A pile of plastic wider than Texas
Mix 4: Pissing in a bottle, singing in the shower, the long awaited return of a boybander's solo career (no, the other one), a song from SA (no, the other one), and 3-step(?) from (...yes, that) SA
Ah yes, the giant garbage island in the Pacific Ocean — a nice metaphor for the way I will now stitch together various strands of brain detritus I have generated for the past few weeks!
Taylor Swift Imperial Phase(s)(?): Was generously featured along with an all-star group of Toms (Ewing and Breihan) in the Ringer, talking about Taylor Swift and the imperial phase. Hello if you were referred here from there! I try to put these out every week. (It’s kind of a lot.)
The “Most Song”: An artist’s Most Song is not necessarily an artist’s best or most important song, but rather the song that most indulgently encapsulates everything about them left to their best and/or worst devices. It is a “key to the creator,” which often means it is not an early song, but something later that synthesizes lots of strands and big ideas into one ungainly package. Examples include Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Albuquerque,” and Lana Del Rey’s “A&W.” Is “Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen’s Most Song? (Probably.) Does Pavement have a Most Song, or do you need to be capable of More to have a Most?
Taylor Swift Is Not a Cheerleader: I have no real interest in the relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce—I am allergic to celebrity gossip—but I strongly object to the idea that they represent a cheerleader/jock dynamic. Taylor Swift is canonically not a cheerleader (“You Belong With Me”!). Taylor Swift’s status in a hypothetical high school is the girl who starts an unsanctioned Songwriters Club in the basement that only draws four weirdos who are mostly interested in Taylor Swift herself, not songwriting per se, and even though it’s basically a small hangout with her IRL friends, one of whom is literally tone deaf, she still insists on having elected officers so that someone can take notes.
On will.i.am’s Genus of Genius: Per the recent episodes of Pop Pantheon on Black Eyed Peas and Fergie (good ‘uns!), I wrote, “I think will[dot]i[dot]am has a rare subspecies of pop genius, a divinely inspired hucksterism that you don't get a ton of (successfully) in music—it's the genius I associate with Ron Popeil.”
Meanwhile, the 2013 will.i.am album [hashtag]willpower was the genesis of my initial thoughts about…A-Pop: A way to conceptualize American pop music as a regional combatant in a global landscape, the same way you would describe K-pop or J-pop. I posited back in 2013 that will.i.am was making A-Pop, a meta encapsulation of major Western pop strands that had no obvious auteur at the helm but a kind of mad genius conductor (or direct access to the collective zeitgeist), creating the template for a smaller, regional pop music landscape competing against other countries on a more level playing field than the past 50 years of hegemonic(ish) dominance.
“Pop” as a closed genre: The narrowing of “pop” into a moribund (or at least rigidly bounded) genre like rock or jazz coincides with the fall of EDM at the end of the ’10s and the absorption of hyperpop into regional popular music(s). If the twin last gasps of rock-as-genre were nu-metal and 00’s iPod indie, then EDM and hyperpop are the corresponding last gasps for capital-P pop. This is directly related to my sense of Eurovision’s weird role in the pop landscape—it’s never been easier to imagine the United States participating in Eurovision, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Playboi Carti—Monk or Miles?: Nick Sylvester is writing again, and wrote a long piece on Playboi Carti as Miles Davis that is a must-read. When the album came out my mind went to Monk.
Oh hey, the Singles Jukebox is back! Will now be a monthly concern rather than daily. My reviews so far are…a bit dashed off. But everyone else is worth reading!
OK, on to more important things—songs!
MIX 4: A PILE OF PLASTIC WIDER THAN TEXAS
1. Rosie Tucker: All My Exes Live in Vortexes
I rarely pause for a title in my skimming (in fact I usually fly through these quickly enough that I’m mostly keeping an alphabetical index of where I’m at in the playlist without registering the titles) but this one earned a second and then third listen, which confirmed that its archness was so precisely engineered that it flew right past “too clever by half singer-songwriter” and landed in the territory of a John Linnell puzzle box (complimentary).
2. TsuShiMaMiRe: 24030番地に回覧板を回せ
Slapdash surf pastiche from a Japanese band that I was not expecting to discover is playing a show in Philly in April. Hmmmm….
3. Brit Taylor: Saint Anthony
4. Charley Crockett: $10 Cowboy
Glad to find prominent spots for two well-crafted trad-ish (or at least formalist) country songs.
5. Tierra Whack: Shower Song
Tierra Whack’s back with a song that sounds like it was really written in the shower. “Soap and water give me powers.” Indeed! (NB the official music video is great, but it only features half of the song.)
6. Jesse McCartney: Faux Fur
Remember Jesse McCartney? He’s back! In Puth form!
7. Allie X: Off With Her Tits
Last I checked in on Allie X I was going gaga for her Belinda Carlisle homage “GLAM!”, an early song belatedly released in 2021. This is more firmly in the electro retro stable and more notable for its lyrics than sonics. It is either what one Reddit commenter calls a “top surgery bop” or what a Genius annotator refers to as a reflection on an autoimmune disease, not that those are mutually exclusive. For me, though, it’s just fun to hear her vocals pop on “tits,” “twit,” “wit,” “piss,” and “shit.”
