuanced elegance. I like that she opens her new album with this song – other artists might sequence this sort of song at the end, but she’s wise enough to know that this is exactly the sort of showcase for her voice that ought to be your entry point into a record.

Buy it from Amazon.

Colleen Green “U Coulda Been An A”

There’s been a lot of Ramones in Colleen Green’s music all along, but lately she’s made Ramones pastiche the focus of her work. The Ramones aesthetic frames her songwriting skills in a very flattering way, particularly in her talent for expressing her complex neuroses very plainly. By tapping into Joey Ramone’s charming guilelessness, she embraces an earnest vulnerability while dialing down some of the darkest feelings on her last album, I Want to Grow Up. She’s not undermining herself so much as putting a more light-hearted spin on her anxieties. “U Coulda Been An A” is all post-breakup angst, but it’s played like a joke: Hey, you coulda made this work, but whatever, buddy! It’s good to have perspective.

Buy it
from Amazon.

Cass McCombs “Opposite House”

The lyrics of “Opposite House” suggest a living situation so narrow and cut off from the outside world that it’s brought on a sort of madness, but the sound of the song feels rather open and airy. There’s an indication that the space in one’s mind can be very different from physical reality, and that can in turn warp your sense of a confined room. To the singer of this song, there’s a whole world in this small home, and his endless time alone gives him plenty of time to figure out a way to bring a love back into his life. It’s all a fantasy, but fantasies can be nice.

Buy it from Amazon.

Kip McGrath “Clock Hands”

Good news, everybody! I’ve found the best chill indie song of summer 2016. The one that will sound perfect when you’re in a backyard, on a roof, in a car, near some body of water, or just walking around with headphones on. The song that will make you feel relaxed and friendly, but also just a little bit melancholy. They always need that vague note of sadness because you’re always supposed to be aware that the moment is fleeting. These songs take many forms, but this time around it sounds sorta like a groovier version of The Smiths fronted by Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab. I didn’t even know I wanted that!

“Clock Hands” is about embracing change in life, and knowing that as some things end, others can begin. “Take the clock / turn back the hands / let love in your heart again.” It’s a simple and sweet sentiment, and it’s delivered with just the right bit of empathy and realism. The song knows that is easier said than done, but it’s worth it to try and it’s always a good idea to open yourself up to new experiences and new people. As a wise man once sang, “what comes is better than what came before.”

Buy it from Bandcamp.

The Kills “Whirling Eye”

The Kills have always eagerly embraced artifice and glamor, but in a way that more about deciding who you want to be rather than pretending to be something you’re not. They project an atmosphere so strong and a vibe so vivid that it can momentarily change your reality: Maybe you’re not smashed in Hollywood at 2 a.m., but you’re there with them in that feeling at the start of “Whirling Eye.” There’s a touch of new wave in this song – not so much that it comes out like pastiche, but enough to feel a bit different from the arty digital blues that Jamie Hince usually plays. It’s a hyper-romantic song, but also somehow very low-key. Alison Mosshart sings everything in this sorta matter-of-fact way, even when she’s belting out the most passionate bits of the chorus, and it makes exciting, profound, sexy things sound totally casual. That’s the fantasy: A life so thrilling it becomes mundane.

Buy it from Amazon.

Here’s the eighth in my series of 1980s survey mixes, which are moving backwards in time from 1989 to the start of the decade. These compilations are designed to give more context to the music of the ‘80s, and give a sense of how various niches and trends overlapped in this cultural moment.

We’re in the home stretch now!

This is the longest of the 1980s surveys so far, and I didn’t really even intend for that to be the case. But there’s a lot of very different things going on in 1982, and I wanted to represent that as best I could. At this point we’re at the tail end of the initial explosion of punk and new wave, old school hip-hop is starting to hit its stride, dancehall and reggae is booming, and there’s still a lot of funk carried over from the disco era. It’s the first year where the ‘80s trifecta – Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna – all have music out at the same time. But along with all that, there’s a LOT of music that will probably make you go “that came out in 1982??” That was my reaction to some things, anyway.

