Hopelessly focused
2026 Mix 31: Best of July, then funk throwbacks, disco throwbacks, fusion throwbacks, postpunk throwbacks, and more (but not that much more)
I am away! But it’s time for July in review, so here we go.
11 Songs I Heard in July (unranked)
10 Albums I Heard in June (lightly ranked)
Portraits of Tracy: Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV! EP
My favorite from a month of lax album listening and maybe too much attention to big hyped releases I liked well enough to mention here. So this wins the month on points, shows a ton of promise for another young pop formalist in the Debbii Dawson mold, except where Dawson studies Queen and ABBA, Tracy studies…basically all other late-70s/early-80s pop, with a dash of Hüsker Dü thrown in for good measure.
DJ Love: Budots Republic
Ranking budots is like ranking seashells, so I was happy to crib from Chuck Eddy’s recent crop of “YEAHs” in his semimonthly Pazz & Jop Product Report and agree that this was the best album qua album, not that that really means much in budots land (for the on-the-ground sand-sifting I’m still mostly using Frank Kogan’s playlists).
Charli xcx, Music Fashion Film
I liked this much more than I thought I would, and also agree with pretty much every take I’ve seen, pro or con. Think it frequently sounds “bad” but in a way that sounds good; think it’s distastefully nihilistic but that this is in itself kind of interesting, like trying to make Kesha’s Gag Order without being a hippie; think it’s frequently funny and (less frequently) exhausting. But I’m not in the market for artistic integrity and relatable lyrical philosophies for their own sake, don’t expect her to break any ground in melodic popforms, and the whole thing’s over in 30 minutes flat.
Willow: The Thread
I guess I have to be the biggest Willow fan in my immediate friend circle (probably not in the world; I’m sure that includes at least one of her parents) to think this album is: (1) the second-best Willow album in calendar year 2026, (2) much better than most albums, (3) probably underrated by me even now because my expectations are so high, and (4) still probably higher on my list of things to care about in pop music than most critics. Her writing is getting better at the word level and she seems to be putting herself through Berklee in public. At least she met Mei Semones there!
Ariana Grande: Petal
Grande’s barely a presence here, alternately bored and haunted, and melts into opaque but oddly sumptuous, if not exactly tuneful, productions—sounds like Max Martin learning how to go hypo from students-become-teachers Luka/Elvira, with Grande at least providing more vocal grain than Addison Rae, which is to say “any at all.” I’m relieved this isn’t quite good enough for me to have any further opinions on the matter. Here’s hoping we can all move on. Anyway, CAPDY is now complete: C > A > P > Y > D. So let’s talk about something—please, anything—else.
Nia Archives: Emotional Junglist
Honestly a little too junglist, even though it’s not particularly junglist except maybe in spirit. Let’s call it the second-best indie rock album of the year after Vince Staples’s album, but this is more of a commentary on indie rock than on either of their albums.
Curió Curió: s/t
Have very little to say about this crackerjack Brazilian/European dance collection, but it gets the Golden Beatology award as the one album that I suspect most newsletter readers would actually like if they listened to it.
Orquesta Akokán: América!
Or maybe it’s a Golden Beatology tie with this one, self-consciously throwback Cuban mambo and salsa album full of great guest vocalists and maybe a frisson of political relevance (according to the promo anyway: “themes of loss, upheaval, and the weight of the immigrant experience”).
MIA: In the Moonlight EP
Paper-thin disco-funk that headlines this week’s mix with its oldest track, but the newer ones are pretty good, too.
Nomieye & Rosie Turton: Tapestry of an Echo EP
A slow and pretty EP from a jazz trombonist that has the most textural trombone I can remember hearing in a good while, if ever. I don’t understand ASMR but I do understand this.
1. MIA: Crime of Passion
Chile-US
Lead track to the fun EP listed above by a Stones Throw artist (that’s “Mia” in all caps). Originally from 2024 but I’m including it under “new to you” rules. A bit aimless as sincere pastiche goes but she’s really smothered into the track in a way that keeps me interested, like there’s an Italians Do It Better anti-pop song hiding inside.
2. Young Pulse, ELASI: Milano Formentera
France/Italy
Keeping the meta throwback party vibes going with more early ‘80s chintzy synth funk. Cadence in the “allo/adieu” section reminds me of Amina’s incredible “Sheherezade.”
3. The Womack Sisters: If I Let You
US
Three literal nieces of “Uncle Bob” with a song that I wavered on putting on the mix because it stalls completely in a way that put me in mind of my thoughts about the contemporary melody crisis—the song is structured like a classic girl group song but the chorus and verse are too close together, and give the song an oddly droning quality. Could maybe imagine this as filler on a classic soul album, but never an actual single. That said, the drone finally got me, especially in context with the other two songs leading the mix.
4. Lalla Rami: 9A7BA
Morocco
I think this is the last Jonathan Bogart megathread inclusion for a while, though I may continue to highlight songs from it in its own special feature or something. Bogart: “trans moroccan diva in paris, debut album coming later this year, with an electro-raï sound that isn't too far from reggaeton but is very conversant with french pop urbaine as well as queer vanguard pop”
5. Dhurata Dora, DJ Snake: Toka
Germany-Albania/France
Sam3K claims that the songs of the year for the past two years have been “ontologically evil”: in 2025, Katseye’s “Gnarly” (which, for the record, I hated, though I think “Internet Girl” is great, so what do I know) and in 2026, the Major Lazer collab with Tokischa. I may eventually relent to Katseye, but this year I’m using DJ Snake as my Major Lazer harm reduction.
