A stranger’s a reckless pursuit

Mix 12: Fake cowboys, fake pop, fake rap, and maximalist minimum viable pop

Fake cowboy record

Some follow-up from previous newsletters and general year updates at the end of the first quarter:

• Minimum Viable Pop. I swear I’d written my Minimum Viable Pop musings last week before hearing the batshit Camila Cabello/Playboi Carti song that leads off today’s mix. So, uh: “there are also the people just plain getting it wrong in a way that still kind of gets at the spirit of the thing, which I think is different from just trying to cash in on a style and failing.” …Yeah!

• Minimum Viable Pop [citation needed]. Also, I stumbled on an old blog post where I responded to Tom Ewing writing about pop and minimum viable product in 2012. Maybe I was stealing from that — wouldn’t be the first time! As usual, I have no idea what I was on about, a common occurrence going through Tumblr stuff. However, I did suggest that if you scoured the landscape of minimum viable products, you’d inevitably find lots of “WTF viable product.” Camila Cabello has certainly achieved WTF MVP!

• Eurovision. As expected, my kids fell hard for Croatia (Baby Lasagna’s “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”) and Austria (Kaleen’s “We Will Rave”), though I nudged them toward liking Italy, which featured on last week’s mix. They like Ukraine more than I did (my Ukrainian track this week would have been better) and disagree with me that the best part of Sweden’s entry is when it goes French filter-house at the end. But ultimately I am thankful that they’ve bought in. My youngest even wants us to start a family rave club in the basement and has sketched out the DJ set-up, lighting plans, and costumes.

  

• Albums. I’ve finally started listening to albums I’ve bookmarked (you can see my albums lists here and check out the ongoing 2024 album playlist here). No obvious #1 album contenders yet. Keepers I’ve featured on mixes: Shakira, Brittany Howard, Mary Halverson, Rosie Tucker, Coals, Empress Of, Brit Taylor, Rosali, a bunch of baile funk albums (so far a strong year for funk artists on albums and compilations). Keepers not yet featured on mixes: Mary Timony, Frances Chang, Bktherula, Hook, Nadine Shah. Not on the list after a first listen: Ariana Grande, Tyla, Tierra Whack, Kim Gordon. I’m not touching the new Beyonce album until the discourse dies down, so…maybe 2026? It’s about time I tried to listen to Renaissance again.

Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11

MIX 12: A STRANGER’S A RECKLESS PURSUIT

1. Camila Cabello f. Playboi Carti: I Luv It

There is nothing about this song that should have worked—Cabello is far out of her depth attempting Charli XCX hyperpop trolling, like when my children try to use internet slang they don’t fully understand the nuances of yet (“this broccoli is sus”); Playboi Carti pulls an Emperor’s New Clothes by removing all of his vocal filters that was Desiigner in there(??); the Gucci Mane quote is the bad sort of random. My god, it’s horrible. Horrible!! It’s my song of the year so far.

2. Ahadadream, Priya Ragu, Skrillex: Taka

The questionable taste section continues with something Skrillex put his name to, which last year was, refreshingly, a seal of approval I could trust 9 times out of 10. This might be one of those other dentists (the one that tells you it’s fine to eat all the candy you want). Priya Ragu approximates a Balian chant(?) against swooning EDM synths until the bongo breakdown. As tak’s go, it’s not as heavy as “Goodbye Sober Day” or as light as…I dunno, Tik ‘N’ Tak?

3. Young Posse: XXL

Finishing up the scrunched-nose suite (or are we?) here’s Young Posse, whose gleefully idiotic “Macaroni Cheese” from last year has stiff competition in the gleeful idiocy department from this paean to (slash bastardization of) hip-hop tropes and/or Billie Eilish’s oversized shirts. I would get a kick out of seeing Young Posse on an XXL Freshman Cypher this year.

4. Маша Кондратенко: Un deux trois

The accordion and chorus signify Francophilia, but Ukraine comes through in the verse melody. Not sure where to place that annoying whistle hook, globally speaking, but it would have sounded great in Eurovision this year.

5. Sarz f. Asake, Gunna: Happiness

I picked NLE Choppa on a dembow track last week, and now here’s Gunna alongside Asake on a log-drum-spiked Naija pop track produced by Sarz from December. Again the big tent approach leads to a somewhat conservative take on the sound, but in this case it’s a plus, brings a certain sunny directness to a sound that can keep me at arm’s length.

6. Mishasha: Soft Vibez

More minimum viable pop, maybe? (What, me run a concept into the ground?) This continues the amapiano log drum invasion into Naija pop, but otherwise the song bathing in treble — has the effect of a T-shirt being put through the wash so many times you can barely see the original pattern. But sometimes they look better that way!

7. Tayc, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shreya Ghoshal: Yimmy Yimmy

Another mega-popular global YouTube phenom, cannily transnational: French singer, featuring vocals from an Indian pop star, plus a credited third artist, Sri Lankan Indian star Jacqueline Fernandez, who as far as I can tell only appears in the video as the lead dancer. (Confusion about her role on this led me to her Wikipedia page, through which I learned she is currently embroiled in a money laundering case.) Three languages, six artist or company “teams” listed in the YouTube credits, untold truckloads of cash…and in the end it all boils down to how much fun it is to repeat the phrase “yimmy yimmy” while squeezing the excess liquid out of a rag. The best things in life really are free!