Thanks to Paul Cox and Chris Conroy their help in compiling this survey. All of the previous 1980s surveys are still available: 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983. The 1981 survey should be ready around the first week of July.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Elvis Costello and the Attractions “Beyond Belief” / Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” / Daryl Hall & John Oates “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” / Joe Jackson “Steppin’ Out” / Fleetwood Mac “Hold Me” / Sister Nancy “Bam Bam” / The Clash “Rock the Casbah” / Grandmaster Flash “The Message” / The Human League “Don’t You Want Me” / Eurythmics “Love Is A Stranger” / New Order “Temptation” / Missing Persons “Destination Unknown” / Steve Winwood “Valerie” / Prince “1999” / George Clinton “Atomic Dog” / Marvin Gaye “Sexual Healing” / Stevie Wonder “That Girl” / Musical Youth “Pass the Dutchie” / Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force “Planet Rock” / Yaz “Situation” / Klaus Nomi “After the Fall” / The Pointer Sisters “I’m So Excited” / Culture Club “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Stevie Nicks “Edge of Seventeen” / Survivor “Eye of the Tiger” / John Cougar Mellencamp “Jack and Diane” / Richard and Linda Thompson “Don’t Renege On Our Love” / Squeeze “Black Coffee In Bed” / The Jam “A Town Called Malice” / Phil Collins “You Can’t Hurry Love” / Toni Basil “Mickey” / The Waitresses “I Know What Boys Like” / Bow Wow Wow “I Want Candy” / The Go-Go’s “Vacation” / Adam and the Ants “Goody Two Shoes” / Steve Miller Band “Abracadabra” / King Sunny Ade “Mo Beru Agba” / Yellowman “Mister Chin” / Sugar Hill Gang “Apache” / Ornette Coleman “Sleep Talk” / The Gap Band “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” / The dB’s “Amplifier” / Anti-Nowhere League “Animal” / Blitz “We Are the Boys” / Reba McEntire “Can’t Even Get the Blues” / John Anderson “Swingin’” / Jackson Browne “Somebody’s Baby” / Willie Nelson “Always On My Mind”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

The B-52’s “Mesopotamia” / Dexys Midnight Runners “Come On Eileen” / Madness “Our House” / Marshall Crenshaw “Someday, Someway” / The Fall “The Classical” / Modern English “I Melt With You” / Kate Bush “Suspended In Gaffa” / The Roches “Keep On Doing What You Do / Jerks on the Loose” / AC/DC “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” / Bad Brains “Pay to Cum” / Romeo Void “Never Say Never” / X “Motel Room In My Bed” / 4-Skins “Jealousy” / Vanity 6 “Nasty Girl” / Madonna “Everybody” / Patrice Rushen “Forget Me Nots” / The Dazz Band “Let It Whip” / Funky Four “Do You Want to Rock (Before I Go)” / Kid Creole and the Coconuts “Stool Pigeon” / Eek-A-Mouse “Sensee Party” / Nairobi featuring the Awesome Foursome “Funky Soul Makossa (Rap Version)”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Billy Idol “White Wedding” / The Cure “Let’s Go to Bed” / Depeche Mode “The Meaning of Love” / The Lords of the New Church “Russian Roulette” / Shriekback “My Spine is the Bassline” / Peech Boys “Life Is Something Special (Larry Levan mix)” / Kurtis Blow “Tough” / Billy Joel “Allentown” / Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder “Ebony & Ivory” / Donald Fagen “The Nightfly” / Michael McDonald “I Keep Forgetting” / Gregory Isaacs “Night Nurse” / Lee “Scratch” Perry and the Upsetters “God Bless Pickney” / Aretha Franklin “Jump to It” / ESG “Dance” / The Fearless Four “Rockin’ It” / Evelyn Champagne King “Love Come Down” / ABBA “You Owe Me One” / Sylvia “Nobody” / Lou Reed “Heavenly Arms” / King Crimson “Heartbeat” / The Celestial Choir “Stand On the Word”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