8. Sistar19: No More (Ma Boy)
Wrote last week about how as of 2024, any old mediocrity can potentially score with the NewJeans formula. Meanwhile Sistar19 has to hit every mark with Olympian focus to make this one soar—and even with a little help from the melody from “Happy Together” they barely make it over the line.
9. Lee “Scratch” Perry, Shaun Ryder: Green Banana
Posthumous release, King Perry, on Tricky’s False Idols Records. Definitely codes more Tricky than Perry, but that’s not a bad thing (I like Tricky). This one features Shaun Ryder from Happy Mondays, and boy does he sound old. The project comprises Perry’s last recordings, put together during the onset of COVID. More info at Bandcamp.
10. Aya Nakamura: Hypé
Aya Nakamura is the sort of artist who I’ll listen to again and again while waiting for the one thing that totally knocks my socks off—I’m not sure if she’s there yet. The closest she’s gotten so far is the Rec. 188 label compilation 20/21—and especially “Ailleurs”—but like all Nakamura tracks there’s a lot to recommend this one, especially the pretty millennial R&B harp hook throughout.
11. Reikko: Problems
Still don’t have a handle on Indonesian music — from the Spotify Indonesia playlists I get a lot of historical pastiche, a lot of coattail-riding mainstream pop, and a lot of weird indie stuff. But given there’s no sign of ferment, Indonesian simulacrums are often much more successful than they should be. Highlights in the past few years include crate-digger fare like Lembayung Group’s “Aku Berdansa Seorang Diri Disini” and Borock N Roll’s “Semesta Menyambut Gegap Gempita.” This is the most contemporary-sounding Indonesian song I’ve really taken to in a while, from an artist who never imagined that “angry and angsty” could trump “happy and lovey dovey.” Duh!
12. Blinky Bill: Boss
Kenyan afrofunk!
13. Satelibra: Прайм
Ukrainian hip-house!
14. Megabaile Do Areias, Mc Kitinho: Montagem Agressiva 02: Garupa x Without Me
This was the big winner on the mix for my kids who, without realizing it, are now Eminem-pilled. They insisted I play the beginning of this one, which just lets the chorus from “Without Me” play acapella, several times. Credit to Mc Kitinho for holding his own with Marshall’s “nyah nyahs.”
15. CONNIE f. Matt OX, RXK Nephew: GRFX88
RXK Nephew and Northeast Philly’s Matt Ox (whom I’d never heard of until this) feature on an extremely annoying EDM slice-and-dice by CONNIE.
16. Deha Inc., Şehinşah, Reckol: #Phonkfreestyle
One week after Turkish dembow we get Turkish phonk. Strong start for weird Turkish music this year.
17. Vanishing Twin: Life Drummer
Sub Pop band that I swear I’ve heard before, but up until now they’ve had the sort of miscellaneous indie sound that I wouldn’t be able to pin to a single band. Their 2019 album The Age of Immunology (too soon — literally!) rings a bell but I have no evidence I ever actually heard it. This one has more of an aughts hipster dance groove to it, like a less competent Zongamin.
18. Mason vs. Princess Superstar: Perfect (Exceeder) - 1991 Remix
High velocity remix of a recent electroclash throwback by Dutch DJ Mason and Princess Superstar. The remix wisely doesn’t let Superstar’s cryogenic mid-aughts flow speak for itself.
19. Mahmut Orhan f. Ribale Wehbe: Andalusian
Turkish house track that tilts a little too close to the sort of international club music wallpaper I used to hear bopping around Europe as a hostel-hopping whippersnapper, usually while someone played a screensaver-style video of skiing or volcanoes on a TV screen, but the vocals and percussion save it (just).
20. Fulana: Ya Thalam Ya Kabes
Saudi Arabian bedroom goth-pop—I’m not used to using the initials SA in this newsletter to refer to Saudi Arabia. Instead I’m usually referring to…
21. Murumba Pitch, Oscar Mbo, Omit ST f. Nokwazi & Frank Mabeat: Umoya
South African dance music. 3-step has now blended enough with other strands of South African house that it can be hard to parse—the three-beat pattern this song is anchored with isn’t what I’d call textbook 3-step, but it’s got a three-beat feel (1-2-3 rather than 3-4-1) and gets the same basic groove across. And you get more classic amapiano elements weaving in and out, including the log drum, which now sounds like its been borrowed back from other countries’ incorporation of them. Music is really neat!
22. Pina Palau: Parasol
Swiss artist who is firmly in the indie singer-songwriter zeitgeist but, extra-reverbed twangy guitar solo notwithstanding, she gets closer to Jon Brion-produced Aimee Mann than the rest of the American nu-indie scene usually does.
23. Me Dicen Jos, Majo Puente: Cliché (No eres tu, soy yo)
A sweet Mexican ballad to close things out.
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Until next time, I hope you can turn the giant garbage island of your mind into a few cool ideas for a blog post!
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Rosie Tucker’s “All My Exes Live in Vortexes.”
Agree "No More (Ma Boy)" is on the borderline, but a question you can answer better than I: how close are "Happy Together," "Wild World," "It's A Sin," "Come Into My Arms" (Judy Torres; I recommend the South Mix)?