6. Itz Tiffany: Money
Ghana
Will give partial credit to Jonathan for this one, too, except it was already on this mix before he shared it! That said, I’m still stealing his blurb for it: “the first Ghanaian pop performer I ever paid attention to, way back in the low-resolution early 2010s, is back, and I don't think it's just nostalgia that makes this big authoritative azontopiano compelling for me”
You can check the genre rolodex for azonto (I did). The “piano” is South African influence in the logdrum, which is more of a neutral bass sound here than its usual amapiano ratatat. Amapiano basically found the most roundabout way possible of ushering in a new era of DONK.
7. CHITAA: Kiss Ei Chuu
Japan
Another one that’s technically been on a mix longer than the person I go to for music like it (this newsletter’s been waiting in the wings for almost three weeks—I’m not here right now!), and whose blurb I will also steal. Here’s Patrick St. Michel on the album:
It takes just over 20 seconds for a bunch of trauma-induced anxiety to spill out of CHITAA. “2020 new virus / COVID-19 / I’m close to 18 / where the fuck is my teen dreams?” And with that we are off into the void that is Japanese adolescence in the 2020s over a fittingly nervous drum ‘n’ bass foundation, fitting for something so jittery about everything. CHITAA herself zips and pogos through it all, Skip-It-ing between English and Japanese to compare her uncertainity over the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (which end in 2030…had no idea!) and explaining what gives her the ick. This debut EP offers a showcase of her vocal loopiness, from the Hyperpop-indebted warp of “Kiss Ei Chuu” to the rap-sing emo on closer “Bluevery Pie.”
8. Yosuke Shimonaka: Private Jet
Japan
I’m looking forward to the forthcoming fusion album from Yosuke Shimonaka, purveyor of the sort of quirky, uptight funk I enjoyed (a little) in my 1974 Japanese albums research.
9. Curió Curió: Amor Doente
Brazil-Austria/Germany
[You may notice I wrote this prior to the album blurb above] I did not go back and check but I’m pretty confident this Brazilian cosmo-pop party is yet another Bongo label no-brainer, just can’t remember if it’s Mr. Bongo or Les Disques Bongo Joe. <checks> Mr. Bongo! I guess I had a fifty-fifty shot there. Whole album is a blast.
10. Baiuca, Carlos Ares: Noitada
Spain
Spanish act I think I first learned about from Dan Bright Amaya, an indispensable guide to Spanish and Catalan pop. The project blends Galician folk and electronica, but this one is a little more straightforward, with more guitar and less cut-up.
11. Mari Froes: Rio Lua
Brazil
Another one said to blend folk with modern pop, though I don’t know that I need to go much further than “pretty acoustic guitar and melancholy melody.”
12. Teodros Makonnen: Libesh Kabashen [c. 1980-1984]
Ethiopia
An early electronic pioneer in Ethio-jazz. As far as Ethio-jazz titans go, it’s closer to Hailu Mergia’s minimal approach than Mulatu Astatke, but it’s flatter, sparer, and more cyclical than Mergia.
13. Sulaf: Shogi Ana
Sudan-France
14. Bonobo f. Arooj Aftab: Fire on the Water
UK/Pakistan-US
Two songs that stretch out slowly with enough lightness to avoid feeling like a trudge. The first is from Sudanese artist Sulaf, the second a collaboration between Arooj Aftab and British producer Simon Green, part of the new Bonobo record that’s a who’s-who of trendy pop-experimentalist guests.
15. Sucola: Venus Line
Japan
Japanese pop with a Kings of Convenience-esque guitar pattern that reminds me of “Drop” by Cornelius.
16. N NAO f. Helena Deland: Fleuron
Canada
Well, if you are going to stretch things out to a trudge, you might as well do it in Montreal.
17. Sudno: Ніч [Nich]
Belarus
The downer rock suite continues with another song from a very Cure-oriented Ukrainian band that did not get a zine in Pitchfork on this basis.
18. Starcleaner Reunion: Never Odd or Even
US
Less downer, still indie rock, with a dash of Stereolab in there to keep things interesting.
19. Maddie Lenhart: Newton’s First Law
US
I like how this song does exhibit a kind of inertia—the motion of a heavy rock down a very shallow decline, perhaps—but without really having the forward momentum that I’d like from it, which is to say it keeps moving without really getting anywhere, which is admittedly The Point.
20. Maudit Vincent: Vieux chêne (version nuit au parc)
Canada
A nice lo-fi closer from Montreal, no idea how they keep getting away with it (having a thriving indie scene).
That’s it! Until next time, go listen to a Willow album or two.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Maddie Lenhart: Newton’s First Law
You are correct, sir, re: the Willow! My students got me to pay serious attention to her a few years back, and I was dutifully trying the new one and intending to file it…but it is really, really good. Gave me Joni vibes several times.
Womack Sisters?!! I’m going there now.