R.E.M. “Wolves, Lower” / Sonic Youth “I Dreamed I Dream” / INXS “Don’t Change” / Laura Branigan “Gloria” / Gang of Four “I Love A Man in Uniform” / Rank & File “Sundown” / Captain Sensible “Happy Talk” / Sly Dunbar “River Niger” / Lee Ritenour “Cross My Heart” / Funkapolitan “As the Time Goes By” / Shalamar “Playing to Win” / Grace Jones “Nipple to the Bottle” / Neil Young “Transformer Man” / Oingo Boingo “Private Life” / Judas Priest “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” / The Dream Syndicate “When You Smile” / The Bangles “The Real World” / Malcolm McLaren “Buffalo Gals” / Wall of Voodoo “Mexican Radio” / Devo “Big Mess” / Subhumans “Mickey Mouse Is Dead” / Discharge “Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing” / The Exploited “Jimmy Boyle” / Fear “I Don’t Care About You” / Dead Kennedys “Bleed for Me”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Alice Coltrane “Jagadishwar” / Nina Simone “Fodder In Her Wings” / John Cale “(I Keep A) Close Watch” / Melissa Manchester “Hey Ricky (You’re A Low-Down Heel)” / Buckner & Garcia “Pac Man Fever” / Olivia Newton-John “Make A Move On Me” / XTC “Senses Working Overtime” / The Pretenders “Back On the Chain Gang” / The Alan Parsons Project “Eye in the Sky” / Peter Gabriel “Shock the Monkey” / The English Beat “Save It For Later” / The Addicts “Chinese Takeaway” / Mission of Burma “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” / Angry Samoans “They Saved Hitler’s Cock” / The Birthday Party “Kiss Me Black” / The Misfits “Vampira” / Beastie Boys “Egg Raid on Mojo” / Flipper “Life Is Cheap” / Iron Maiden “The Number of the Beast” / Carly Simon “Why (12” mix)” / Trouble Funk “Pump Me Up” / Captain Beefheart “The Host the Ghost the Most Holy-O” / Rosanne Cash “Down On Love” / Kenny Rogers “Love Will Turn You Around” / Lionel Richie “Truly”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Vangelis “Chariots of Fire” / A Flock of Seagulls “I Ran (So Far Away)” / Joan Jett and the Blackhearts “I Love Rock and Roll” / J. Geils Band “Centerfold” / Tommy Tutone “867-5309/Jenny” / Men At Work “Who Can It Be Now” / America “You Can Do Magic” / Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf” / The Weather Girls “It’s Raining Men” / ABC “The Look of Love” / The Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way” / Queen “Body Language” / Toto “Africa” / Foreigner “Waiting for a Girl Like You” / Air Supply “Even the Nights Are Better” / Chicago “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” / Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes “Up Where We Belong” / Bruce Springsteen “Atlantic City” / Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band “Shame on the Moon” / Charlene “I’ve Never Been to Me” / Van Morrison “Cleaning Windows” / Roxy Music “More Than This” / Barbra Streisand “Memory”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Killing Joke “Empire Song” / Richard Hell and the Voidoids “The Kid with the Replaceable Head” / Billy Squier “Everybody Wants You” / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “You Got Lucky” / Joni Mitchell “Wild Things Run Fast” / Frank Zappa “Valley Girl” / The Descendents “Suburban Home” / The Replacements “White and Lazy” / Brigadier Jerry “Pain” / Morris Day and the Time “The Walk” / The Treacherous Three “Yes We Can-Can” / The Who “Eminence Front” / Van Halen “(Oh) Pretty Woman” / Juice Newton “Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me” / Frida “I Know There’s Something Going” / Sparks “I Predict” / Bucks Fizz “My Camera Never Lies” / Crash Crew “Breaking Bells (Take Me To Mardis Gras)” / Lone Ranger “M16” / Eddy Grant “I Don’t Wanna Dance” / Goombay Dance Band “Seven Tears” / Warren Zevon “Let Nothing Come Between You” / Levon Helm “Willie and the Hand Jive” / Bananarama “Shy Boy” / Material (featuring Whitney Houston) “Memories”

