You have two wishes left
Mix 17: Real espresso, fake(?) country values, baile funk aims for pretty, indie aims for gritty
I’m putting in a double shift for the newsletter this week as I’ll be out of town for a bit, so if anything important happens between now and next Thursday it will not be reflected in my opening spiel.
Everyone is talking about diss tracks this week, the only thing I could possibly care about less than mapping Taylor Swift’s IRL boyfriends onto her songs. None of the diss tracks so far hit the [7] threshold, so they’re out. (If you’d like to see which songs do hit the [7] threshold, I will remind you that The Singles Jukebox is back…BACK! on a monthly basis now!)
Why not ignore celebrity gossip entirely and check out the final People’s Pop Tournament, the legendary RAGNAPOP, in which previous poll winners go head-to-head to see which song polled in the past four years is the ultimate champion. (My money is on the very first poll winner, Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.”) Lots of absurdly stacked matches so far — if you wanted a brief highlight reel of pop music c. 1960-present, with a nod to prehistory via Judy Garland, check out the chronological playlist of tracks. Most of these tracks medaled in their respective tournament, were voted on by participants, or, in a select few cases, were selected as a prize—which means yes, thanks to my contribution, the playlist is now Pigbag inclusive. You’re welcome.
Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15 // Mix 16
MIX 17: YOU HAVE TWO WISHES LEFT
1. Kenia Os: Tortura
We have “Espresso” at home, if your home happens to be in Mexico. The cultural tide turning toward Sabrina Carpenter has not been kind to her song’s minor pleasures, like replacing a sprinkler with a pressure washer. So I’ll take this breezy Song of the Summer contender from Kenia Os, an influencer turned pop star (or something).
2. Anna Coddington: Kātuarehe
Māori songwriter who calls this “Māori funk” (though I’d add an “indie-” in there somewhere) and timed the release of this track for Matariki, the Māori new year celebration.
3. Sababa 5, Yurika Hanashima: Kokoro
Tel Aviv-based group that I’ve featured before for their sleek psych-funk, here working with Japanese singer Yurika, whose vocals set it apart from the many Sababa 5 tracks Spotify insists on me listening to (not unwillingly!) before passing them up.
4. Soft Analog: Sen Yanimda Kal
The lite funk and disco block concludes with an aptly named Turkish synth-pop group.
5. Larizzle, Ebun Yelé: Bon Appetit
6. Rayvanny, Iyanya f. Zaba: Zazazela
It’s usually a 50/50 shot for me to correctly guess which of two amapiano tracks is the popular one and which one no one’s heard of, and I often get it wrong. This time I got that wrong and also missed that neither are from South Africa: the first is British-Ghanaian Larizzle and British-Nigerian Ebun Yelé making good on the global turn to ama-pop, with its prominent vocals and short runtimes. But their YouTube views don’t hold a candle to the crew headed up by a Tanzanian star, seemingly moonlighting in amapiano, but doing it capably.
7. Samira Said: Kaddab
Egyptian pop with a salsa piano figure and trap drums, from a Moroccan-Egyptian star with a long career I should probably learn more about.
8. Matisa: Yummy
A song from a compilation on Peggy Gou’s record label proves that the music on her label is about as frothy (and maybe flimsy?) as hers is.
9. Diode: Thieves
10. Gee Tee: Bedrock
Two short ‘n’ spiky punk pastiches, the first a hard Devo rip from LA group Diode, whose 14-track album clocks in at 26 minutes, the second some demo-quality garage proto-punk from Australia. (“Bedrock” was released in 2023 but it’s on the group’s 2024 album, which is an impressive sixteen tracks in 26 minutes.)
11. Alli Walker: Creek
Someone was trying to clown on this song over on the site formerly known as Twitter, which helped me listen more sympathetically. It’s a fun pop-country take on Ashlee Simpson’s “La La,” country girl meets city slicker and wants to teach him how to get dirty down by the crick. The hillbilly tropes are in the service of cross-cultural exchange (exchange of what is TBD) rather than sanctimonious chest-thumping, and I don’t often hear lines as biting as “get you on your knees, show you what to pray for” in rural-championing country slop.
12. Roghao Li: 黑馬 Black Horse
The rare straightforward Chinese pop track that’s made it through my taste filter — almost everything that makes it through from my Mandarin list turns out to be from Taiwan.
13. DJ JZ, Humberto & Ronaldo, Mc Mininin, DJ LG Prod, Silvanno Salles: Mtg Quero Ta Encontrar
14. DJ Ws da Igrejinha, DJ João Pereira, Mc Dudu Sk, MC Th Da Serra, Dalãma: Não Vou Namorar
15. DJ Ws da Igrejinha, Mc Gw, Mc Pedrin do Engenha: Mtg Chapeuzinho Vermelho
Three baile funk tracks that ride on pretty melodies, amazingly only two of them from DJ Ws da Igrejinha. The first is the closest to a traditional song per se, with a prominent vocal from pop singer and “king of arrocha” Silvanno Salles. The second features more expected funk singing, but introduces a girl group chorus throughout that’s harmonically much denser than I tend to hear. And by the third, Igrejinha has given the melody over to an opera singer, who competes with seagulls and a pack of wolves…music of the night, just in time for the annual relaunch of Dracula Daily!
16. L2B: Touché Coulé
A change of pace, harmonies the old-fashioned way from a French group with some Afrobeats influence.
17. Kim Yuma: La Vie Rosée
New solo single from the lead singer of Korean band Jaurim, a stately tango.
18. Sailor Honeymoon: Bad Apple
19. Marina Allen: Swinging Doors
20. Fatbear: Compressor
21. Nilüfer Yanya: Like I Say (I Runaway)
Can I really group the indie bunch into minimal four-song commentary? Yeah, I’ve gotta write two of these! Anyway: minimal punk-pop (not pop-punk) from a group who sells T-shirts reading “Korean girls invented punk rock not England”; tuneful, if twee, folk-pop singer-songwriter from L.A.; some four-track worship that quickly piles on the sonics to eight or twelve tracks, from a low-footprint Singaporean bedroom artist whose name mostly brings up reminders of Fat Bear Week in October (congratulations to Grazer); and the gem of the bunch, an insistent and insinuating riff from Nilüfer Yanya that sounds like a juiced up “All Apologies” (compliment).
22. Vivid Rose: Японська слива
Lilting Ukrainian ballad that threatens to build into a sneering alt-rock chorus that never arrives, like if “Creep” didn’t have a creep in it.
23. Kara Jackson: Right, Wrong, or Ready
A cover of a song by Greenwich Village folkie Karen Dalton, given mood lighting and a soulful alto performance by Kara Jackson.
***
That’s it! Until next week (which will feel like tomorrow to me, but a week later to you), try to enjoy your vacation if you’re on one, or at least the vacation you’ll take in your mind.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from Kenia Os’s “Tortura” (“Te quedan dos deseos”)