You might think I care for you like your mom does
2023 Mix 14: "Easy A" greeting card pop, racy videos, raunchy raps, Cornershop and Crookers goof around, the Spanish Ice Spice Girls, and *another* amapiano album of the year by Mellow & Sleazy
Each week I skim through about 2,000 songs mostly from Spotify's company-curated New Music Friday playlists. Whenever I find 80 minutes worth of music I like, I make a CD-length mix and write a newsletter about it.
Hello! There are multiple updates to last week’s newsletter!
I still don’t have great evidence that Ice Spice really signed to Nicki Minaj’s label, so maybe she didn’t.
Pitchfork published a nice review of Dominican dembow artist Kiko el Crazy that provides welcome context.
Mellow & Sleazy dropped another amapiano album of the year just as I was telling you they’d already done that.
Another week, another fun personal calamity — this time the kids’ school is closed for at least two weeks and we’re back to virtual learning.
You, too, can do some virtual learning as you listen to music that may be unfamiliar to you!
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: YOU MIGHT THINK I CARE FOR YOU LIKE YOUR MOM DOES
Never quite shared the Singles Jukebox enthusiasm for MUNA, whose average score was just north of 7 (a strong career showing for the Jukebox). But this one got its hooks in me over the course of the weekend—I basically reenacted the greeting card scene from Easy A.
More evidence that hyperpop only died in the US, maybe? Abroad I hear echoes and influences of it all over the place (Turkey this time) and it still acts like a shot in the arm.
3. YXPP! (Maiyarap x NAMENT x GALCHANIE): พูดลอยๆ (Just Sayin')
The YUPP! label, home of Thai rapper MILLI among others, is helping expand the scrappy pop-rap terrain there. Double-checked the English subtitles to confirm GALCHANIE actually drops the F-bomb. (Yep.)
Olivia Rodrigo-ish break-up song by an up-and-coming young Mexican singer-songwriter who went viral during COVID lockdowns.
Spanish rapper takes a joyride on the Law and Order theme song and sounds a bit like Ice Spice. I remember seeing the video on Twitter, but when I searched for it I could only see Twitter’s infestation of blue-check C.H.U.D.s, algorithmically emboldened with mutant powers, making the Ice Spice comparison like it’s a bad thing.
6. Vigaz & Mc Erikah: Jogando pro Alto
The only baile funk I pulled from my lists this week, gets by mostly on Mc Erikah’s performance. Don’t think I’ve heard her before.
Millennial Latin pop pastiche with the appropriate “wow this music video is much racier than it needed to be” factor to make Ricky Martin proud. This is my first opportunity to learn why Sophie Hawley-Weld (the “Sofi” half of Sofi Tukker), who was born in Germany and grew up in Canada and the US, sings in Portuguese so frequently—apparently she learned the language specifically to sing it because she thought it was pretty and only studied in Brazil afterward.
Kenyan rap with a charming one-take video on a tight budget: “Let’s put on a show — my uncle has a barn! And a Steadicam!”
9. Bad Boy Timz f. Zlatan: I Salute
The random Naija pop that caught my ear this week. The phrase “I salute your doings” imbues their carnal pursuit with Biblical solemnity. (Best I can tell it’s a slang term for wealth in Nigeria.)
10. African Head Charge: Microdosing
New track from a dub group that’s been a going concern since the early 80s, but whom I only learned about a few months ago in the bestalbum95 1990 album poll, where they lost to Living Colour’s Time’s Up.
11. Niontay f. MIKE: WHEREDEYAT???
MIKE has showed up a few times in my 2023 album listening with Beware of the Monkey. MIKE produced and features on this track from Florida rapper Niontay—they’re both good but I mostly like the sample.
12. TisaKorean: mIdDlE FiNgErS Up.mP3
Meme rap from TisaKorean, who went viral on Instagram in 2018, just shy of the TikTok era. That “too soon” trajectory matches his overdone allusions to an earlier awkward chapter of social media’s prehistory: the cover art evokes the dregs of mid-aughts internet culture and this sounds like it could have been Soulja Boy adjacent in 2008.
13. Sexxy Red f. Tay Keith: Pound Town
Sexxy Red can be fantastic when she’s funny, like on her demented take on “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, and on “Pound Town” she freestyles like a stand-up working out new material in an impromptu late night set. I’d bet good money neither the song nor the video were recorded before 2AM.