Bat for Lashes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 6/2/2016
I Do / Joe’s Dream / In God’s House / Honeymooning Alone / Sunday Love / Never Forgive the Angels / Close Encounters / If I Knew / I Will Love Again // Laura / We’ve Only Just Begun / What’s A Girl to Do? / Horse & I / Marilyn / Sleep Alone / Daniel

Natasha Khan is one of the world’s best living singers, and as beautiful as her voice is on record, you need to witness her sing in person to fully understand that. Her technical skill is extraordinary; her control over her voice is so precise yet totally natural that it can seem unreal. But the technical qualities of her singing are trumped by the soul and overwhelming emotion in her voice, and how it’s all at the service of Khan’s hyper-romantic songs. Khan is fascinated by love and romance, nearly her entire body of work is focused on variations on this theme. And it’s never mundane. Her songs are rooted in the details of common life, but the romance is heightened and melodramatic in a way that often feels mythic. Khan sings about idealized passion and grand love, and when she sings of pain and failure, it’s always a tragedy. Listening to the records gets this across, but there is a fussiness to the production that can obscure the intensity and presence of her performances. Seeing her live, there’s no ignoring the stakes of her music, or how much of her body and soul she puts into the songs. There’s no half measures here.

Bat for Lashes “Never Forgive the Angels”

The Bride is about a woman who is struggling with the sudden loss of the man she was about to marry. You hear her move through different stages of grief in the tracks just before “Never Forgive the Angels” – she’s in denial, she runs away – but this is the song where the reality of his death fully sets in. It’s a nightmare that does not end, and she sounds truly broken by understanding the permanence of it all. The aspect of grief that this captures so well is the feeling that your own life cannot move beyond this horrible thing, like there’s this block you can’t move beyond and you’re doomed to be stuck in this moment forever. Even as the song builds towards a catharsis, it feels cold and still. And that catharsis isn’t so much about letting the feeling go so much as exhausting it for the time being.

Buy it from Amazon.

School ’94 “Common Sense”

The name of this band is School ’94, but the sound of it is a lot more indie ’84, so when I first heard it I was ready for the vocals to be fairly thin and twee, as that’s generally who gravitates to this aesthetic over the past 15 years or so. But nope! The vocals on “Common Sense” are full-throated and passionate, and really sell this state of being entirely unsure of yourself and fighting your own mind to get a handle on facts and feelings. A lot of lesser acts will try to get by entirely on the glimmery sound of the keyboards and the propulsion of the bass, but in the case of this song, it’s all supporting the drama of the vocal. Or should I say melodrama – this feels very “teen soap opera” in the best way.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

ASAP Ferg featuring Skrillex and Crystal Caines “Hungry Ham”

It’s been gratifying to see Skrillex gradually transition from the punchline of dumb EDM jokes to high-profile producer, especially since taking himself out of the spotlight has a way of highlighting the musicality that’s been at the core of his work all along. It’s vindicating! His hyperactive sound works really well in hip-hop, or at least when it’s matched with a bold, high energy rapper like Ferg who doesn’t have to adjust at all to fit in with aggressive beats and blaring treble. “Hungry Ham” feels a bit like the Public Enemy/Bomb Squad aesthetic reimagined as trap music – the business and grime is largely stripped out or implied, but the punch of it is somehow just as hard.

Buy it from Amazon.

King “Supernatural (Extended Mix)”

“Supernatural” follows a slightly odd trajectory, but the song is so heavy on atmosphere and texture that’s it easy to ignore the underlying structure of it. It’s a bit too much to say that this is like shoegaze R&B – it doesn’t go too far into that territory to make sense – but it’s just hazy and psychedelic enough to suggest an introverted and ultra-stoned version of modern R&B. The song is about a crush, and starts with starry-eyed infatuation and ends with an ecstatic declaration of love. The use of horns is excellent in that finale section, highlighting the singer’s joy with brief melodic runs, but not undermining the song’s expression of romantic bliss and casual vulernability.