8. MC Hariel, DJ Thi Marquez: Primeiro Amor

Glossy pop by Brazilian standards, from funk ostentação artist MC Hariel. There’s an old(er)-school baile funk beat buried under lots of harp business. Mostly an opener to the harder stuff.

9. d. silvestre f. MC LELE 011, Mc Kroda Oficial: Abre a Txeka

…Hardest stuff? Probably not, but this is inching toward my limit of bracing sounds from São Paolo before my listening becomes an exercise in pain management. (I’ve finally uncovered a few bruxaria playlists on Spotify that are reliably updated and are now giving me my full quotient of tuin-heavy face-melt.¹) When I first heard d. silvestre last year, I thought he sounded a bit more like noise from the basement (as in the actual noise, not the Skye Sweetnam album, though not a world away gestalt-wise?) than some of his peers, but I think he’s come out of the basement somewhat if his new album is anything to go by (it’s good).

10. DJ Ws da Igrejinha f. Mc Vuk Vuk, Mc Jessica do escadão: Mega do Egito

DJ Ws da Igrejinha is another funk artist I have bookmarked — this is up there with the Rita Lee-sampling track he featured on a few weeks ago, though it has both a pretty sampled melody and a great performance from Mc Jessica do escadão. (The subtitles on this unfortunately nudged me to look up the lyrics, though it turns out I could have already guessed what Cleopatra was doing.)

11. John Grant: It’s a Bitch

John Grant is one of those artists whose work I always think I like more than I do — ironic pop simulacrums that start strong and slowly lose all their steam, but leave a lingering fondness and inclination to listen again sometime. I chuckle at lines like “I was boning up on my Icelandic declensions,” and then the charm dissipates almost immediately.

12. Osheyack f. Nahash: Bait

I included this one for the way it tries to make you dance to a grotesque cartoon of a dog scratching at fleas and almost (but not quite) succeeds. Apologies for the cover art, no idea what’s going on up there :/.

13. Saicobab: Nrtyaman

A new album from a group led by Boredoms’ Yoshimi P-We (as YoshimiO), who vocalizes along to sprawling rock-ragas. Didn’t realize they (as Saicobaba or Psycho Baba) have been a going concern for 25 years.

14. Mxshi Mo, Moonchild Sanelly: Uzobuya

A just-OK Afrotech song by South African producer Mxshi Mo gets a big lift from Moonchild Sanelly’s vocals.

15. Avalanche Kaito: Tanvusse

Burkinabè vocalist in collaboration with a Belgian noise rock duo, nice balance between electronic and acoustic noise.

16. Al Xapo, LeeMcKrazy f. Sneenah, Mellow & Sleazy, Boontle RSA, LK Deepstix: Nginenja

17. Kabza De Small, Mthunzi f. DJ Maphorisa Young Stunna, Sizwe Alakine, Umthakathi Kush: Imithandazo

18. Atmos Blaq: Mfana Wase Dobsi

Three more from South Africa: two amapiano tracks and a 3-stepper. I’m wondering if 3-step might flow back into amapiano (or vice versa), or if I just needed a short break at the end of last year to set the various subgenres against each other productively again. I hear this trio as a snapshot of different stages of amapiano evolution: “Nginenja” has the roughness around the edges of the template that I associate with 2022/2023 Mellow & Sleazy, including what I’m assuming is their direct influence on this track when the bass distorts. The Kabza De Small song, a massive regional hit from December, has been kicking around my holdover queue all year; it’s similar to the “dream piano” that I associate with 2019/2020. And Atmos Blaq, a Lokpo recommendation, is ably carrying the 3step banner while (re-?)integrating some amapiano—its sense of navigating a thicket of rhythm. Has anyone put forward distinct amapiano waves of development? Would be fitting for 3-step to be “third wave.”

19. Niedźwiedź, Koty z Księżyca f. Gosia Siara Witkowska: Murmuracje

Poland’s got a whole army of jazz weirdos, don’t they — I should visit sometime.

20. Josh Johnson: Free Mechanical

Non-weirdo jazz, a hypnotic saxophone cut-and-paste job from a saxophonist/arranger/producer with impressive contributions to wine-and-bubble-bath soul — musical director for Leon Bridges and producer on last year’s Meshell Ndegeocello album.

21. Brennan Wedl: Fake Cowboy

Save the best for last? This was a last-minute addition (from an upcoming Kill Rock Stars Nashville release) whose songwriting quality finally hit, conveniently enough, the minute I needed a better closer. The Aimee Mann-ish melody snakes through guitar hooks that never land on a chord quite the way you expect it to, twisted ankles on every dismount, which adds to the bruised feeling of a song that is otherwise kinda funny as risky one night stands (that turn out OK) go, and kinda sweet, too: she calls mom on the long walk home.

****

Until next time, call your moms if you’ve got ‘em.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from Brennan Wedl’s “Fake Cowboy”

1. There have been a few mainstream-leaning baile funk explainers recently, a few of which discuss tuin. Fader calls it “the high-pitched squeals and shrill alarms you often hear in funk tracks.”