The second appearance of 2Rare on my mixes means I probably have to take the guy more seriously. He’s also helping bring about the jerk revival with a quick reference to “You’re A Jerk.” Subject for future research.
15. Denny x Shefali Alvares f. Mandy Gill: Tanhai
Second Hindi song on the mixes that leans in to minor-key disco. Not as effective as “Meherbaan,” but nice.
16. Satta, Blamo, & Byg Byrd: Panjab-Hood
Always glad to find more Punjabi rap on the New Music Friday lists. Should start finding a more reliable source for new stuff; this one basically made the mix by default.
17. Cornershop f. Tjinder Singh: Disco’s Main Squeeze
A one-off from Cornershop, whose 2020 England Is a Garden showing up in my Spotify feed a few years ago reminded me that they’ve been putting out albums every 5-7 years since I stopped paying attention to them in the early 00s. This one’s a lark, mostly a chance to showcase Hindi trio Pinky Ann Rihal, whose “Tere Liye” I should have considered nomming for the People’s Pop 1985 tournament. (My nom made it to Round 2 of the B-sides competition, not bad!)
18. Lill-Babs: Letkis-Jenka (J.O.X. Remix)
The late Swedish singer and actress, whose pop pedigree goes back to representing Sweden at Eurovision in 1961, gets a goofy EDM remix to her 1965 attempt to cash in on the “jenka dance” craze of the 60s.
The jenka dance seems to have just copied the “Bunny Hop” from a decade prior. Jan Rohde and the Adventurers provided simple instructions in 1963 and warm encouragement for hopeless left-footers: “you don’t need to be so great to do this dance”—perfect!
Poppy dancehall produced by London on da Track. I didn’t know he produced dancehall, and a quick search for information on their connection reveals they dated last year.
New Florida rapper who sounds like he’s about twelve, and, appropriately, won me over with a very dumb Elsa joke (“…had to let her go!”).
21. Lil Kayla f. YN Jay: 11:11
Less new but new-to-me San Francisco rapper who is outshined by also new-to-me YN Jay. I appear to have found a new playlist for Rap Caviar rejects, lots of interesting rap this week.
22. Crookers f. Mr. Oizo: Johnny Depp
Italian DJ/producer Crookers sculpts a novelty techno track out of a voicemail from French DJ/producer Mr. Oizo. Oizo doesn’t think the conceit will work (“I have absolutely no ability to rap, talk, make a song…this is not my thing, so it may be shitty—terrible”) but then he hears the first part played back and is delighted to add more, even enlists his daughter in the fun.
23. Mellow & Sleazy f. Chley, SjavasDaDeejay, & LastbornDiroba: Shaka Zulu
If you can believe it, Mellow & Sleazy put out another of the amapiano albums of the year within six days of releasing their last amapiano album of the year (with Felo Le Tee, featured in Mix 13). This album is a much broader representation of their styles than that one (though I prefer The III Wise Men as an album), from the immersive & beautiful (“Kwelinye” from Mix 8) to the abrasive (“Thesha” from Mix 11 ) to the all-out banger (this one).
24. Tinariwen f. Wes Corbett: Kek Alghalm
Critical fave “desert blues”/Tuareg rock(?) collective infuses some bluegrass into their sound with American musicians Wes Corbett and Fats Kaplin. This was recorded remotely during the pandemic but stitched together to sound bigger than I remember Tinariwen sounding, presumably thanks to Daniel Lanois producing.
25. Epixode f. Santrofi: O’bra (Nyame Bra)
Some straight-down-the-middle Ghanaian highlife to end things on. Are there, like, interesting things happening in contemporary highlife, or is it mostly staid and pleasant? (I like plenty of staid and pleasant genres, I’m just curious.)
That’s it! I will be at home with my lovely children for the foreseeable future. I hope you have fewer childcare responsibilities or, failing that, could use a few playlists to listen to while you once again troubleshoot Zoom with your kindergartener (the other one).
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from YXPP! (Maiyarap x NAMENT x GALCHANIE)’s “พูดลอยๆ (Just Sayin')” YouTube English closed-caption translation
"Shaka Zulu" hive rise up!!!