Think I hit somebody
2025 Mix 12: Going long on my retroactive 1989 AOTY by Jane Child, plus Jennie, Jvcki Wai, AVYSS, ALT BLK ERA, viral Spanish-language hits, and some old mix and Golden Beat faves
Things are moving and grooving with the A-pop series. I posted the second installment on Monday, reflections on growing pop monsters, shrinking hegemons, and everything in between. Did I use it as an excuse to revisit the Duncan Watts experiments on cumulative advantage? Uh, yeah.
But the thing that has taken up most of my attention this week is a deep dive into the year 1989 in preparation for an upcoming Best Albums poll. The album that jumped out as my retroactive favorite of the year was Canadian pop artist Jane Child’s debut Jane Child. Some background: Child was brought up in a household that emphasized classical training and banned pop music, so she listened to R&B radio surreptitiously while on vacation in Florida and pored over the few pop albums that her parents randomly allowed, like Rubber Soul, purchased only so that her father could arrange a classical version of “Michelle” for a concert.
She dropped out of high school at 15, joined a band for a crash course in pop keyboard, taught herself to use synthesizers, and memorably adopted a striking hodgepodge punk look that is simultaneously arresting and dorky, rebellion without obvious referent: nose chain, long braids on the side with an aerosol-stiffened shock of fauxhawk in the middle, a self-consciously bohemian look with a certain professional air that suggests that she could also command a marketing meeting.
An obsessive pop autodidact, Child put her classical training to the oppressive synths and drum pads of the period, cobbling together demos good enough to get her a deal with Warner when she was twenty. Her self-titled debut was a total shock to me, as it seemed to lay out the entire blueprint for the trajectory of music I’ve followed for much of my life, the Alanis/Avril/Taylor journey: from alt-rock of the ‘90s, to confessional teenpop of the ‘00s, to the darker alt-pop turn of the ‘10s, and finally our current era of baroquely articulated angst slammed against an ‘80s brick wall of sound. The whole journey is hinted at on this album from what seems like an ancient prehistory; she sounds like she got to the end of the book before the story had really started.
I’m curious what impact the project might have had on Alanis Morissette, who more or less made a worse version of this album in 1991 before becoming the Oppenheimer of alt-confessional and dropping her megaton payload with Jagged Little Pill. Child, by contrast, is frustratingly out of sync, playing a mixed hand as well as possible. Her follow up was in 1993 (still a little early, and way too weird) and she didn’t get another bite at the apple until 2000, when the historical moment had probably passed and her sound is closer to post-Ray of Light Madonna (but coming across more like American Life, still a few years away). She’s an odd and quietly iconoclastic figure throughout. She reminds me of Katy Rose.
Her enduring legacy on the charts was “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love,” the platonic ideal of an overstuffed 1989 synth-pop song, which stalled tantalizingly close to #1 for several weeks in April of 1990 until Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” spoiled its chances of ever reaching the top spot, an irony for someone who seems to have taught herself to be Prince in total isolation, and whose music Prince at the time is said to have admired.
I have confirmed independently that this song did, despite my total ignorance of it, make an impact at the time. I mentioned Jane Child a few days ago in conversation with my friend who was in ninth grade in 1989. Her eyes lit up: “Was she….?” and mimed pulling an invisible chain from nose to ear. “Yep.”
“Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” in particular is not only good, it’s the kind of good that makes me wish that I could have known it when I was a kid. I want this song in my life then. I want it to stir a deep nostalgia in me—which it does, but at a strange conceptual remove. I listen and I imagine a whole life I could have spent with it. For someone who wraps up a lot of significance and sentimentality in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s for idiosyncratic personal reasons, this blast of joy has a certain sadness to it, suggesting a bittersweet counterfactual life path: Rosebud-pop.
But whatever, the song fuckin’ rips. For what it’s worth, Child self-produced and played every instrument on the album except for guitar, which doesn’t feature on the single. She describes writing the lyrics by playing the bass line and drum pad simultaneously while working out the words during the recording session. At 2:46 in the video, during the absolutely crackling synth solo, you can see her fingering the notes on the railing, still clearly into it. I’ve been watching videos of Stevie Wonder in the studio in the early ‘70s—this seems like that. I haven’t stopped listening to it for days.
But lucky for me, I’m still ahead on my mixes anyway, so I’ll deal with my hyperfocus hangover next week.
1. JENNIE: Like Jennie
South Korea
Jennie’s opening salvo on her coming out monsterverse album is a short, noisy blast that promises stronger mead than you end up getting on the rest of the album, but song for song it might be the best solo Blackpink effort if you don’t happen to love Rosé (which I do, so it’s not).1
2. vangdale, Jvcki Wai: Spoil U
South Korea
Haven’t heard anything I can remember from K-rapper Jvcki Wai since Frank Kogan was championing her back in 2019. This is a straightforward hyperpop defacement, not worlds apart from the Jvcki Wai I’m more familiar with from “Dding.”
3. Linia Nocna: 🏡 [house with garden emoji]
Poland
Warsaw duo makes continued good on the Pantheress pop promise. No disrespect to PinkPantheress, but I think her weird career trajectory of sparking mass tempo inflation and then (as of now — prove me wrong, kids!) whiffing hard enough with a crossover attempt to effectively end her career is one of the most selfless acts in recent pop history. The Pope should consider conferring sainthood.
4. AVYSS f. e5, Sasuke Haraguchi: 地獄先生
Japan
Really great artist sampler from online Japanese music magazine AVYSS, which is acting as a sort of umbrella collective on this new album/compilation. This track features two of my J-pop faves, e5 and producer Sasuke Haraguchi.
