Monday Mixtape, Vol. 211

I can’t say I’ve fully digested Arcade Fire’s new album, but the first two tracks resonate. These first two tracks, which are the first two tracks on this week’s mixtape, are in two parts, flow like one track, sound like four acts. Their transitions (listen at 3:15 and 1:21 of “Age of Anxiety I” and “II,” respectively, and Win Butler’s topical lyrics, have always been reasons I’ve followed Arcade Fire for so many years.

His lyrics to start “Age of Anxiety I”:

It's the age of doubt
And I doubt we’ll figure it out
Is it you or is it me?
The age of anxiety
(Are you talking to me?)

Fight the fever with TV
In the age where nobody sleeps
And the pills do nothing for me
In the age of anxiety

Speaking of good lyricists, Julien Baker has made quite a name for herself on the indie scene for her songwriting. “Guthrie” is one of her most recent tracks, another sad beauty, the songs she may be best at. Here are the verses she starts and then ends the song on:

I only say
What I really mean
When I start talking
To you in my sleep
Oh, I can be honest
When I think it's a dream
I can make promises
Sober I'll never keep

Oh, I miss when I was certain
About every little thing
So scared of forgetting that I put it down in ink
Used to call upon the Spirit, now I think Heaven lets it ring
Wanted so bad to be good
But there's no such thing

Ethel Cain, at her worst, sounds like a wannabe Lana Del Rey, and at her best, sounds like she does on “American Teenager.”

Flipturn and Julia Jacklin grace this week’s mixtape along with Orville Peck.

Have a good week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 118

Apologies for my absence, it’s been a hectic few weeks, including a trip to NYC and a new puppy! Her name is June. Anyhoo, I got some great music for you, starting with the one, and truly only, Colter Wall, a young man of just 23 years with a voice of syrupy bourbon and bass. WOW when you hear this guy. Definitely check his new album out.

There’s an indie supergroup named boygenius comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridges, and Lucy Dacus, and their album has little tinges of all of their sounds while being led by Baker’s (her looooooooooooNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!! words that she’s known to sing can stretch for over 10 seconds and the scream just gathers steam as it goes (listen to “Stay Down” at 3:11 where “down” is clocked in at about 11 seconds), it’s an equivalent “wow factor” to rappers who can do a verse on one breath because they’ve mastered how to breathe into through their nose while rapping) vocals and craftsmanship. The two tracks I put on this week’s mixtape were my two faves.

I’m so happy with Young the Giant, they just released their fourth album, and it’s got to be their second best album (it’s going to be VERY hard to ever top their first album which was close to flawless and had JAM after JAM and my fave YTG song, “Islands"). There isn’t any letdown on this album, it’s paced well and has a distinct sound and numerous great songs. My favorite might be their last track on the album, “Mirror Master,” what a catchy tune.

Fleet Foxes technically just released “Icicle Tusk." As you might be able to hear, this sounds like early Fleet Foxes, and sure enough, it was made back in 2006, two years before they even released their debut album. Beauty of a song. Robin Pecknold’s voice is in my Top 5 right now.

Empress of’s sophomore album is MUCH more poppy than her debut, a somewhat disappointing surprise. That’s not to say these aren’t good songs, but I’m disappointed because her last album was so weird and unique, whereas this album (and the song on this week’s mixtape “When I’m With Him”) could have be sung by so many different pop vocalists.

Finally, The Belle Game is a band I discovered years ago because their debut album, "Ritual Tradition Habit, was this somewhat dreary, reverb-soaked, distorted sound with beautiful vocals. I’m listening to “Wait up for You” right now, and what a song!

Have a great week all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 87

I tend to write in hyperbole, not by intention but usually by excitement. There's so much great music being made that the in the moment greatness feels more everlasting that it ultimately is. Call me a sucker for the moment, I suppose. 

So I've been thinking about this song I just heard, "Solar Pilgrim," by Twain. It is certainly one of my favorite songs this year, and the song that moved my heartstrings more than any other this year. But I think it's more than that. 

I call it this decade's "Hallelujah," probably the most revered and famous cover by the late great legend, Jeff Buckley (who was covering Leonard Cohen).

Twain's masterpiece is a song about the times, the corruption of money over the soul, and the few (if any) who will come and live with Twain (or whoever he sings as, possibly Jesus) in a life without the trappings of riches. "Soul or Pilgrim" seems to ask what our sacred place is? Is it money? Fame? Power? Or is it to grow our soul into something beautiful?

We all wander through life, many of us searching for terrible things that provide nothing to our souls (just read the papers, any day). But there are still those, like the person in this song, that try to keep their souls as the focus of the pilgrimage. He hopes there are others, but as he closes the song, he can't find any, and pleads for God to come take him away: 

Walk right by me
I’ll be glad to have you in my life a while
There’s always room for one more

Eat and Drink!
Lay down with the beauties of this earthly world
I think that they want to lay down with you

In the morning
Getting stronger, getting richer by the day
That’s the way that it was meant to be

They won’t tell you
But there was once a time when we all lived that way
That was before the money came raining down on us

Now: my soul is a pilgrim
And my body is barely keeping up
And one day, it won’t keep up any more

And on that day
I’ll go sailing through the clouds (crowds)
Through the stars
On a Solar Highway to my God

But till then
I’m still healthy
Sitting in the morning sun
And no one around to sit down next to me

They all know I’ve got that kind of soul  
They know and run away
'Cuz they all know that kind of soul don’t stay long

Oh my god, come take me
I just cannot wait another day
Oh my God! Come take me away!

Everything about this song is gorgeous. The twangy electric guitar that starts, then the lullaby-like trebled guitar that gives way to Twain's angelic voice. The crescendo that comes together as Twain asks God to take him away. This is one of my favorite songs I've heard in years. I'm truly blown away by it, and I hope it makes your week or even year! Even cooler the guy is from Franklin County, VA, only a stones throw from Virginia Tech.

In a few years, will I look back on this post, and think, "I really overdid it on this one. Me and my hyperbole." Or will this song forever float in my mind of all-timers, a track I'll remember decades later when I find another track to anoint? Hallelujah.

Time will tell.