August in review! Holy cow, can’t believe it’s September already. A lot of discussion of the Great Bouyon Speed-Up of 2026 below, so in that spirit I am speeding through the intro to get to the best stuff from last month.
11 Songs I Heard in August (unranked)
10 Albums I Heard in August (lightly ranked)
MOLIY: Baddies <3 Moliy
Love it when a favorite artist who makes lots of good songs puts those good songs together onto an album with several other good songs. Sometimes it’s just that simple!
Ravyn Lenae: Blue Island
And speaking of simple, was very attracted to this album as a formal exercise in pop songcraft that doesn’t make a big deal out of its formality. Alfred Soto: “Betraying no anxiety of influence, Lenae and her fleet of producers led by Daji don’t offer pastiches so much as glossy updates devoid of contemporary neuroses: she’s not K Michelle or Kehlani explaining themselves to a therapist, she’s Janet Jackson hiding her commands as adeptly as a glove conceals a stiletto.” Somtimes it’s just that simple (even if the simplicity is deceptively complex).
Brennan Wedl: s/t
I’m really on a “hey there are songs on this” kick this month, so here’s one from the alt-country singer whose debut LP I’ve been waiting for since loving “Fake Cowboy” a few years ago. “Cowboy” is still the best song in the collection, but I appreciate that every song here has a no-foolin’ melody attached to it, killer lines throughout, and some fun games of spot-the-sound (Hold Steady on “Tasmanian Devil,” Liz Phair on “Airplane Movies,” is that Soundgarden on “June Gloom”?).
Nu Fvnk: Kick Uyu
Interesting album that does not do much beyond the blurb I already wrote for the song I featured from it on a mix: “Really love the album on which this is the lead track, might write more about the project in my next monthly wrap-up. It’s a Kenyan producer who does sampledelica collage with traditional Kenyan music mixed with breakbeats, and is more frenetic than a lot of electronic takes on folk forms tend to be.”
Ditto this one! (Except this time I’ll also re-link my 1974 Japanese music essay, which I forgot to do in the original post.) “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.”
Jorja Smith: What Are the Odds
I complained about Tyla’s new and unfortunately(?) titled album A*POP, which I underrated (a little). But in this case I find the same shortcomings-on-paper—a sort of view-from-nowhere mix of hot-shit African and Caribbean sounds into an R&B template—charming rather than disappointing. Rather than overthink it, I’ll just say the songs are better. As I’ve been saying this year about French diasporic pop, there’s no reason why this move to reframe regional pop sounds shouldn’t work in the US or UK, it just hasn’t really.
Joyce e Tutty Moreno & Adrian Younge: Jazz Is Dead 27
Man, all of these are good, aren’t they.
Amy Grant: The Me That Remains
I have no particular familiarity with Amy Grant, but a lightly positive rating from Chuck Eddy (reviewing her since at least 1991) and this song rave from Brad Luen put it on my radar. (I thought that my other favorite music writing Brad, Brad Shoup, had reviewed Amy Grant in Pitchfork, but the only mention of her ever is in a Menomena profile from 2005!) Although that Luen song rave is the highlight, said highlight is track one, and there was enough of a halo to get me through the rest. The words seem pretty good! Maybe I’ll listen to it twice someday.
Hayley Law: Last Summer
A stylistically varied but mostly futurist R&B (which is now retro-futurism) recommendation from LondonLee. You should follow them if you’re over on Bluesky, someone that I often find good stuff from but probably don’t credit enough. I recognize intellectually that the new FLO album, which mines similar yesterday’s-future territory more adeptly, is probably better, but I like this one more.
MÖRDA: Asante IV
Pretty much everything the prolific South African producer MÖRDA puts out is gorgeous—I’d say “otherwise unspecified South African house” that is generally on the dreamy end of amapiano—and he has put out a new album like clockwork every year since 2022 (all named Asante with Roman numerals; maybe he’s the amapiano Led Zeppelin?). I’m not going to pretend I have now, or will likely ever, listened to all 2 hours of this, though.
1. Shygirl: Alyse
UK
Shygirl last appeared on these mixes duetting with Björk, and she almost tricks you with that ponderous orchestral opening to think that it’s rubbed off on her. But then it explodes into a straight-ahead breakbeat banger, albeit one that’s getting itself lost in dark alleyways.
2. Dani Enli: Body Tea
China-Australia
Ah, from art-adjacency to some serendipitous meta-junk, the only song I think I’ve ever included on a mix that came from my YouTube algorithm (on the heels of listening to “Stereo” by Cannelle). I seem to have removed all of my browser extensions for YouTube and my reward for playing ball with the machine is a raunchy (NSFW, FWIW) post-Pantheress jam.
