Monday Mixtape, Vol. 232

So Post Malone jumped on the country music train and wrote an album where pretty much every song has a feature from every big country artist you can imagine. It seems like a popularity/money grab, an easy way for one of few best hit makers of the past decade to find a broader audience, reinvigorate his fans (and maybe himself) and capture the entire population of music listeners. (Posty is the #10 Artist in the World according to Spotify with 77M monthly listeners).

If he genuinely wanted to make a legit country album and wanted to write a phenomenal country album, that kind of album doesn’t have features on 15 of the 18 tracks. The first single is a catchy but mostly empty track with one of the biggest hit makers in country, Morgan Wallen.

It may sound like I’m hating, maybe I am, or maybe I just don’t understand it or wished it wasn’t the lazy features album when an artist has run out of ideas and covers it with names. The only person who really cares about all this is me, and it’s a pretty pointless exercise, but one my mind does and for no great reason is sharing with you.

And yet. I still like some songs on the album. It may not surprise you to hear my favorite song is one of the three songs with no features, “What Don’t Belong To Me,” the first track on this week’s mixtape. It’s one of those catchy sad songs. That’s the Post I like:

Every string, every chord, my guitar
I'll give you everything in the world but my heart
'Cause I gave half to them halfway lovers
I left some to them two drunk summers
Left a piece at the bar with the keys to my car
I know I'm never gettin' it back
I lost a lot to that whiskey-sippin'
I gave the rest to that rockstar-livin'
Take all of me, but thеre's one thang missin'
Baby, I can't give you what don't bеlong to me

As for the rest of the artists on this week’s tape, it’s a blend of rock (what the hell is the madness of this Bad Moves song??? So great.), pop (Sunday (1994) is a legit up and comer reminding me of Beach House and The Cranberries), indie (Steve Lacy is awesome and Omar Apollo is a great talent in the Frank Ocean genre), and the great Fred again (with the help of The Japanese House).

Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 225

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225 volumes should be some sort of celebration, a few balloons and whistles to lead in this week’s first track, “CABRA DRIVE”, by Kojaque. Damn, this song is tight, and I’m diggin the lingo. The transition into the bridge (starting around 1:30) is jaw dropping, and the move back out (2:04) is flawless. This dude’s due to blow up.

Kojaque is an Irishman hailing from Dublin, blending storytelling and style spanning soundscapes, resulting in music transcending the boundaries between the bars.

Nas released a new album, and although it’s nothing amazing, it’s still crazy to hear a rapper his age still killin’ it. Two tracks from Nasty this week! Jay Rock and Anderson Paak round out the rappers this week.

Post Malone dropped an album. His lyrics have always been boring and uninspired, but he knows how to sing a hit.

The Beaches, a band of female rockers, got me intrigued. I gotta look back on their previous couple albums and see if there’s any hubbub to intrigue further.

I’ll report back. Over and out.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 188

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My apologies, it’s been over month since I’ve posted! Eons in the world of the blogosphere, so I am glad you’ve come back to take a peek into some new music to whet your whistle.

Before we start with the new, let’s prance in the past with a really fantastic ballad by Post Malone from his sophomore album. Despite his overall ridculousness from the face tattoos to the album names, Malone is a seriously talented pop star. “Stay” is a beautiful track, and that’s not something you’d expect to hear about a Post Malone track from an album called beerbongs and bentleys.

This topic of beautiful songs seems to be the theme on this week’s mixtape. Cautious Clay, a solo act with pipes and soul, showcases his depth, and new artist, Joy Oladukun, has to give some of you older folk Tracy Chapman vibes.

Billie Eiiish brings her brand of beauty, a slowly haunting, whisper of a track that builds and builds until it falls off a cliff, as we fall back to the start.

Faye Webster is a gem. She’s a mix between Natalie Prass and Kacey Musgraves with the rhythms of hip-hop.

And then there’s Sault. I’m not sure what to say of Sault other than they are very different and making some great music that the world is starting to wake up to. Keep your eyes on this band.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 182

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I really think this M.A.G.S. guy is going to be a big deal. There’s something to him. His track on this week’s mixtape is just a taste of his great stuff, so please dig in more.

Starting the mixtape off with some Creedence! What a song. That little riff is the reason music exists.

Morgan Wade, a country rock-ish / songwriter, released her debt album this year. Think she’s got big things ahead of her as well!

A couple oldies but goodies because I’ve been listening to them so much this past week: Post Malone and Hippo Campus. Post Malone really is a pop genius. And Hippo Campus is sneakily one of my favorite 5 bands to come out in the past five years, if not my favorite of new bands over that time. I just bought their entire discography on vinyl, and I can’t wait to absorb all the little nooks and crannies of notes and instruments that vinyl brings out (for example: I bought the 20 year anniversary OK Computer vinyl edition, an album I’ve listened to an unfathomable amount of times, yet the vinyl let me hear some instruments on a couple songs that I had never heard before!)