Buy it from Amazon.

Corinne Baily Rae “Been to the Moon”

The lyrics of “Been to the Moon” are about feeling frustrated, but the sound is relaxed and groovy. And that makes sense, because Corinne Bailey Rae is singing from the perspective of someone who has a lot of clarity on her situation, and knows that if this person she’s into isn’t willing to meet her halfway and put forth some effort, she’s ready to cut them loose. She doesn’t want that, and the tension between knowing what’s best for her and what her heart desires is the root of all the feeling in the song. But there’s a confidence and healthy self-esteem at the core of this that is inspiring, and when I hear it I just hope that whoever she’s singing to appreciates her effort and can match it.

Buy it from Amazon.

Wolf Parade “Floating World”

Dan Boeckner has many bands – Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators – but regardless of who he’s playing with, his style is essentially the same. Boeckner’s aesthetic mixes twitchy new wave with a slurring dirtbag glam vibe, so he always sounds like some sexy rocker dude who’s dealing with some serious anxiety. He’s got the sound of a rock star, but he’s always casting himself as a foil. He’s the cool guy in Wolf Parade, but when he’s contrasted with Britt Daniel in Divine Fits, he’s the more tightly wound dude. He’s somewhere between those modes on “Floating World,” a song that feels a bit loose in parts, but tightens up on the chorus, as though he’s just realizing the emotional stakes of the song as it switches gears. The melody feels a bit familiar, but I think that works for it, especially in the context of this being part of an EP reintroducing Wolf Parade after a long hiatus. It feels immediately comfortable, like falling back into an old pattern.

Buy it from Amazon.

Alexis Taylor “Crying in the Chapel”

Alexis Taylor’s interpretation of “Crying in the Chapel” is faithful to the tone of Elvis Presley’s classic recording, but strips nearly everything out of the arrangement aside from piano. There’s just enough there to give the song its shape, and a slight amount of reverb to imply the richness of the Presley version. Taylor’s voice is nowhere near as honeyed and slick, but he sings with such earnestness that this is more than just another “weak-voiced indie singer plays a minimalist version of an old song” routine. He sounds totally overwhelmed by love and sentimentality; every note of this performance is filled with the saddest sort of joy. It reminds me of Cat Power’s recording of “Sea of Love,” which pulls off a similar trick of pushing a syrupy ballad into full-on tearjerker territory.

Buy it from Amazon.

Anohni “Execution”

The far left politics of Anohni’s Hopelessness isn’t merely “on the nose.” It is a full-scale attack on the nose, and by the time the record is over, there is just a pile of pulp and rubble where the nose used to be. It’s a shameless work of agitprop, and so fixed in a specific time and place that it already sounds sorta dated. But that lack of shame is what makes it compelling and interesting – she knows that being so straightforward and literal in her critique of Obama-era America is going to make a lot of people cringe, but her idealism is so strong that it’s like, fuck it, let ‘em cringe! I will be honest with you: As a fairly moderate and pragmatic liberal, a good chunk of Hopelessness makes me cringe SO HARD, but not because I disagree. I cringe more because I generally agree with what she’s singing, but can’t relate to being so idealistic and intense. I relate more to expressions of defeat and pessimism, but a song like “Execution,” as cynical as some of the lyrics get, is uplifting in its belief that humans can transcend their absolute worst qualities. It sounds like an angry yet beautiful prayer.

Buy it from Amazon.

Speedy Ortiz “Emma O”

It’s a little strange to me that Speedy Ortiz would choose to put “Emma O,” a major step forward in their evolution as a band, as a song on a stopgap EP connected to their previous album along with a couple remixes. But hey, this song reminds me a lot of the sort of gorgeous and melancholy songs that Stephen Malkmus would write in the early ‘90s and decide to relegate to b-side/rarity status in the Pavement discography. Sadie Dupuis’ melodies on “Emma O” are the loveliest she’s written, and she performs the song with a vulnerability that’s striking in the context of her other music, which has been a lot more guarded or obscured with irony or oblique wordplay. She’s singing about a close relationship that’s gone cold and dead, but trying to hold on to it somehow even if it’s exhausting and painful. She seems like she’s almost ready to give up on an intellectual level, but the music betrays all that by expressing a fragility and sentimentality that overrides everything else.