3. Fyore: Jenny
Togo-Canada
Third appearance from Montreal’s Fyore in one year puts her into CACAU CHUU territory, but unlike with the Brazilian singer I’ve actually noticed Fyore’s rise, not just in hindsight. (This “rise” might only be my personal estimation, not a reflection of her actual popularity. I’m still grabbing most of her stuff from Bandcamp.)
4. Limitlezz, General Love: Hit the Road Jack
Greece-Germany/Mauritius
A simple shatta beat with a lazy sample, but it works!
5. Famous Pluto: Fast and Furious
Nigeria
A great Naija pop track that gallops along sounding like a beneficiary of the great bouyon speed-up of 2026, where tempos seem to be on the rise and hinting at bouyon influence even if there’s likely other factors. But in contrast to the tempo, the secret weapon on this one turns out to be a plaintive violin line that reminds me of…Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse? Hm.
6. Julinho Ksd: Dembélé
Cape Verde-Portugal
More evidence for the Bouyon Speed-Up in Portugal.
7. Lady Lava: Happy Birthday
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidadian dancehall star wishes you a happy birthday in a way that is maybe less NSFW than Dani Enli but also more of a hoot.
8. Lullysnake: Buta
Tunisia
While bouyon explodes across the world at breakneck speeds, contemporary baile funk’s spread to other regions’ pop scenes shas been steadier (time will tell if it’s also sturdier). Sounds great mixed with Maghreb pop. Makes me wonder who if anyone will be the first breakout star that pulls off being the Homer Simpson time traveler of baile funk in the US—the first non-Brazilian to make it work.
9. Eva B f. Anina Fida, Mudassar Qureshi: Ant Bahr
Pakistan
I have not yet done any research on the Pakistani pop I’ve been getting on a few new playlists, nor have I bothered to figure out why I’m selecting it more reliably than the much better represented Hindi and other Indian pop in other playlists. Like Chinese pop, Indian pop is a stubborn blind spot that can’t be entirely explained by lack of access, though I should probably do a more concerted scan of both countries.
10. Preta Ary: Por Nós
Brazil
An off-the-cuff Brazilian rap freestyle to remind me that there are whole other worlds of Brazilian music of which I hear very little.
11. Donna Mobile: It’s All a Lie
Turkey
Throwback house-pop from Turkey, where producer Elif Çağlar created the persona Donna Mobile to add live vocals into electro dance music.
12. The Flabbies: Yangın Yeri
Turkey
13. Islands On Tape: Dust Conspiracy
Israel
Always nice to get more representation in my mostly-instrumental soul/funk/psych category—here are two for the pile. I usually put a mix of this stuff together at the end of the year, makes for nice background music for holiday parties.
14. Lael Neale: Slip Away
US
The second insistent, droney Lael Neale song with an environmental message I’ve featured on a mix, which tells me this is her deal. I like how the song’s sameyness ends up obliquely suggesting a punk sneer.
15. Анастимоза: Чи я кохаю? [Anastimoza: Chi ya koxayu? / Do I Love You?]
Ukraine
Anastimoza’s soft voice barely registers through even a fairly austere electropop backdrop, reminds me that I want to write something more about how Ariana Grande vanishes into the tracks on her new album, which is a topic I might address (in a roundabout way) next week.
16. Fallon: Changé
France
Another lush post-dancehall pop I set aside in my blindfold listening sessions that turned out to be from Fallon. She’s in the running for mathematically favorite artist of the year (i.e. most songs featured, even if I don’t remember featuring them).
17. Duo Anggrek, Ecko Show: Senayan Tanah Abang
Indonesia
My knowledge of Indonesian pop subgenres is basically nil, and my personal breakthrough Indonesian act of the year, No Na, is taking the Katseye transnational girl group takeover approach and is probably not that representative. So I will tell you that this is filed under dancedhut, which derives from the same folk-pop etymology (dangdut) as hipdut but isn’t as connected to contemporary hip-hop/R&B and is more upbeat, closer to cheery Europop.
18. Culoe De Song: The Spiker
South Africa
I hear more gqom and Afro house in my playlists each week than I usually include on mixes (a lot of these songs end up on my South Africa holdover list), so it’s nice to hear something that catches my ear in a way that makes me want to put it on the main mix. (I do not remember what caught my ear this time out.)
19. Juçara Marçal, Thais Nicodemo: A gente se fode bem pra caramba
Brazil
20. Diogo Monzo: Uma Rosa para Pixinguinha
Brazil
Two piano-driven Brazilian songs to end things, a sprightly but spare number by singer Juçara Marçal of Metá Metá and a Liszt-ish ballad by jazz pianist and composer Diogo Monzo.
That’s it! Until next time, consider filling your next album with all of your best songs.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Fyore: Jenny (“Je m’en vais / Je te le texte”)
We're due for a Justin Bieber album produced by DJ K.
C'mon N' Ride It (Chuu Chuu Train)