Enjoy the rest of the tunes and your week. Rock on.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 149

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OMG This is two times in a row - I just deleted my post again. So frustrating.

The long and skinny is go see the Netflix documentary, Echo in the Canyon, a homage to the great artists who lived in Laurel Canyon during the mid-60s, including The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, the Mamas and Papas, and so many more.

I learned so much in this doc. I never knew David Crosby was in The Byrds, I didn’t know Neil Young and Stephen Stills were in Buffalo Springfield (and by the way, I’ve been listening to more Buffalo Springfield, they’re freaking awesome), and although I know Brian Wilson, the singer and songwriter of pretty much all Beach Boys songs, was always revered as a songwriter, I never appreciated the love and awe other musicians have of him. His genius was thought to be on a level no one could even come close to. They were comparing him to Mozart and Beethoven.

Jakob Dylan brings a bunch of current artists together to recreate and honor all these musicians and their favorite songs via both an album and a concert. Check the film out, it’s great!

As for the other songs on this week’s mixtape, it’s pretty much a mix of artists you’ve heard many times before. Twin Peaks did a cool cover of Wilco, DJ Shadow released a record of some great tracks with rappers, and after seeing Spider Man - Into the Spider-Verse, I had to include the catchy track from Swae Lee and Post Malone.

Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 143

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Happy Monday all! Some jams to get your week started, and nothing bumps better than Friendly Fires! Their new album is great, a high dose of energy and electronic signals straight to the brain, and I added another one of my faves from the album on this week’s mixtape.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Post Malone ever since I posted “White Iverson” on Monday Mixtape, Vol. 19, back in 2015, many moons ago! His look and approach was always ridiculous, but the guy is as catchy as Bruno Mars and a sound all his own. I give kudos to the guy.

Malone now lives in Utah because “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” as his new album’s title states. Lots of bloodsuckers and friends who aren’t friends who become enemies, looking for a handout. I assume the Hollywood life for a guy like Posty is awesome for a period of time and then gets very weird when you realize your money and fame act like the world’s strongest magnet, attracting awful people looking for free drugs and god knows what else. So kudos to your move as well, good sir!

ANYWAYS, one of my favorite rappers ever, the one, the only, Ghostface Muthafuckin’ Killah, released a new album on Friday, and he’s got a killer track with Cappadonna and another original, Method Man. You shall be nodding your head shortly.

I’m seeing John Mayer tonight at the new Chase Center in San Francisco, and I haven’t seen him for six years when he was touring on his “Born and Raised” tour. Super pumped, particularly because he has no new album to play, so I’m hoping the setlist will be EPIC and have some mind-melting solos. Pumped!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 124

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Where does Post Malone rank in terms of singing hooks right now? Does anyone do it better? Yeah, it’s easy to make fun of the face tattoos and dreads (which he’s now changed to a small 80s era small fro), but “all my friends” is pretty catchy, right? Can’t hate on catchy.

This is an all rap playlist, highlighted by both Future and 21 Savage’s new albums. I was impressed with 21’s album, it has a ton of features (J. Cole, Childish Gambino, Post Malone, Offset, and Schoolboy Q) which complement his monotone flow, and the production fits perfectly with so many tracks.

Future released another album that is just like most other Future albums. He has some alter ego (this time, “The WIZRD,” it all more or less sounds the same, and a few tracks really stand out. A couple of those are on this mixtape.

I also included some older JID, the rapper that blew me away with his mixtape, DiCaprio 2. This guy has something special, we will be hearing a lot more from him.

That’s it people! Hope you enjoyed the (4th Quarter) of the Super Bowl. My commercial MVP was either Stella Artois or the NFL one with all the players.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 122

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I follow a number of random playlists by music doppelgängers that I’ve found during my searches through time, and many of them will post their favorite current albums by bands I’ve never heard of and wonder what rock these guys found them under, but alas, I will listen to the first two tracks of every album by these randomly named bands which will give me a feeling of whether they’re worth digging into more.

This is an easy technique to listen to a TON of new stuff to quickly cull through the garbage and find that which rings my ears. I bring you into this weird world of mine because I’ve started today’s mixtape with the first two tracks from James Blake’s (I know, I know, not exactly a “random” artist - WE’RE STARTING SLOW) new album, the fourth of his career, called Assume Form.

If you don’t know James Blake, words don’t exactly do him justice, his voice says it mostly and his production/orchestration say the rest. He’s not everyones’ cup of tea, but these two tracks (the second is expertly assisted by Travis Scott) give you a great approximation of whether you should dig in further to this album.

The remainder of the mixtape includes two tracks from Deerhunter’s EIGHTH ALBUM (I write this in CAPS because it’s wild that I’ve been listening to these guys since the beginning of their career back in 2007 - Yes, this is a sign that I’m (we’re) getting old), Post Malone’s new track, a great track from the perennially underrated Bear Hands, and my favorite song from Sharon Van Etten’s new album.

Happy New Year to all. Let’s have a hell of a 2019 in music and life.