5. Alemán, Neton Vega: Te Quería Ver
Mexico
6. Feid: Nos Desconoximos
Colombia
Two big non-Bad-Bunny Spanish-language hits of the year to date, which I’ve been trying to track more carefully by skimming various “viral” charts. The first, from Mexican reggaeton artists Alemán and Neton Vega, does sound like the sort of thing I would be told has a billion views on YouTube and shrug—sure, why not. The Feid track, with its dancehall hook and hookah bar chillout vibes, is a bit more surprising, as is some of the imagery in its utterly ensloppified A.I.-generated music video.
7. ALT BLK ERA: Run Rabbit
UK
No A.I. slop detected in this charming bargain basement video from a scrappy British duo, just a parking lot, a bedroom production setup, and a lot of charisma.
8. NELLI: Бесті
Ukraine
This Ukrainian cash-in on the success of “Sigma Boy” has, judging from my kids’ response, badly miscalculated—it’s a pale imitation. So put this one toward cosmic/karmic wartime balance or whatever. (Also, I have a much higher tolerance for bad kid-pop novelties than most actual children do).
9. Babs: Telefoon
Netherlands
There’s a strong Netherlands Eurovision entry this year, but this is the syncretic nonspecific Dutch pop (h/t Holly) that has probably caught my attention the most this year.
10. Andruss: Take Five
Mexico
Mexican DJ plays around with a Jobim-ish Brazilian(?) vocal hook to build a Scatman single you could play in the proverbial world café.
11. Goat, MC Yallah: Nimerudi
Sweden/Uganda
Ugandan rapper MC Yallah glides along Goat’s impeccable psych vibes effortlessly like it’s just another horrorcore chiptune beat, or literally anything else you’d care to throw at her.
12. Tshegue: Plus de place nulle part
France/DRC
Third mix appearance for the Parisian/Congolese duo (a phrase I have now used thrice, as opposed to the word “thrice,” which I have only used once. Well, twice. But both in this parenthetical). For some reason they increasingly sound like they’re about to take over the world. Or maybe they just bought a guitar. Either way — Golden Beatology pick of the week.
13. mmm f. Emerson Kitamura: BOO!
Japan
Ah, sprechgesang done right, not force-fed via too-studied post-punk cosplay, but delivered warmly against just studied enough post-punk cosplay, with the occasional animal noise as a bonus.
14. Brighter Days Family: Burn It Down
UK
A halting breakbeat and hypnotic repetitive vocal sustain the song until the solos and rapping come in.
15. Vanyfox, Martha Da’ro: Novo+244
Portugal/Angola
Interesting batida track with a prominent vocal from Martha Da’ro and some Brazilian funk elements (mouth clave, of a sort — different rhythm, same technique) that work really well. Hadn’t thought much about the confluences between current Brazilian and Angolan/Portuguese scenes in this way.
16. Outsyd Eddie: D Matter
Nigeria
Time to guess whether my Naija pop pick with obligatory log drum ornamentation has 240 streams or 240,000. (Surprise! It was 2,400!)
17. Elva, Kevin McKay: Yeme Afa
UK
Sturdy, all-purpose world electronica most notable for its stacked vocals. I wondered who supplied said vocals and only found this: “‘Yeme Afa’ features a Cameroonian vocalist who we sadly can't name or credit due to some music industry BS.”
18. Defmaa Maadef: Kalanakh (DJ P2N Remix)
Senegal
Senegalese duo bring it with a ratatat chorus that I like in contrast to the smoothed-out electro remix backdrop.
19. Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits: Anoshereketa [1978]
Zimbabwe
Prolific Zimbabwean musician and activist gets a great-sounding remaster and rerelease of a song on a new compilation from Analog Africa, Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound of Harare Townships 1975-1980, that captures some of the music produced and promoted in the face of civil strife and Rhodesian oppression.
20. Deep, Prodone, Karam Brar: AR 15
India
Still don’t come across much punjabi rap in my playlists, so I kept this one even though it showed up under somewhat scammy circumstances. (I’m annoyed by scams but don’t actually care if a song I like comes to me through shady means or subterfuge. I’m picking a pretty random little slice of what’s out there!)
21. YonYon: U
Japan
Dreamy lite dnb Japanese pop kicks off the cool-down.
22. JJULIUS: Brinna ut
Sweden
One from Mr. Cubicle, even dreamier—ah, Swedish indie pop. In doing a quick skim of the bio I have learned that the bass was provided by a Viagra Boy, which is how I have learned after something like five years of liking-not-loving pretty much every Viagra Boys song I’ve ever heard that they’re from friggin’ Stockholm.
23. Värttinä: Kyly
Finland
Ending things with a nice new song from Finnish folk group Värttinä, whom I discovered on my first ever Discogs plunge for a year in retrospect, for 1998. I featured their song “Vihma,” which was a Golden Beat finalist in the 1998 People’s Pop Tournament (a great honor!). This one is pretty different — seems more rock and less folky; the bass practically sounds like the Melvins.
***
That’s it! Until next time, see if you can manage to listen to “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” by Jane Child as many times in a four-day period as I have. (If you get anywhere close, I’ll owe you a Coke.)
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from ALT BLK ERA: “Run Rabbit”
Bit of a shame the production is Diplo, but if he kept more of these mainstream-friendly approximations of global trends to 90 seconds I probably wouldn’t mind so much. (Do wish he would just go away, though.)
Vangdale & Jvcki Wai best pop music I've heard since Le SSerafim's 'Easy'. The new Banshee album is good too.
Rosebud pop. There's a genre. IRL, Downtown and Michelle do that for me, but you've started something with that one.