Buy it from Amazon.

Car Seat Headrest “1937 State Park”

One of the many great things about Car Seat Headrest’s Teens of Denial is how the band rocks out in this very casual way that’s hard to come by in music released after the ‘90s. It’s not sloppy at all, but it has a very physical energy, kinda athletic in a way. They make playing a rock song sound like a fun activity, and listening to it gives a vicarious thrill that nudges you to mime along to the motions of playing the music in a non-ironic air guitar sort of way. I love that sensation, and it was such a big part of the rock music I bonded with in the early to mid 90s that listening to a record like this feels like going home again.

“1937 State Park” has the sound of something I would’ve loved when I was 13 – on a structural level it’s very Nirvana, but the vibe is a bit more early Pavement or Modest Mouse. But it also captures the feeling of being a particularly cynical and depressive sort of teenage boy, right on down to the line about avoiding graveyards because they’re a cliché of his “death-obsessed generation,” which is funny to me because I was exactly the sort of teen to extrapolate way too much from random people I knew just to find new ways to be snobby as an excuse to opt out of social situations. “Ah, I hate my generation, so obsessed with death!” Sure, dude! Whatever. Meanwhile you’re the guy singing about feeling a pressure to commit minor crimes so you can act out a “live fast, die young” narrative.

A lot of this song is a joke at a expense of the narrator, but it’s also totally heartbreaking because Will Toledo gives you so much emotional context for being this sort of mixed-up teen. He’s putting up all these walls, but he can’t hide his vulnerability no matter how hard he tries. The chorus kills me every time – “I didn’t want you to hear that shake in my voice / my pain is my own!” Again: I know this kid, I was this kid, I probably still am this kid. I know what it’s like to feel ashamed of feeling anything, and know how much energy can go into wanting all that to be private and trying to construct a better version of yourself for other people. From a bit of distance, it’s a comical thing to do, but when you’re inside that frame of mind, it’s just a survival instinct. It’s not always easy to learn that people are more likely to connect with the part of you that is crying as you walk home, especially not when you’re totally convinced that other people witnessing your weakness is the absolute worst thing that could happen.

Buy it from Amazon.

Chance the Rapper featuring 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne “No Problem”

The best word I’ve seen used to describe Chance’s music, particularly his third record Coloring Book, is jubilant. He’s working in a genre that goes heavy on party music, but he’s the guy in rap who sounds like he’s truly celebrating all the time. Celebrating life, celebrating God, celebrating family and love and creative independence and music and the past and the present and managing to survive against bleak odds. There’s a joy in his songs that is so strong and undiluted that I know some people can find it kinda corny and childish – one friend of mine who has generally good judgment dismissed Chance as sounding like Sesame Street rap, but hey, he’s a big Drake fan so I can see why he’d be defensive about the guy who’s basically set up to be the Nirvana to Drake and Future’s hair metal. I definitely welcome any sea change in hip-hop, especially if it’s a move towards joyful gospel and a richer, more harmonious sound after too many years of flagrant fuckboy bullshit over icy, depressive minimalism.

A lot of Coloring Book, particularly the sunny “No Problem,” call back to Kanye West’s most joyful ‘00s music, so it’s not exactly radical in the context of recent-ish rap history, but Chance’s character is substantially different. Kanye has always been at war with his own contradictions and conflicting social pressures, but Chance is a far more secure and coherent personality. He’s defined by this sense of clarity – he seems to know exactly who he is and what he wants and how to achieve his goals entirely on his own terms. Given that he’s mostly speaking to a generation of people who’ve built a lot of their identity around obsessing on anxiety disorders, his unshakeable certainty must seem like a superpower.

Get it from Apple Music.